Buy software or build it yourself? Compare both

Say you run a webshop. Every order leaves data behind: a name, an address, an e-mail address and what someone bought. That data has to be kept somewhere. Your team has to find it quickly, and it has to be safe.

You can buy a system for it, such as a webshop platform or a customer system. That costs money every month, and it can add up. More and more often you hear that there is another way. With AI you can build a system like that yourself, surely? Then it fits exactly how you work and there is no subscription to pay.

At the end of 2025 the software company Retool asked 817 of its customers and builders how their company gets its software. According to the report 35 percent have already replaced at least one bought tool with software of their own. 78 percent expect to build more of their own tools in 2026. Most of it is automations and internal admin tools, but customer systems are mentioned too.

Retool itself sells a platform for building tools, and it asked its own customers. So the report mainly shows that building has become easier. Also, 60 percent say they built something outside the IT department in the past year. Who maintains it afterwards is then not always settled.

For customer data there is also the GDPR. It asks for security that fits the risk. Data has to stay confidential, the system has to keep working and be back quickly after an outage. The security also has to be tested regularly. If you buy a system, you may only work with a supplier that gives sufficient guarantees for this. A certification can help to show that.

The report is right that building has become easier. With AI a first version is there quickly, and it costs little. That is why a system of your own looks cheaper than a subscription. But that only holds at the start. After that the system has to be maintained, something goes wrong, an update has to go in and your team wants something new. With a bought system that is in the price. With a system of your own you pay for it later, in your own hours or in the bill from whoever built it for you.

So a subscription is not more expensive because you see it every month. It is a different kind of money: a fixed amount you know in advance, against costs that only come later. So do not look at the first month, but at a few years.

Also look at what it delivers. Good software takes manual work off your team every week. Then it ends up delivering more than it costs, even if it asks more money or time at the start. A cheap solution that still leaves your team doing a lot by hand is more expensive in the long run.

That is why buying is not always better, and neither is building. If a good system already exists that fits how you work, do not choose to build only because there is no subscription then. One thing stays the same either way: you remain responsible for your customers' data.

Ajeko works from Your way here, one of its four principles. Sometimes an existing tool is enough and only has to be set up well. Sometimes something new is needed, because nothing fits how you work. Your process decides which way it becomes, not what is most fun to build.

That was the case with the AI business profile for Derec. Derec records for each self-employed candidate how they work as a business. The usual solution is a subscription to a separate package, with a login of its own. But a candidate's file is already in the recruitment system. That is why a form was built, which the recruiter sends from that system. The signed profile goes back into the same file. That way no second place with candidates' data was added.