In 2020 the rule was clear: buy whenever you can. Building was expensive, slow and risky. In 2026 the rule has shifted. There are three cases where building makes sense again: and three where it's still a mistake.
What's changed
A working MVP that cost €40k in 2020 now costs €12k. The difference is AI: a team of one or two consultants and Claude Code can ship what used to take a full team. At the same time, average SaaS pricing is up 23% over the last two years.
Build if...
- Your process is what differentiates you, and every SaaS forces you to bend your process to fit the tool.
- The annual SaaS cost exceeds €25k and you'll use less than 40% of its features.
- Your volume already gets you on enterprise pricing and your tech team is underutilized.
Buy if...
- Thousands of companies have the same problem (CRM, invoicing, HR). SaaS always wins on economies of scale.
- Regulation changes fast (taxes, compliance). Let someone else maintain that for you.
- You don't have the capacity to maintain what you build for the next five years.
Building is cheap. Maintaining is expensive. The question isn't "can I build this?", it's "will I be able to maintain it in 2028 when the team is different?"
