Custom or off-the-shelf software? Calculate the cost of the whole operating model.
A practical custom versus off-the-shelf framework covering 24-month cost, process fit, integrations, risk and product advantage.
Platform decisions
How to choose between an off-the-shelf platform, a headless stack such as Medusa and a custom build, with the full cost, the critical process and the integrations on the table.
Most platform decisions go wrong before any code is written. Teams compare feature lists and licence prices, then discover that their pricing rules, approval flow or ERP integration needs a workaround the vendor never mentioned.
The articles in this section compare concrete options and show where each one stops fitting. Each comparison states when a ready-made platform is the better choice, lists the costs you will pay over at least two years and names the assumptions behind every number.
If you need a decision for your own sales process rather than a general comparison, the Decision Sprint turns one critical path into a tested recommendation: buy, build or stop.
Articles
Need this decision for your own process?
In five days we test one critical path and recommend whether to buy, build or stop.