Build, vibe, or buy?

In 2026, you have three options: traditional engineering, AI-assisted development, or buying SaaS. We help you decide.

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The Three Paths
Traditional

Build

Hire engineers, build from scratch, own everything.

  • Full control and customization
  • No per-seat pricing
  • 6-18 months to launch
  • $200K-$600K+ cost
  • Ongoing maintenance burden
2024+

Vibe

AI-assisted development. Cursor, Claude, v0, Replit.

  • 10x faster than traditional
  • Works for internal tools
  • 1-4 weeks to MVP
  • $5K-$50K cost
  • Quality ceiling, maintenance risk
Default choice

Buy

Use proven SaaS. HubSpot, Salesforce, Stripe.

  • Live in days
  • Mature, polished product
  • Integrations ecosystem
  • Ongoing subscription cost
  • Limited customization
Analysis by Category

CRM

HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive

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Verdict: Buy

Marketing Automation

HubSpot, Mailchimp, Klaviyo

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Verdict: Buy

Customer Support

Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk

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Verdict: Buy

Analytics

Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog

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Verdict: PostHog/Hybrid

Internal Tools

Retool, Appsmith — or vibe it?

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Verdict: Vibe

Payments

Stripe, Adyen, Square

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Verdict: Buy (always)

Authentication

Auth0, Clerk, Supabase Auth

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Verdict: Start OSS, buy for SSO

HR / HRIS

BambooHR, Rippling, Workday

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Verdict: Buy core, vibe addons

E-commerce

Shopify, BigCommerce, Medusa

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Verdict: Shopify (or headless)

Scheduling

Calendly, Cal.com, Acuity

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Verdict: Cal.com or vibe

Project Management

Linear, Jira, Notion, Asana

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Verdict: Buy (Linear)

Email Marketing

Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ConvertKit

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Verdict: Hybrid or Buy

Want to vibe it yourself?

Free prompts to build your own CRM, admin panel, helpdesk, and more. Copy into Cursor or Claude and start building.

Get the prompts → Use calculator →