Every tool in your tech stack, priced against building it yourself

AI can rebuild a lot of the SaaS you pay for. It cannot write the tests, take the 3am page, or make the maintenance disappear. One row per tool: what the subscription costs, what a replacement would cost to build, test and keep running, and whether something cheaper already does the same job. Move the rate slider — at $50 an hour almost nothing here is worth building, and that is the point.

$50 /hr

3 worth building · 167 have a cheaper swap · 315 shown

GitHub Copilot logo
GitHub CopilotAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Cursor logo
CursorAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Vercel logo
VercelHosting
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Figma logo
FigmaUI/UX
Keep paying
$16/mo
$192 a year

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

GitHub logo
GitHubVersion Control & Code Review
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
1 × $4 per seat
Running your own$225/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Bubble logo
BubbleAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$59/mo
$708 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Supabase logo
SupabaseDatabase
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$245/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $45 of infrastructure, every month.

Slack logo
SlackCommunication
Keep paying
$9/mo
$105 a year
1 × $9 per seat

The value is that everyone you work with is already in it. You cannot build a network you are not in.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Ahrefs logo
AhrefsSEO Tools
Keep paying
$129/mo
$1,548 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

ChatGPT Plus logo
ChatGPT PlusAI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Claude Code logo
Claude CodeAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$17/mo
$204 a year

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Notion logo
NotionProject Management
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Semrush logo
SemrushSEO Tools
Keep paying
$140/mo
$1,679 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Replit logo
ReplitAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Claude Pro logo
Claude ProAI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Adobe Acrobat Pro logo
Adobe Acrobat ProPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$85/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

HubSpot CRM logo
HubSpot CRMSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
1 × $15 per seat
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
1 × $4 per seat
Running your own$150/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Auth0 logo
Auth0Auth
Keep paying
$35/mo
$420 a year
Running your own$105/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $5 of infrastructure, every month.

Clerk logo
ClerkAuth
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$105/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $5 of infrastructure, every month.

v0 by Vercel logo
v0 by VercelAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Framer logo
FramerUI/UX
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

Nothing cheaper in this category
LangChain logo
LangChainAgent Framework
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
1 × $39 per seat
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Bolt.new logo
Bolt.newAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Jira logo
JiraProject Management
Keep paying
$8/mo
$98 a year
1 × $8 per seat
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Shopify logo
ShopifyE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$30/mo
$360 a year
Running your own$217/mo

More than the subscription — 3.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $42 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Expo (React Native) logo
Expo (React Native)Mobile Framework
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $5 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sentry logo
SentryMonitoring & Observability
Keep paying
$26/mo
$312 a year
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 1.8 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Docusign logo
DocusignPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
1 × $25 per seat

The value is an audit trail that holds up in court, which comes from compliance certification rather than code.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Canva logo
CanvaDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$18/mo
$216 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Windsurf logo
WindsurfAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Postman logo
PostmanAPI Development
Keep paying
$14/mo
$168 a year
1 × $14 per seat
Running your own$28/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $3 of infrastructure, every month.

Discord logo
DiscordCommunication
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

The value is that everyone you work with is already in it. You cannot build a network you are not in.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Intercom logo
IntercomCustomer Support
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
1 × $39 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Appwrite logo
AppwriteDatabase
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$213/mo

More than the subscription — 3.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $38 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Dyad logo
DyadAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
OpenAI Codex logo
OpenAI CodexAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Google AI Pro (Gemini) logo
Google AI Pro (Gemini)AI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Render logo
RenderHosting
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
1 × $19 per seat
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Mailchimp logo
MailchimpSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$13/mo
$156 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Railway logo
RailwayHosting
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Trello logo
TrelloProject Management
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
1 × $5 per seat
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Lovable logo
LovableAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Linear logo
LinearProject Management
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Netlify logo
NetlifyHosting
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Zendesk logo
ZendeskCustomer Support
Keep paying
$55/mo
$660 a year
1 × $55 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

WooCommerce logo
WooCommerceE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$35/mo
$420 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
GitLab logo
GitLabVersion Control & Code Review
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
1 × $29 per seat
Running your own$225/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Convex logo
ConvexDatabase
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
1 × $25 per seat
Running your own$240/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Gemini Code Assist logo
Gemini Code AssistAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$23/mo
$274 a year
1 × $23 per seat

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

1Password logo
1PasswordSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$20/mo
$239 a year

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Webflow logo
WebflowWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

NordVPN logo
NordVPNVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$13/mo
$156 a year
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Grammarly logo
GrammarlyAI Writing & Content
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
Running your own$90/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Asana logo
AsanaProject Management
Keep paying
$11/mo
$132 a year
1 × $11 per seat
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Midjourney logo
MidjourneyAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Buffer logo
BufferSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Contentful logo
ContentfulContent Management
Depends
$300/mo
$3,600 a year
Running your own$87/mo

$213/mo saved after $2,990 and 58.5 h to build it.

PandaDoc logo
PandaDocPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
1 × $49 per seat
Running your own$85/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Weaviate logo
WeaviateVector Database / RAG
Keep paying
$45/mo
$540 a year
Running your own$119/mo

More than the subscription — 1.9 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
QuickBooks logo
QuickBooksAccounting & Finance
Keep paying
$30/mo
$360 a year
Running your own$215/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Pipedrive logo
PipedriveCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$24/mo
$288 a year
1 × $24 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Airtable logo
AirtableProject Management
Keep paying
$24/mo
$288 a year
1 × $24 per seat
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Perplexity Pro logo
Perplexity ProAI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Zapier logo
ZapierAutomation & Workflows
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$87/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Trickle logo
TrickleAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$17/mo
$204 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Retool logo
RetoolInternal Tools & Admin Panels
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Tailscale logo
TailscaleVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$8/mo
$96 a year
1 × $8 per seat
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
ClickUp logo
ClickUpProject Management
Keep paying
$7/mo
$84 a year
1 × $7 per seat
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Hootsuite logo
HootsuiteSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

SendGrid logo
SendGridEmail/Messaging
Keep paying
$20/mo
$239 a year
Running your own$62/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$213/mo

More than the subscription — 3.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $38 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
dbt logo
dbtData & ETL
Keep paying
$100/mo
$1,200 a year
1 × $100 per seat
Running your own$235/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $35 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Moz Pro logo
Moz ProSEO Tools
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Cypress logo
CypressTesting
Keep paying
$67/mo
$804 a year
Running your own$58/mo

$9/mo saved after $1,790 and 35 h to build it.

Cheaper optionPlaywright−$34/moSelf-hosted — $33 real cost once upkeep is priced
Descript logo
DescriptVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$24/mo
$288 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Resend logo
ResendEmail/Messaging
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$60/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

n8n logo
n8nAutomation & Workflows
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Klaviyo logo
KlaviyoSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Monday.com logo
Monday.comProject Management
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
1 × $12 per seat
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Dropbox logo
DropboxFile Storage
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
Running your own$130/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Foxit PDF Editor logo
Foxit PDF EditorPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$11/mo
$132 a year
Running your own$85/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Cheaper optioniLovePDFs−$11/moFree, hosted for you · also PDF24 Tools
Confluence logo
ConfluenceNotes & Knowledge Base
Keep paying
$6/mo
$73 a year
1 × $6 per seat
Running your own$68/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
ElevenLabs logo
ElevenLabsAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Turso logo
TursoDatabase
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$213/mo

More than the subscription — 3.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $38 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Bitwarden logo
BitwardenSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
1 × $4 per seat

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Nothing cheaper in this category
WorkOS logo
WorkOSAuth
Keep paying
$125/mo
$1,500 a year
Running your own$105/mo

$20/mo saved after $4,485 and 88 h to build it.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Apollo.io logo
Apollo.ioSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
1 × $49 per seat
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Gusto logo
GustoHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year

Running payroll means filing employment taxes in every jurisdiction you hire in. That is regulated money movement, not a feature you write.

Nothing cheaper in this category
UXPin logo
UXPinUI/UX
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

Salesforce logo
SalesforceCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
1 × $25 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Typeform logo
TypeformForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$36/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$22/mo
$264 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Base44 logo
Base44All-in-One Development
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sanity logo
SanityContent Management
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
1 × $15 per seat
Running your own$87/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Runway logo
RunwayAI Video Generation
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year

Video generation is the most compute-hungry model class there is. Renting it is the only option.

Sketch logo
SketchUI/UX
Keep paying
$11/mo
$132 a year

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

BambooHR logo
BambooHRHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$265/mo

More than the subscription — 5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Proton VPN logo
Proton VPNVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Brevo logo
BrevoSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Make logo
MakeAutomation & Workflows
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$87/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Penpot logo
PenpotUI/UX
Keep paying
$7/mo
$84 a year
1 × $7 per seat

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Plausible logo
PlausibleAnalytics
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$48/mo

More than the subscription — 0.8 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Statsig logo
StatsigFeature Flags & Experiments
Depends
$150/mo
$1,800 a year
Running your own$56/mo

$94/mo saved after $1,790 and 35 h to build it.

Temporal logo
TemporalBackground Jobs & Workflows
Keep paying
$100/mo
$1,200 a year
Running your own$180/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Cheaper optionRiver−$60/moSelf-hosted — $40 real cost once upkeep is priced
New Relic logo
New RelicMonitoring & Observability
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$122/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $22 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
SE Ranking logo
SE RankingSEO Tools
Keep paying
$55/mo
$660 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Deel logo
DeelHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
1 × $49 per seat

Employing people abroad requires a legal entity or an employer of record in each country. No amount of code produces one.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Beehiiv logo
BeehiivNewsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$43/mo
$516 a year
Running your own$93/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Jotform logo
JotformForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$36/mo

$3/mo saved after $1,410 and 27.5 h to build it.

Attio logo
AttioCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$34/mo
$408 a year
1 × $34 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Synthesia logo
SynthesiaAI Video Generation
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year

Video generation is the most compute-hungry model class there is. Renting it is the only option.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Later logo
LaterSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Xero logo
XeroAccounting & Finance
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$215/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Mocha logo
MochaAll-in-One Development
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

These bundle a frontier model with hosting and a build pipeline — replacing it means replacing all three.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Polar logo
PolarPayment Gateway
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

Not a build decision at any price — card-network agreements, PCI scope and payout rails are contracts, not code.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Microsoft Copilot logo
Microsoft CopilotAI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Riverside logo
RiversideVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Squarespace logo
SquarespaceWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$16/mo
$192 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$150/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Directus logo
DirectusContent Management
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$87/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
ActiveCampaign logo
ActiveCampaignSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$14/mo
$168 a year
Running your own$125/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Zoom logo
ZoomCommunication
Keep paying
$13/mo
$160 a year
1 × $13 per seat

Global low-latency WebRTC relaying is an infrastructure business, not a feature.

Calendly logo
CalendlyScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Strapi logo
StrapiContent Management
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$87/mo

$12/mo saved after $2,990 and 58.5 h to build it.

Scalar logo
ScalarAPI Development
Depends
$72/mo
$864 a year
Running your own$28/mo

$44/mo saved after $1,430 and 28 h to build it.

Cheaper optionSwagger / OpenAPI−$57/moSelf-hosted — $16 real cost once upkeep is priced
Surfer SEO logo
Surfer SEOSEO Tools
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Kit (ConvertKit) logo
Kit (ConvertKit)Newsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$33/mo
$396 a year
Running your own$93/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Rippling logo
RipplingHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$500/mo
$6,000 a year

Running payroll means filing employment taxes in every jurisdiction you hire in. That is regulated money movement, not a feature you write.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Mintlify logo
MintlifyDocs & Developer Portals
Build
$450/mo
$5,400 a year
Running your own$44/mo

$406/mo saved after $1,355 and 26.4 h to build it.

Sprout Social logo
Sprout SocialSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$199/mo
$2,388 a year
1 × $199 per seat
Running your own$137/mo

$62/mo saved after $2,660 and 52 h to build it.

Clay logo
ClaySales & Marketing
Keep paying
$149/mo
$1,788 a year
Running your own$115/mo

$34/mo saved after $3,655 and 71.5 h to build it.

Storyblok logo
StoryblokContent Management
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$87/mo

$12/mo saved after $2,990 and 58.5 h to build it.

Inngest logo
InngestBackground Jobs & Workflows
Keep paying
$75/mo
$900 a year
Running your own$70/mo

$5/mo saved after $2,675 and 52.5 h to build it.

Cheaper optionBullMQ−$35/moSelf-hosted — $40 real cost once upkeep is priced · also Graphile Worker, Hatchet
Lemlist logo
LemlistSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$63/mo
$756 a year
1 × $63 per seat
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

SuperGrok (Grok) logo
SuperGrok (Grok)AI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$30/mo
$360 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Mangools logo
MangoolsSEO Tools
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Tally logo
TallyForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$36/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Help Scout logo
Help ScoutCustomer Support
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
1 × $25 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Kinde logo
KindeAuth
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$105/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $5 of infrastructure, every month.

Umami logo
UmamiAnalytics
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$125/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Wix logo
WixWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$17/mo
$204 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Uizard logo
UizardUI/UX
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year

A design tool is a decade of work by a company that does nothing else.

Suno logo
SunoAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Adobe Firefly logo
Adobe FireflyAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Raycast logo
RaycastLaunchers & Productivity
Keep paying
$8/mo
$96 a year
Running your own$33/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $3 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Heroku logo
HerokuHosting
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Obsidian logo
ObsidianNotes & Knowledge Base
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
Running your own$68/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Thunder Client logo
Thunder ClientAPI Development
Keep paying
$3/mo
$36 a year
Running your own$28/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $3 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
HTTPie logo
HTTPieAPI Development
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$28/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $3 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Vanta logo
VantaCompliance Automation
Keep paying
$833/mo
$9,996 a year

You can script the evidence collection in a fortnight. You cannot issue yourself a SOC 2 report — an auditor has to accept the control log, and that acceptance is the whole thing you are paying for.

Customer.io logo
Customer.ioNewsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$100/mo
$1,200 a year
Running your own$93/mo

$7/mo saved after $2,500 and 49 h to build it.

GitBook logo
GitBookDocs & Developer Portals
Keep paying
$65/mo
$780 a year
Running your own$44/mo

$21/mo saved after $1,355 and 26.4 h to build it.

Trigger.dev logo
Trigger.devBackground Jobs & Workflows
Keep paying
$50/mo
$600 a year
Running your own$70/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Cheaper optionBullMQ−$10/moSelf-hosted — $40 real cost once upkeep is priced · also Graphile Worker, Hatchet
Loops logo
LoopsNewsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
Running your own$72/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Crisp logo
CrispCustomer Support
Keep paying
$45/mo
$540 a year
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Jasper logo
JasperAI Writing & Content
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$90/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Remote logo
RemoteHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
1 × $29 per seat
Running your own$265/mo

More than the subscription — 5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Matomo logo
MatomoAnalytics
Keep paying
$26/mo
$312 a year
Running your own$125/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Doppler logo
DopplerSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$21/mo
$252 a year
1 × $21 per seat

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Close logo
CloseCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Stability AI logo
Stability AIAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Postmark logo
PostmarkEmail/Messaging
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$60/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Typefully logo
TypefullySocial Media Management
Keep paying
$13/mo
$150 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
WordPress.com logo
WordPress.comWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$4/mo
$48 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Freshdesk logo
FreshdeskCustomer Support
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
1 × $15 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Drata logo
DrataCompliance Automation
Keep paying
$1,000/mo
$12,000 a year

You can script the evidence collection in a fortnight. You cannot issue yourself a SOC 2 report — an auditor has to accept the control log, and that acceptance is the whole thing you are paying for.

Lokalise logo
LokaliseLocalization & Translation
Keep paying
$144/mo
$1,728 a year
Running your own$137/mo

$7/mo saved after $3,985 and 78 h to build it.

Stytch logo
StytchAuth
Keep paying
$125/mo
$1,500 a year
Running your own$105/mo

$20/mo saved after $4,485 and 88 h to build it.

Nothing cheaper in this category
LogRocket logo
LogRocketMonitoring & Observability
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$160/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $35 of infrastructure, every month.

Stoplight logo
StoplightAPI Development
Depends
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$28/mo

$71/mo saved after $1,430 and 28 h to build it.

Cheaper optionSwagger / OpenAPI−$84/moSelf-hosted — $16 real cost once upkeep is priced · also Scalar
Dify logo
DifyAgent Framework
Keep paying
$59/mo
$708 a year
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Square logo
SquarePayment Gateway
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year

Not a build decision at any price — card-network agreements, PCI scope and payout rails are contracts, not code.

Nothing cheaper in this category
BigCommerce logo
BigCommerceE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Instantly logo
InstantlySales & Marketing
Keep paying
$37/mo
$444 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
1 × $29 per seat
Running your own$150/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Ubersuggest logo
UbersuggestSEO Tools
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

HeyGen logo
HeyGenAI Video Generation
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year

Video generation is the most compute-hungry model class there is. Renting it is the only option.

Nothing cheaper in this category
CodeRabbit logo
CodeRabbitVersion Control & Code Review
Keep paying
$24/mo
$288 a year
1 × $24 per seat
Running your own$225/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Pipedream logo
PipedreamAutomation & Workflows
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$70/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Front logo
FrontCustomer Support
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
1 × $19 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Acuity Scheduling logo
Acuity SchedulingScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$16/mo
$192 a year
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Cal.com logo
Cal.comScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
1 × $15 per seat
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Appsmith logo
AppsmithInternal Tools & Admin Panels
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
1 × $15 per seat
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Zoho CRM logo
Zoho CRMCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$14/mo
$168 a year
1 × $14 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Publer logo
PublerSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Coda logo
CodaProject Management
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
Running your own$121/mo

More than the subscription — 2.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

MailerLite logo
MailerLiteNewsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$93/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Udio logo
UdioAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Adobe Express logo
Adobe ExpressDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Ghost logo
GhostNewsletter & Lifecycle Email
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$93/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Google Meet logo
Google MeetCommunication
Keep paying
$6/mo
$72 a year
1 × $6 per seat

Global low-latency WebRTC relaying is an infrastructure business, not a feature.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Mullvad logo
MullvadVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$6/mo
$66 a year
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$174/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $24 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sidekiq logo
SidekiqBackground Jobs & Workflows
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$70/mo

$29/mo saved after $2,675 and 52.5 h to build it.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sprinto logo
SprintoCompliance Automation
Keep paying
$750/mo
$9,000 a year

You can script the evidence collection in a fortnight. You cannot issue yourself a SOC 2 report — an auditor has to accept the control log, and that acceptance is the whole thing you are paying for.

RudderStack logo
RudderStackData & ETL
Keep paying
$265/mo
$3,180 a year
Running your own$235/mo

$30/mo saved after $4,808 and 94.3 h to build it.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Bugsnag logo
BugsnagMonitoring & Observability
Keep paying
$65/mo
$780 a year
Running your own$122/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $22 of infrastructure, every month.

Launch10 logo
Launch10Sales & Marketing
Keep paying
$59/mo
$708 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Proposify logo
ProposifyPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$41/mo
$492 a year
1 × $41 per seat
Running your own$85/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Smartlead logo
SmartleadSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Mailgun logo
MailgunEmail/Messaging
Keep paying
$35/mo
$420 a year
Running your own$62/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Flowise logo
FlowiseAgent Framework
Keep paying
$35/mo
$420 a year
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Folk logo
FolkCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$30/mo
$360 a year
1 × $30 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$108/mo

More than the subscription — 1.8 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Postiz logo
PostizSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Speechify logo
SpeechifyAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Nothing cheaper in this category
VEED logo
VEEDVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$24/mo
$288 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Screen Studio logo
Screen StudioVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$125/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Motion logo
MotionScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
1 × $19 per seat
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Infisical logo
InfisicalSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$18/mo
$216 a year

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Loom logo
LoomVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$13/mo
$150 a year
1 × $13 per seat
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
FreshBooks logo
FreshBooksAccounting & Finance
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$215/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
QuillBot logo
QuillBotAI Writing & Content
Keep paying
$8/mo
$100 a year
Running your own$90/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Ideogram logo
IdeogramAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$7/mo
$84 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Twingate logo
TwingateVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
1 × $5 per seat
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Bitbucket logo
BitbucketVersion Control & Code Review
Keep paying
$4/mo
$44 a year
1 × $4 per seat
Running your own$225/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Metricool logo
MetricoolSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$22/mo
$264 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

OpenSEO logo
OpenSEOSEO Tools
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
ReadMe logo
ReadMeDocs & Developer Portals
Build
$250/mo
$3,000 a year
Running your own$44/mo

$206/mo saved after $1,355 and 26.4 h to build it.

GoHighLevel logo
GoHighLevelSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$97/mo
$1,164 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Agorapulse logo
AgorapulseSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$79/mo
$948 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Unleash logo
UnleashFeature Flags & Experiments
Keep paying
$75/mo
$900 a year
1 × $75 per seat
Running your own$56/mo

$19/mo saved after $1,790 and 35 h to build it.

Copy.ai logo
Copy.aiAI Writing & Content
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
Running your own$90/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Murf AI logo
Murf AIAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
1 × $29 per seat

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Honeybadger logo
HoneybadgerMonitoring & Observability
Keep paying
$26/mo
$312 a year
Running your own$122/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $22 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Activepieces logo
ActivepiecesAutomation & Workflows
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Amazon Q Developer logo
Amazon Q DeveloperAI Coding Assistant
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
1 × $19 per seat

The model is the product, and you are not building the model.

Hypefury logo
HypefurySocial Media Management
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Chatwoot logo
ChatwootCustomer Support
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
1 × $19 per seat
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sitebulb logo
SitebulbSEO Tools
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$58/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Leonardo.Ai logo
Leonardo.AiAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Lattice logo
LatticeHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$265/mo

More than the subscription — 5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Dashlane logo
DashlaneSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$8/mo
$96 a year
1 × $8 per seat

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Photopea logo
PhotopeaDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Cheaper optionAffinity−$5/moFree, hosted for you
Proton Pass logo
Proton PassSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$2/mo
$24 a year

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Secureframe logo
SecureframeCompliance Automation
Keep paying
$625/mo
$7,500 a year

You can script the evidence collection in a fortnight. You cannot issue yourself a SOC 2 report — an auditor has to accept the control log, and that acceptance is the whole thing you are paying for.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Medusa logo
MedusaE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$250/mo
$3,000 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Clearscope logo
ClearscopeSEO Tools
Keep paying
$189/mo
$2,268 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Sauce Labs logo
Sauce LabsTesting
Keep paying
$49/mo
$588 a year
Running your own$58/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Flagsmith logo
FlagsmithFeature Flags & Experiments
Keep paying
$45/mo
$540 a year
Running your own$56/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Luma Dream Machine logo
Luma Dream MachineAI Video Generation
Keep paying
$30/mo
$360 a year

Video generation is the most compute-hungry model class there is. Renting it is the only option.

SocialBee logo
SocialBeeSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Tidio logo
TidioCustomer Support
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$143/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $18 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sendible logo
SendibleSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Superhuman logo
SuperhumanEmail/Messaging
Keep paying
$25/mo
$300 a year
1 × $25 per seat
Running your own$61/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $11 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Zoho Books logo
Zoho BooksAccounting & Finance
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$215/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Omnisend logo
OmnisendSales & Marketing
Keep paying
$16/mo
$192 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Writesonic logo
WritesonicAI Writing & Content
Keep paying
$16/mo
$192 a year
Running your own$90/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Le Chat (Mistral) logo
Le Chat (Mistral)AI Assistants & Subscriptions
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year

A consumer AI subscription is access to a frontier model. There is no version of this you build.

Recraft logo
RecraftAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Reclaim.ai logo
Reclaim.aiScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Krea logo
KreaAI Image Generation
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year

Training an image model is a research programme with a GPU budget to match. You are buying inference, not software.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Pika logo
PikaAI Video Generation
Keep paying
$8/mo
$96 a year

Video generation is the most compute-hungry model class there is. Renting it is the only option.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Zulip logo
ZulipCommunication
Keep paying
$7/mo
$80 a year
1 × $7 per seat
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
NordPass logo
NordPassSecurity & Passwords
Keep paying
$1/mo
$18 a year

Credential storage you wrote yourself is one bug away from losing everything in it. Password vaults and secrets managers are the clearest do-not-build in the catalog.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Phrase logo
PhraseLocalization & Translation
Build
$525/mo
$6,300 a year
Running your own$137/mo

$388/mo saved after $3,985 and 78 h to build it.

Workable logo
WorkableHR & Payroll
Keep paying
$299/mo
$3,588 a year
Running your own$265/mo

$34/mo saved after $6,870 and 135 h to build it.

Nothing cheaper in this category
MarketMuse logo
MarketMuseSEO Tools
Keep paying
$99/mo
$1,188 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Loomly logo
LoomlySocial Media Management
Keep paying
$65/mo
$780 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

GrowthBook logo
GrowthBookFeature Flags & Experiments
Keep paying
$40/mo
$480 a year
1 × $40 per seat
Running your own$56/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Planable logo
PlanableSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$33/mo
$396 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Copper logo
CopperCRM & Sales
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
1 × $29 per seat
Running your own$112/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Box logo
BoxFile Storage
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
1 × $20 per seat
Running your own$130/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Graphite logo
GraphiteVersion Control & Code Review
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
1 × $20 per seat
Running your own$225/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Tella logo
TellaVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Fillout logo
FilloutForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$36/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Formspree logo
FormspreeForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$36/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
PhotoRoom logo
PhotoRoomDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$13/mo
$156 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Carrd logo
CarrdWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$2/mo
$19 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Serpstat logo
SerpstatSEO Tools
Keep paying
$59/mo
$708 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Softr logo
SoftrInternal Tools & Admin Panels
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Tailwind logo
TailwindSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$18/mo
$216 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Vista Social logo
Vista SocialSocial Media Management
Keep paying
$79/mo
$948 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

SpyFu logo
SpyFuSEO Tools
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Vidyard logo
VidyardVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Budibase logo
BudibaseInternal Tools & Admin Panels
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Wave logo
WaveAccounting & Finance
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$215/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Keep paying
$11/mo
$132 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Smallpdf logo
SmallpdfPDF & Documents
Keep paying
$9/mo
$108 a year
Running your own$85/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Cheaper optioniLovePDFs−$9/moFree, hosted for you · also PDF24 Tools
Cartesia logo
CartesiaAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Saleor logo
SaleorE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$300/mo
$3,600 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Majestic logo
MajesticSEO Tools
Keep paying
$50/mo
$600 a year
Running your own$205/mo

More than the subscription — 3 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $55 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Paperform logo
PaperformForms & Surveys
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$36/mo

More than the subscription — 0.6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Letta logo
LettaAgent Framework
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$81/mo

More than the subscription — 1.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $6 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Visme logo
VismeDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$12/mo
$147 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
pCloud logo
pCloudFile Storage
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
Running your own$130/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Resemble AI logo
Resemble AIAI Audio & Music
Keep paying
$350/mo
$4,200 a year

Voice and music models are trained on licensed corpora you do not have. This is inference you rent.

ToolJet logo
ToolJetInternal Tools & Admin Panels
Keep paying
$79/mo
$948 a year
Running your own$110/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $10 of infrastructure, every month.

Duda logo
DudaWebsite Builders
Keep paying
$19/mo
$228 a year
Running your own$115/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Outline logo
OutlineNotes & Knowledge Base
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$68/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Zight logo
ZightVideo & Screen Recording
Keep paying
$10/mo
$119 a year
Running your own$165/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $40 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Transifex logo
TransifexLocalization & Translation
Keep paying
$160/mo
$1,920 a year
Running your own$137/mo

$23/mo saved after $3,985 and 78 h to build it.

ConfigCat logo
ConfigCatFeature Flags & Experiments
Depends
$110/mo
$1,320 a year
Running your own$56/mo

$54/mo saved after $1,790 and 35 h to build it.

TinyLaunch logo
TinyLaunchProduct Launch Platforms
Keep paying
$39/mo
$468 a year
Running your own$58/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Snipcart logo
SnipcartE-commerce Platforms
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$330/mo

More than the subscription — 6 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Depot logo
DepotCI/CD
Keep paying
$20/mo
$240 a year
Running your own$150/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $25 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Slab logo
SlabNotes & Knowledge Base
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
1 × $12 per seat
Running your own$68/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

NetBird logo
NetBirdVPN & Private Networking
Keep paying
$5/mo
$60 a year
1 × $5 per seat
Running your own$75/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $15 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Weblate logo
WeblateLocalization & Translation
Keep paying
$51/mo
$612 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
PeerPush logo
PeerPushProduct Launch Platforms
Keep paying
$29/mo
$348 a year
Running your own$58/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

SavvyCal logo
SavvyCalScheduling & Calendars
Keep paying
$12/mo
$144 a year
Running your own$29/mo

More than the subscription — 0.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Redocly logo
RedoclyDocs & Developer Portals
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
1 × $10 per seat
Running your own$44/mo

More than the subscription — 0.8 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $4 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Sync.com logo
Sync.comFile Storage
Keep paying
$8/mo
$96 a year
1 × $8 per seat
Running your own$130/mo

More than the subscription — 2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $30 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Uneed logo
UneedProduct Launch Platforms
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$58/mo

More than the subscription — 1 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Kittl logo
KittlDesign & Creative
Keep paying
$10/mo
$120 a year
Running your own$220/mo

More than the subscription — 4 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $20 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category
Roam Research logo
Roam ResearchNotes & Knowledge Base
Keep paying
$15/mo
$180 a year
Running your own$68/mo

More than the subscription — 1.2 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $8 of infrastructure, every month.

Tolgee logo
TolgeeLocalization & Translation
Keep paying
$53/mo
$636 a year
Running your own$137/mo

More than the subscription — 2.5 h of upkeep at $50/hr plus $12 of infrastructure, every month.

Nothing cheaper in this category

The bar under each price is what running your own copy would still cost every month, against the subscription it would replace — a nearly full bar is a tool whose upkeep eats the saving. “Cheaper options” are the least expensive tools that do the same job, priced at what they actually cost you — a free self-hosted tool is charged for its servers and half the upkeep of an equivalent from-scratch build, not $0. Same category is not the same feature set: check the comparison before you migrate. Tools billed per seat are multiplied by the team size above, because the replacement you build serves everyone at once — that is the number the verdict is really comparing against.

One tool at a time is the easy question

The harder one is what all of it costs together, and whether replacing the whole stack ever pays back. Add the tools you actually pay for and find out — including the maintenance hours nobody puts in the estimate.

Check my entire stack