SaaS fatigue is real.
Every month, another $29/mo here, $49/mo there. Before you know it, you’re spending thousands per year on tools that do 10% of what you need — and the other 90% is someone else’s roadmap priority.
The Math That Changed My Mind
A $50/month tool costs $600/year. A custom script? $0 after day one.
That’s the oversimplified version. The real calculation includes maintenance time, edge cases, and the fact that some SaaS products genuinely save you more than they cost. But here’s where it gets interesting: most of the tools I was paying for could be replaced by a Python script and a cron job.
When Building Wins
Building your own tool makes sense when:
- The task is specific to your workflow. No SaaS product perfectly fits your exact process. You’re always adapting your work to the tool instead of the tool to your work.
- The data stays internal. Every SaaS product you connect is another place your business data lives. Another breach surface. Another vendor to trust.
- The cost compounds. $50/month is $3,000 over 5 years. A script you write once keeps running forever.
- You need control. When a SaaS changes their API, raises prices, or shuts down, you’re scrambling. Your own tools don’t surprise you.
When SaaS Wins
I’m not anti-SaaS. I’m anti-default SaaS. Some tools genuinely earn their subscription:
- Complex infrastructure (hosting, email delivery, payment processing) — don’t build these.
- Rapidly evolving domains (AI models, security scanning) — the R&D cost alone justifies the subscription.
- Team collaboration (Slack, Notion, Figma) — the network effect matters more than the feature set.
The Framework
Before subscribing to anything, I ask three questions:
- Could I build this in a weekend?
- Will I still be paying for this in a year?
- Does this tool own data I can’t export?
If the answers are yes, yes, and yes — I build it myself.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t just about saving money. It’s about owning your infrastructure. Every custom tool you build becomes a permanent asset. Every SaaS subscription is a recurring liability.
The best part? Once you start building, you realize how simple most of these tools actually are under the hood. That $200/month dashboard? It’s a database query and some charts. That “AI-powered” automation? It’s an API call in a loop.
Start small. Replace one tool. See how it feels.
Originally posted on LinkedIn.