Build versus buy for a six-person sponsor: the 2026 numbers

{{TODO: CLIENT INPUT}} - body to be written. Outline below, generated from the build spec. Delete this note and set status: published when the piece is written.

Outline

Opening. Most build-versus-buy pieces are written by someone selling one of the two. State the conflict up front: Exalto builds, and this piece will still recommend buying in several of the cases below.

The three paths. Status quo, enterprise platform, custom build. Define each before comparing them, because the status quo is the one people forget to price.

What the status quo actually costs. Not licence fees. Loaded analyst hours lost to reconciliation and reporting, plus the option value of a raise that stalls. Use the DDQ load estimator as the concrete version of this and link to it.

What the enterprise tier costs. Cite F12 through the Fact component. Note that the figure is rational for a firm with an operations department and is not a criticism of the products. The point is the tier, not the vendor.

Who is still on spreadsheets and why. Cite F11. Not ignorance. Price.

What has changed on the build side. Cite F15. Estimates written before 2024 are not a reliable guide to what a custom build costs now, which cuts against the received wisdom that building is always the expensive option.

When to buy. Fund administration, payroll, cap table, e-signature. Anything where a well-supported product covers eighty per cent and the remaining twenty is tolerable. Say this without hedging.

When to build. Where the system has to produce evidence continuously under a control model, in a shape specific to how the firm operates. Nobody sells that at a size that fits six people.

When to do neither yet. If the process is genuinely undecided, automating it encodes the confusion at greater cost. Run it manually for a quarter first.

Close. A calculator that always recommends the seller is worthless, and this audience knows it. Link to the readiness scan rather than to a sales page.