The BigCommerce app marketplace has solutions for almost every common need. Shipping, reviews, email marketing, analytics—there’s probably an app for it. So why would you ever build custom?
The answer isn’t about capability. It’s about fit. Apps are built for broad markets. Custom tools are built for your specific situation. Sometimes broad fit is fine. Sometimes it’s not.
When Apps Work Well
Apps work well for standardized problems with standardized solutions. Email marketing follows patterns that work across industries. Shipping calculations are complex but well-defined. Review collection is basically the same for everyone.
For these problems, apps offer immediate functionality, ongoing maintenance, and usually a lower total cost than custom development. The app vendor spreads development costs across thousands of customers.
When Apps Fall Short
Apps struggle when your needs diverge from the mainstream. If your shipping rules are genuinely unusual, a shipping app’s flexibility might not stretch far enough. If your pricing logic involves factors the app doesn’t know about, you’re stuck.
Apps also struggle with integration depth. They connect to BigCommerce well, but connecting them to your ERP, your warehouse system, and your custom reporting often requires additional middleware, workarounds, or manual processes.
The Integration Tax
Every app you add is another integration to maintain. Data needs to flow between systems. Errors need to be handled. Updates need to be tested. This ‘integration tax’ often exceeds the subscription cost of the apps themselves.
Custom tools can reduce this tax by building integration logic directly into the solution. Instead of connecting five apps to each other, you might build one tool that handles a workflow end-to-end.
Making the Decision
The build-vs-buy decision depends on several factors: How unique are your requirements? How central is this function to your competitive advantage? How stable are your needs? What’s your development capacity?
For commodity functions with standard needs, buy. For differentiated functions with unique requirements, consider building. For everything in between, start with buying and build when the pain of workarounds exceeds the cost of custom development.
The Hybrid Path
Often the best answer isn’t purely build or purely buy. You might use an app for core functionality and build custom extensions for your specific needs. You might use middleware to connect apps in ways their native integrations don’t support.
The goal isn’t ideological purity. It’s getting the right solution for your business with appropriate cost and complexity.