r/ProgrammingJobs

So I’m a web dev (mostly React/.NET) working in-house for a ~30 person logistics company. We’ve been duct-taping everything together with Google Sheets, Zapier, and some super janky PHP from like 2014. Last week our ops manager casually said “couldn’t we just get someone to build exactly what we need?” and now I can’t stop thinking about it. I started researching custom/bespoke apps vs sticking with off-the-shelf SaaS, and I ran into stuff like this site which makes it sound super sane - fixed price, 2-4 month build, integrate with our existing systems, etc. It all sounds great on paper, but I’m wary of us ending up with a giant, expensive single-vendor trap. For those of you who’ve either built or commissioned bespoke web apps/internal tools for small/medium businesses: was it actually worth it long term? How did you handle ownership of the code, avoiding vendor lock-in, and ongoing maintenance costs? And if you’re the dev on staff (like me), did you push to build in-house or help manage an external team? Maybe I’m overthinking this, but I’d love real experiences, good and bad.