Build it yourself when the platform is the product
Building is rational when tenancy, infrastructure control or a novel runtime is the differentiator customers buy—and you intend to staff that platform for its full operating life.
Build vs buy
Compare the platform work your team will own
Your team may already have working sign-in, billing and hosting. Follow one purchase from checkout to the first thing a customer can do in your app. Compare who connects those steps, keeps them in sync and investigates when one stalls.
Your next release
Start with what already works
A customer buys a plan for their team. Mark each step your current tools already cover. Can you see that payment succeeded, that the workspace is ready and that the team can use the feature it bought? If payment succeeds and the workspace never opens, who can find the stalled step and help that customer?
With SynaptaGrid, an operator can see payment confirmation and subscription activation as separate steps in signup. The platform supplies workspaces and plan checks. Your team connects those checks to the features in your app and tests what customers can do after a plan change. Compare that work with the connections your team already maintains.
We built and operate this foundation for our own products, so the SynaptaGrid column below describes services that already run. On each path, count integration, testing, provider charges, upgrades and support, not only the first build. Track engineering effort and the release date separately: freeing developer time only advances launch when it removes work that was holding the release up.
Three options
Compare the integration and operating work
Some providers combine identity, billing and access. Others supply tenant provisioning and operations. Check which parts of your customer journey they cover and the work your team still owns.
Assemble components when the boundary is small
A component stack can be the fastest choice when you need a few isolated capabilities, have a simple tenant model and can accept owning the connections between them.
Use SynaptaGrid when a customer release depends on platform work
The platform fits teams with a concrete customer requirement, a target release and someone responsible for the integration—a first pilot or an existing product you want to extend. No engineering team? The custom-build path below covers that.
There is a fourth option this table does not show: you send us the requirement and we build the product on the platform, or bring the application you already run onto it. Custom build & integration →
Responsibility matrix
What each option leaves with your team
This comparison describes ownership, not a universal delivery estimate. Scope, team experience, existing systems and compliance requirements determine the actual time and cost.
Responsibility
Build internally
Assemble components
Use SynaptaGrid
Organizations, users and tenant context
Build internallyDesign and operate the model.
Assemble componentsIdentity and tenancy services may model organizations and members. Map every other service’s accounts and records to the same tenant.
Use SynaptaGridShared organization, member and app-instance model.
Authentication and enterprise directories
Build internallyImplement credentials, MFA, federation and recovery.
Assemble componentsIdentity services may include organizations, roles and an admin portal. Connect the supported model to your app.
Use SynaptaGridOIDC, OAuth, SAML, LDAP, SCIM and MFA use the platform tenant model.
Authorization
Build internallyBuild roles, policies, resource relationships and admin tools.
Assemble componentsSome identity services include roles or fine-grained authorization; dedicated authorization services go further. Keep their resources and tenants in step with your data.
Use SynaptaGridApps declare resources and actions; the permission service evaluates roles, attributes and relationships.
Plans, features and quotas
Build internallyCreate the catalog, overrides, usage ledger and request gates.
Assemble componentsSome suppliers combine billing and feature access. Check the remaining quota and lifecycle work for your app.
Use SynaptaGridOperators compose standard or customer-specific plans; SDK gates enforce the assigned values.
Billing and access state
Build internallyKeep checkout, invoices, payment failures and product access consistent.
Assemble componentsBilling services may manage subscriptions, invoices and feature access. Check who keeps product access correct after failed payments, refunds and plan changes.
Use SynaptaGridSubscription events, plan assignment and entitlement checks share one Control Plane contract.
Tenant provisioning
Build internallyWrite infrastructure workflows, retries, cleanup and operator recovery.
Assemble componentsUse infrastructure tooling or an integrated control plane; verify which provisioning and recovery work it supplies.
Use SynaptaGridThe plan selects supported AWS resources; Fleet creates them as infrastructure code.
Isolation and resource upgrades
Build internallyDesign pooled and dedicated topologies, data moves and cutover procedures.
Assemble componentsSome control-plane services handle dedicated deployments, upgrades and backups. Check who plans the data move and application routing when a customer changes tier.
Use SynaptaGridPlans select pooled, dedicated or isolated-stack placement; eligible components use tracked shared-to-dedicated migrations.
Audit and data lifecycle
Build internallyInstrument services and coordinate retention, export and erasure.
Assemble componentsSeveral services keep their own audit logs. Check how they combine per tenant and how export and erasure requests reach each one.
Use SynaptaGridShared audit, manifest-declared GDPR handlers and coordinated tenant lifecycle operations.
Observability and alerting
Build internallyInstrument services, run the stack and connect alerts to on-call.
Assemble componentsObservability services store traces, metrics and logs. Check how tenant and service context reach them from every part of the stack.
Use SynaptaGridAvailable per deployment: OpenTelemetry traces, metrics and logs with Grafana dashboards and alerts; dedicated observability is available.
Upgrades, incidents and support
Build internallyYour team owns every platform change and production incident.
Assemble componentsEach service runs its own product, and some cover several areas. Your team owns failures that cross between them.
Use SynaptaGridSynaptaGrid operates the shared platform; your team owns product code and product-specific incidents.
The ownership boundary
We run the shared SaaS platform. You build and run the product.
SynaptaGrid owns the tenant, identity, plan, provisioning and operating contracts. Your team owns the work that differentiates the product.
- Your domain model and the records that make the product useful
- Product-specific workflows, decisions and user experience
- Application code, tests and release decisions
- The integration from your product into the platform contracts
- Product support that requires domain knowledge