Four ways to buy automation, compared.

A subscription agent is installed on the vendor’s platform in days and billed monthly. A custom build is written into your own tools and account in about 14 days and owned outright. The right one depends on how specific your workflow is and whether leaving matters.

Zapier, n8n and Make wire triggers to actions without code and are the right tool for a dozen simple automations. A custom build is the right tool when the logic branches, the data must be reconciled, or a person has to approve what leaves.

A hire gives you one person’s hours and one person’s skills, from the day they start, for as long as they stay. A build and retainer gives you a finished system in about 14 days and a team that already runs twenty others. Most SMEs need the second before they can use the first.

A no-code CRM gives you a pipeline, contact records and AI features inside its own data model on day one. A custom build keeps your CRM, or builds the record you need, and puts the agents around it with your finance and operations connected. The question is whether the CRM’s model fits the business.