For IT leaders, it’s an age-old question: is it better to build or to buy? That could now be answered, with fresh data from Exclaimer showing that most in-house builds are missing the mark.

The email management platform’s latest report, Build vs Buy: The true cost of DIY IT solutions, found that almost three-quarters (71%) of in-house builds are quickly abandoned as maintenance demands, compliance risks, and long-term costs grow.

Polling 2,000 IT and security decision-makers, Exclaimer found that although half of IT teams said they prefer to build their own tools, only 8% of those projects are delivered on time, and just 11% stay on budget. 

Dubbing this the “DIY Mirage”, the report found that, in reality, more than half of builds take 1.6 to two times longer than planned, while almost half of all in-house IT projects (46%) end up costing close to twice what the organisation originally budgeted.

The hidden demands soon follow, with 63% of IT teams forced to spend up to 50 hours a month maintaining internal tools, while two-thirds (66%) need an additional $20,000 to $100,000 a year to keep them running. 

With 64% of organisations reporting security-related downtime and 31% citing compliance and data protection challenges after setting out DIY builds, Exclaimer said it was clear these ‘cost-saving initiatives’ can fast become long-term liabilities.

The research also reveals some key regional differences, with UK teams more likely to build in-house to meet compliance and data residency requirements (33%), while US teams build for integrations with legacy systems (28%). 

According to Excalimer’s data, just 6% of US builds finish on time, compared with 11% in the UK, and 89% of US projects exceed budget, versus 84% in the UK. British IT leaders are also more trusting of vendors, with more than half saying they offer greater protection (51%), while US leaders express stronger confidence in their own builds (59%). 

Regional differences aside, the report finds both markets are grappling with the burden of maintaining in-house builds amid rising technical and compliance demands. 

In heavily regulated industries like manufacturing and finance, for example, the report found that 83% of internally-built tools are now abandoned, which underscores how complexity and regulatory pressures make homegrown systems difficult to sustain.

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Those challenges are sparking a surge in demand for specialist vendors that can supply software that meets firms’ needs straight out of the box. When asked why they choose to buy rather than build, IT leaders pointed to speed (30%), access to expertise (29%), and reliability (28%) as key drivers.

UK teams said that buying in software helps them to maintain control and deal with regulatory demands (33%), while US teams, historically more speed-oriented, are finding that vendor partnerships offer faster scalability and reduced maintenance. 

The survey found that within both regions, buying for efficiency now outweighs building for control.

“The data shows that while building in-house can feel like control, it often comes at the expense of time, security, and scalability,” said Paul Hammond, chief product and technology officer at Exclaimer.

“As organisations race to modernise and scale securely, we’re seeing that IT leaders recognise that buying from trusted partners delivers faster deployment, predictable performance, and built-in compliance without the constant drain of maintenance and patching. 

“The question is therefore not whether IT teams can build, they must decide when they should.”

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