Build in-house, buy a single tool, or list on Agora.
A quick side-by-side for the operator who needs to decide this quarter, not after a procurement process.
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Side by Side
| Criterion | Build In-House | Single-Vendor Tool | Agora |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | Developer time, weeks to months | License or subscription fee, often annual | None. Pay only per run. |
| Time to first result | Weeks to months | Days to weeks of setup | Minutes, run against your own files first |
| Ongoing maintenance | Your team owns bug fixes and updates | Vendor owns it, but you are locked to their roadmap | Publisher owns it, graded and re-evaluated over time |
| Switching cost | High, custom code is not portable | High, data and workflows tied to one vendor | Low, swap to another listed function for the same task |
| Trust signal | Only as good as your own review process | Vendor's own claims | Independent grading tier, re-checked on a rolling basis |
§03
Read More
For the fuller reasoning behind this table, including the hidden costs of each path.