Build vs. Rent, Month by Month
App Stack Payback
✓ The exact month a build stops being the expensive option
✓ App fees that keep billing right through the build
✓ Cumulative cost chart and a month-by-month table
✓ Net saved or still behind at 12, 24 or 36 months
Your app stack today
Four numbers. Everything below updates as you type.
Add up the subscriptions for the functions you want built into the theme instead.
A rough figure for building the same functions natively. A real number comes from a discovery call.
Support and small fixes on code you own. Has to be below your app spend for a build to ever catch up.
Build timeline
Kickoff to launch. Your apps keep billing for every one of these months.
Time horizon
How far out to compare. The crossover does not move; only whether it lands inside the window.
Your payback
Breakeven in month —
Add your app spend
It never pays back
No breakeven inside — months
From month — on you are ahead, keeping — of every — you used to hand the apps. Launch is month —, and the apps keep billing until then.
Enter what you pay each month for the apps you would replace, and this shows the month a build stops being the more expensive option.
Upkeep of —/mo against —/mo in apps leaves nothing meaningful to recover the build with. Upkeep has to land below your app spend for a crossover to exist.
At —/mo saved after launch, — takes longer than — months to recover. Try a longer horizon, a smaller build, or lower upkeep.
Net savedbehind over — mo
—
— renting vs — building
Saved per month after launch
—
— in apps less — upkeep
Paid twice during the build
—
app fees still running across — monthmonths
Cumulative spend, month by month. The shaded band is the build window, where both the app fees and the build are being paid. The dashed line marks the crossover. On a narrow screen the chart scrolls sideways, or open the table below for the exact figures.
| Month | Renting apps | Building | Difference |
|---|
Breakeven is the build cost divided by what you save each month once it is live, pushed out by the — monthmonths of build time you are still paying app fees through, then rounded up to the first whole month you are actually ahead. It counts subscription dollars only. It does not price the app features you would lose, the risk of owning the code, or the app price rises you avoid.
How this is calculated
Two cumulative spend lines, compared month by month. One is what you pay if you keep renting the apps. The other is what you pay if you build the same functions into the theme instead. Breakeven is the month the second line drops below the first, and everything after it is money you keep.
The two lines
Renting is your monthly app spend multiplied by the number of months. Nothing else, because nothing else changes.
Building has three parts: the one-time build cost, the app fees that keep billing right up to launch, and the monthly upkeep on the code you own from launch onward. That middle part is the one most build-versus-buy sums leave out, and it is why this tool asks for a build timeline. Nothing switches off the day you sign a statement of work.
Breakeven
Once the build is live you save your app spend less your upkeep every month. Divide the build cost by that monthly saving to get how long recovery takes, then push it out by the build timeline you were paying app fees through:
That lands mid-month, and the month shown is rounded up. The first whole month you are genuinely ahead is the one after the crossover, so rounding to the nearest month would name a month the table below still shows you behind in.
If upkeep is the same as or more than your app spend there is no monthly saving to recover anything with, so no crossover exists at any horizon and the tool says so rather than showing a number. The horizon selector (12 / 24 / 36 months) never moves the crossover. It only decides whether the crossover lands inside the window you are looking at.
Worked example
The figures the tool loads with: —/mo of apps, a — build over 3 months, —/mo upkeep after launch, on a 24-month horizon.
- Monthly saving after launch: — − — = —.
- Recovery time: — ÷ — = — months.
- Plus the 3-month build, during which — of app fees are still billing: a crossover at month —, so the first whole month ahead is month —.
- At month 24: — renting against — building, a net — saved.
Where the starting figures come from
The values the tool loads with (—/mo of replaceable apps, a — build, —/mo upkeep, 3 months of build time) are directional starting points from Shero's own Shopify build work, reviewed August 2026. They are a place to start typing, not a published benchmark and not a quote. Replace all four with your own numbers: a real build cost and a real timeline come out of a short discovery call against your actual app list, and the build-timeline options (1 / 2 / 3 / 6 months) are the shapes Shero typically scopes rather than a range you are limited to.
What this model leaves out
- It counts subscription dollars only. It does not price app features you would lose, or features a build would add.
- App prices are held flat for the whole horizon. In practice they rise, and every rise moves breakeven earlier, so the model is conservative in that direction.
- Upkeep is held flat too. A year-three refactor or a Shopify platform change is not in here.
- Owning code is a real risk transfer. The apps carry their vendor's maintenance, compatibility testing and support; a build moves that onto you and whoever you retain.
- It assumes the build actually replaces the apps. A partial replacement that leaves two of the six subscriptions running is a different, worse sum.
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