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As SaaS companies scale through cloud marketplaces, the strategic decision of ‘building or buying’ takes center stage. And the decision is often an indicator of business maturity. As companies scale, they bring in more engineers to build in-house solutions.
But cloud marketplaces aren’t just another sales channel. They’re governed ecosystems that move fast and demand specialized expertise. The workforce isn’t the only investment when building sophisticated systems internally.
So, should you build, or buy a cloud marketplace solution? In this blog, we’ll unpack the relative advantages and downsides of both decisions.
Why is building a cloud GTM platform challenging?
The big mistake that teams make is this: they assume cloud marketplaces are like any other sales channels. So they assume it’ll be equally simple to build a cloud marketplace system.
However, unlike traditional sales channels, cloud marketplaces have requirements regulated by hyperscalers. In other words, it’s a whole new ball game, and the rules are unclear. Therefore, building them in-house can pose three distinctive risks:
1. Lack of expertise
Traditional CRMs and ticketing systems have been around for decades, and developers have had the time to standardize them. This means that tech teams have the required know-how if they choose to develop a solution in-house.
On the other hand, cloud marketplaces, though promising channels for growth, are still maturing. This means the rules of engagement, capability building, and ways of working are still being learned daily.
Building a constantly evolving solution in-house in a nascent market means you risk scope creep and feature bloat.
At the same time, not every developer will have the expertise to integrate the software with existing systems. This can put the project in tech debt, making it more difficult to migrate to a better solution down the line.
2. Platform rigidity
Unlike traditional GTM channels, cloud marketplaces are an ecosystem. They are where buyers, sellers, external partners, and marketplaces find mutual value.
Whether built in-house or bought, the success of a cloud GTM solution depends on the marketplace's evolution. Every time the marketplace upgrades the fine print or launches a new solution, your engineers must re-invest their bandwidth in replicating it within the native platform.
Scaling an in-house platform at the pace at which marketplaces are evolving is hard. Your engineering team will end up investing precious bandwidth that could be better used elsewhere.
3. Perpetual scaling
Scaling is a two-pronged strategy.
Prong #1. Building the in-house marketplace platform and scaling it
Prong #2. Building a new capability for another marketplace
For the first prong, the risk is the continuous investment in time and effort from the engineering team. Marketplace listing alone doesn’t guarantee success. You’ll need to:
- Keep the listing maintained
- Activate Co-Sell motions
- Nurture partnerships with marketplace teams
- Track the complete view of your buyers’ journeys
- Report product usage, also known as metering
- Consistently measure channel effectiveness
For the second prong, building integrations with a single marketplace is hard enough. You must think of how your internal systems communicate with the marketplace interface.
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When you expand into a new marketplace or launch a new listing, that complexity compounds.
It will take up bandwidth across your engineering, sales ops, product, and RevOps teams.
- Engineering teams to build, maintain, and scale the platform
- SalesOps team to make sure your CRM integrations work as expected and your platform keeps serving the needs of your AEs
- RevOps teams to track revenue sources and revenue recognition
This is equivalent to having a team run your marketplace listing and operations full-time. Over a 12-month horizon, expect the extra headcount and resource costs to tremendously dent profits.
Given these risks, why do companies prefer to build? Because of the following undeniable benefits.
Does building your own cloud GTM solution have its benefits?
Your business may decide to build software in-house on the following grounds:
- An in-house solution can be custom-built around the business’s existing technological wireframe.
- You can completely control the software's features, functionality, and design.
- Building software in-house makes it easier to define ownership and build custom integrations.
- You have more governance over your data as it stays within the internal infrastructure.
So, if building offers granular control, why should businesses buy software?
What are the advantages of buying a cloud GTM solution?
Choosing to buy and not build cloud GTM software offers the following benefits:
1. Faster time-to-value
With expert support, listing on a cloud marketplace takes only a few hours instead of weeks.
Vertical SaaS vendors specializing in cloud GTM have deep domain expertise that enables faster turnaround times than in-house solutions, which require your engineers to first develop expertise.
2. Access to domain experts
Because cloud marketplaces are a newer way to sell, businesses are still figuring out how they work. This often leads to special requests that stretch the setup process to several months.
Having a partner who truly understands the business and the platform challenges helps shorten that timeline to weeks without deviating engineering bandwidth.
Additionally, downtime can cost you significant revenue in a channel like this. Every time your listing fails to work, whether due to a bug in your code or missed marketplace updates, you miss out on potential revenue and leave your customers unattended.
Having a specialized tool helps ensure platform uptime. It also makes it effortless to update your listings as your business grows.
3. Zero in-house bandwidth consumption
With this approach, you can build a full-stack solution with minimal engineering bandwidth. Cloud GTM platforms handle the operational legwork and continuous uptime of your tool.
This frees up internal bandwidth so your teams can focus on the critical things. They no longer have to solve point-solution issues as the platform’s support team does it for them.
Scale revenue, not effort, with Clazar
Don’t be puzzled by the perpetual engineering and operational involvement required to grow on cloud marketplaces. Clazar’s comprehensive platform helps the fastest-growing businesses to launch, manage, and grow across hyperscaler marketplaces.
Want to learn more? Write to us at hello@clazar.io or talk to one of our handpicked experts.
Top FAQ's
1. What does “build vs. buy” mean in cloud GTM?
“Build vs. buy” in cloud GTM refers to whether a company should develop an in-house system to manage cloud marketplace operations (build) or use a specialized platform (buy) to handle listings, billing, co-sell, and reporting across hyperscalers.
2. Why is building a cloud GTM platform difficult?
Building a cloud GTM platform is difficult because cloud marketplaces are governed ecosystems with evolving requirements. Unlike traditional sales systems, they require deep expertise in marketplace APIs, compliance rules, co-sell workflows, and billing mechanisms.
3. What are the risks of building a cloud GTM solution in-house?
The main risks include:
- Lack of marketplace-specific expertise
- High engineering and maintenance costs
- Difficulty scaling across multiple marketplaces
- Constant rework due to platform updates
- Increased technical debt over time
4. What are the benefits of buying a cloud GTM platform?
Buying a cloud GTM platform offers:
- Faster time-to-market
- Access to domain experts
- Reduced engineering overhead
- Built-in compliance with marketplace requirements
- Easier scaling across multiple cloud providers
5. When should a company consider building instead of buying?
A company should consider building if:
- It has strong in-house expertise in cloud marketplaces
- It requires highly custom workflows not supported by vendors
- It is willing to invest long-term engineering resources
- Cloud GTM is a core internal capability, not just a channel
