Senior-level guides on custom vs SaaS, ERPs, multi-tenant architecture and legacy migration, written for CTOs and engineering leads.
Buying SaaS is faster. Building custom is cheaper at scale and gives you the moat. The decision framework we use with clients: TCO over 5 years, integration cost, switching cost, and the build-vs-buy decision matrix.
Most custom ERP projects fail. The ones that succeed start narrow, replace SAP/Oracle module by module, and use modern stack. The 2026 playbook for building ERPs that actually ship and deliver value in 6-12 months.
Choosing your multi-tenancy strategy on day one shapes the next 5 years. Shared DB, schema-per-tenant, DB-per-tenant: when each wins, performance numbers, isolation guarantees, and how to migrate later if you guessed wrong.
Big-bang rewrites kill companies. Strangler-pattern migrations win. The detailed 18-month playbook for replacing legacy COBOL/Java/Oracle systems without downtime, with reversible steps and continuous business value delivery.
SaaS MVPs in 2026 ship in 8-12 weeks if scoped right and 6-9 months if not. The stack that wins (Next.js + Supabase or Spring Boot + Postgres + Stripe), the process that ships, and the product mistakes that turn a 10-week MVP into a 12-month build.
SaaS billing is where pricing strategy meets engineering reality. Per-seat, usage-based, hybrid, freemium, annual discount, dunning, proration. The 2026 reference implementation on Stripe Billing, including the metering pipeline, webhook handlers and the pricing changes you can ship without migrating customers.
API-first architecture isn't a slogan. It's an operational discipline. SaaS that ships API-first wins integration deals, ships customer-specific features without forking, and makes AI agents possible. The architecture, the contract discipline and the OpenAPI/SDK pipeline.