35% of Enterprises Have Replaced SaaS Tools With Custom Software, Retool Report Finds

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According to Retool's 2026 State of Software Development report, 35% of enterprise teams have already replaced at least one SaaS tool with custom-built software, and 78% plan to build more in 2026. AI-assisted development has dramatically reduced costs and timelines, with projects that once took 10 months and $100,000 now completed in three months for $25,000–$40,000. Over a three-year period, a custom-built internal tool can cost $30,000–$53,000 compared to $44,000–$124,000 for comparable SaaS solutions. Enterprises are also citing vendor lock-in, annual price hikes of 15–30%, and low feature utilization — typically 20–50% of what they pay for — as key drivers of the shift. Analysts suggest SaaS still makes sense for commodity functions like payroll or HR compliance, but organizations are being urged to reassess the default assumption that SaaS is always the better option.

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Developer Builds ChatGPT-Powered Telegram Bot That Auto-Mutes Toxic Users

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Why Basic HTTP Error Handling Falls Short for LLM APIs in Production

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