LLMs have shifted the buy-vs-build calculus for software, but haven't made building free. Using rough cost math based on engineer salaries, the author argues there's still a 'zone of viability' where buying third-party software makes more economic sense than rebuilding it with LLM assistance. Low-cost tools like Jira ($400/mo) still favor buying, while high-cost platforms like Salesforce ($25k/mo for 50 seats) increasingly justify rebuilding. The author frames this as context for their own bet: running River, an open-source Go/Postgres job queue with a paid Pro tier starting at $125/mo, as a small sustainable business in the LLM era.
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