
Build vs Buy: Adding Chat and AI Agents to Your Product in 2026 (A Founder's Guide)
·10 min read
Real-time chat and AI agents look simple and are quietly brutal to build. A founder's framework for the build-vs-buy decision in 2026: the true costs, where AI agents fit, and why self-hosting now lets you own your data without rewriting your stack.
- ai agents
- chat sdk
- saas
- self-hosted
- build vs buy