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When to start from scratch and when an out-of-the-box solution makes more sense

Build vs. Buy: How to decide on your design system

The first few design systems I built were from scratch. Not because I thought that we needed to do it from scratch, but because I didn’t know there was an alternative.

It wasn’t until I joined a few startups where I learned that engineering teams were using out-of-the-box solutions like Ant Design or IBM that I found this was a possibility. These teams were strapped for resources and didn’t have the capacity nor the need to build buttons from scratch.

So that begged the question to me moving forward — when does it make sense to build a design system from scratch versus buy one out-of-the-box that you can customize?

Here are a few considerations I advise teams to think about:

Capacity and resourcing

If you’re a startup or you just have a small design and engineering team, you may not have the bandwidth to build and maintain a system from scratch. Your teams’ time is better spent building valuable features for the product.

Customization needs

If your product is complex and unique, or you have many products using the same system, a more custom design library may be warranted to ensure that it fits your specific needs. Out-of-the-box solutions can be hard to customize, often requiring clunky workarounds. Additionally, there are a lot of things that you can’t customize at all, limiting your ability to serve your product or suite’s needs.

Differentiation

When you use out-of-the-box solutions, you run the risk of looking the same as all of the other products that have used that same solution. Ant Design, for example, is very common for SaaS tools. If you’re a smaller startup, that may not matter as much. However, if you have a global, well-known brand, it can hurt your reputation.

My advice

always consider buying first. For most companies—especially small or medium businesses—there’s very little return on investing the time and resources into creating your own buttons and input fields. Let’s be realistic—only the behemoths really have substantial design systems teams.

It’s also important to remember that, even if you do use an out-of-the-box solution, that doesn’t mean that you can’t build custom components on top of that. For many of our clients, this hybrid approach works well and is useful for those who don’t have the ability to maintain a large system on their own, while not wanting to look too cookie-cutter. Once your company gets large enough to where the bought solutions just don’t work for you anymore, you can reinvest into building a fully custom system.

Whether you buy a solution or build your own, creating a design system as the foundation of your product is critical for scaling. It ensures that you are able to create a cohesive product as it grows, onboard designers and developers quickly, and ensure that your teams’ time is spent strategically on the most important things for your business.