Build vs Buy: When to Use a Cloud API vs a Platform

The Real Decision

Cloud APIs (Amazon Textract, Google Document AI, Azure Document Intelligence) give you raw extraction power. Platforms (Lido, Rossum, Nanonets) give you a complete solution. The right choice depends on your team, volume, and timeline.

Choose a Cloud API If...

• You have a dedicated engineering team with cloud expertise
• You need to process millions of pages per month
• You're building extraction into a larger custom product
• You're already deeply invested in one cloud ecosystem
• You have 3-6 months to build and iterate

Choose a Platform If...

• You need to be in production within days, not months
• Your team is non-technical or engineering-constrained
• You need built-in workflows (approvals, exceptions, human review)
• You want predictable pricing without infrastructure management
• You process fewer than 100,000 pages per month

Total Cost of Ownership

Cloud APIs look cheap on paper — $0.001 to $0.06 per page. But the true cost includes:

• Engineering time — 2-4 engineers for 2-3 months to build a production pipeline
• Infrastructure — Queues, storage, compute, monitoring
• Maintenance — API changes, model updates, error handling
• UI development — If business users need to review or correct extractions

At 10,000 pages/month, a cloud API might cost $60-600/month in API fees but $15,000-25,000/month in engineering and infrastructure. A platform like Lido or Rossum handles the same volume for $500-2,000/month all-in.

Our Recommendation

For most teams, start with a platform. If you outgrow it or need deep customization, you can always migrate to a cloud API later with the domain knowledge you've gained. The reverse migration (API to platform) is much harder.