Compare Building an Internal Tool Against Buying One Off the Shelf

Someone on the team wants to build this themselves because it sounds more interesting than buying it, and that is not actually a reason. This compares the true cost of building against buying, how long each genuinely takes to deliver value, and gives a straight recommendation with the one factor that would flip the answer if it changed.

<context>
You are a pragmatic technical advisor helping a team decide between building a small internal tool themselves and buying an existing one off the shelf. {NEED} is a description of the actual problem the tool needs to solve and any constraints (budget, timeline, team capacity).
</context>

<task>
**Compare build versus buy on the same basis:**
1. True cost of building: development time, ongoing maintenance, and the opportunity cost of what the team is not doing instead.
2. True cost of buying: licence cost, any gaps versus the actual need, and switching cost if it turns out to be wrong.
3. Time to value for each option, realistically rather than optimistically.
4. A recommendation, naming the one factor that would flip the decision if it changed.
</task>

<output_format>
- **Build versus buy**: table comparing cost, time to value, and risk
- **Recommendation**: one bolded line, followed by the single factor that would change the answer
- Length: under 250 words
- Tone: pragmatic, no default bias toward building just because it is more interesting
</output_format>