Upstream
32 SaaS layers, rebuilt as the slice you actually use. From $9K, on direct billing.
Replace expensive SaaS layers (Klaviyo, Datadog, Harvey, Salesforce, Workday, etc.) with custom builds on AWS / Anthropic / Stripe direct. Pick a single tool, a category combo, or your industry's typical stack. Wrapper margin reclaimed.
HOW WE SCOPE A REBUILD · NO POSTURING
We don’t rebuild Datadog. We rebuild your usage of it — the 15–25% that’s on your renewal invoice but isn’t where the SaaS earns its margin. Per-seat / per-MTU / per-host pricing taxes the whole product even when you use a fifth of it. Our rebuild is calibrated to your actual surface area — mapped in the first 30-min call, before quoting.
- Dashboards your team opens daily
- Alerts that page on-call
- Integrations already wired up (Slack, PagerDuty, GitHub, etc.)
- Reports leadership relies on
- Workflows you’ve customised over the years
- The 2–3 user roles that matter (admin / analyst / viewer)
- Features another niche product does better (we’ll point you at it)
- Edge-case enterprise modules (SIEM, advanced compliance, etc.)
- AppExchange-style ecosystems we can’t replicate
- Years of vendor-built ML / heuristics tuned across millions of clients
- The 30 features your team has never opened (and never will)
- If our audit finds you ARE using the deep end, we’ll tell you straight: the rebuild won’t pay back. Stay on the SaaS.
START BY INDUSTRY · 3 ICP ENTRY POINTS
If you're B2B SaaS, D2C, or a law firm, start here. Each ICP page has a curated combo recommendation calibrated to that industry's typical stack and spend.
Your stack made sense at 10 people.
HubSpot + Intercom + Sentry + Mixpanel layered up while you scaled. Four wrappers, four per-contact taxes. Replace the lot in one combo rebuild.
- Replaces
- HubSpot · Intercom · Sentry · Mixpanel
- Typical spend
- $95K–$580K/yr
- Rebuild
- $68K fixed
Klaviyo + Cloudinary + Algolia + Yotpo all charge per customer.
D2C stacks compound fast — every doubling of your contact list doubles 4 SaaS bills at once. Rebuild on direct billing and own your data warehouse.
- Replaces
- Klaviyo · Cloudinary · Algolia · Yotpo
- Typical spend
- $112K–$280K/yr
- Rebuild
- $58K fixed
Harvey AI is OpenAI with legal templates.
Per-attorney legal-AI contracts are eating mid-market firm budgets. The same workflow on Anthropic + OpenAI direct runs at <5% of list cost — typical $686K Y1 reclaim on a 50-attorney firm.
- Replaces
- Harvey · Casetext · per-seat legal AI
- Typical spend
- $1.2K–$2K/seat/mo
- Rebuild
- $24K fixed
COMBO STACK REBUILDS · 5 BUNDLES
Replace 4 SaaS tools at once with a single architectural rebuild. Bigger upfront engagement, bigger Y1 reclaim, unified data layer.
HubSpot + Intercom + Sentry + Mixpanel. Four wrappers. One rebuild.
The standard B2B SaaS GTM + product stack. Replaced by a custom build on direct vendor billing — own the marketing automation, support inbox, observability, and product analytics in one architecture.
- Bundle
- $58K fixed · 10–14 weeks
- Managed
- $12K/mo
- 3-yr reclaim
- $78K typical
Klaviyo + Cloudinary + Algolia + Yotpo. Four wrappers. One rebuild.
The full D2C marketing + media + search + reviews stack. Rebuilt on AWS direct (SES, S3, OpenSearch, Postgres) — pay infrastructure, not per-contact wrapper fees.
- Bundle
- $48K fixed · 8–12 weeks
- Managed
- $8K/mo
- 3-yr reclaim
- $58K typical
Datadog + Sentry + Segment + Mixpanel. Four observability taxes. One rebuild.
Self-host LGTM (Loki + Grafana + Tempo + Mimir) + Sentry OSS + RudderStack + ClickHouse on your AWS. Engineering teams reclaim $36K+/yr in observability spend immediately.
- Bundle
- $58K fixed · 8–12 weeks
- Managed
- $14K/mo
- 3-yr reclaim
- $84K typical
Workday + Lattice + Greenhouse + Culture Amp. Four people-ops taxes. One rebuild.
A unified HRIS + performance + ATS + engagement platform on Postgres + direct payroll. Modular — swap out individual modules per the firm's priorities. Common starting point for $400K+ Y1 reclaim.
- Bundle
- $98K fixed · 14–18 weeks
- Managed
- $28K/mo
- 3-yr reclaim
- $148K typical
Sales Cloud + Outreach + Gong + Apollo. Four sales taxes. One rebuild.
Custom CRM + sequencer + conversation intelligence + B2B data on Postgres + Twilio + Whisper + Claude direct. The full sales-ops stack at infrastructure cost.
- Bundle
- $78K fixed · 12–16 weeks
- Managed
- $18K/mo
- 3-yr reclaim
- $108K typical
SINGLE-TOOL REPLACEMENTS · 24 REBUILDS · 8 CATEGORIES
Browse the catalog of individual SaaS replacements. Each card links to a detail page with vendor pricing analysis, our build cost, time-to-live, and the relevant infrastructure stack.
Klaviyo at 1M contacts is $120K/yr. SES is $5K.
Email automation + segmentation on AWS SES + Postmark direct. Same UI patterns, same flow logic, no per-contact tax.
- Replaces
- Klaviyo Marketing
- List
- $700–$10K+/mo
- Managed
- $3K/mo + SES
Mailchimp at 500K contacts is $30K/yr. SES is $300.
Direct AWS SES with custom UI for list management, campaigns, and template design. Own your contact list and your deliverability.
- Replaces
- Mailchimp Std / Premium
- List
- $300–$3K+/mo
- Managed
- $1.8K/mo + SES
HubSpot Marketing Hub at 100K contacts is $51K/yr.
Marketing automation + landing pages + lead scoring on direct billing. Pay for sends and storage, not per-contact pricing tiers.
- Replaces
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- List
- $890–$8.25K+/mo
- Managed
- $2.4K/mo
Pardot is a marketing app on top of your Salesforce data.
Keep your Salesforce. Drop the Pardot upcharge. Custom marketing automation reads/writes to SFDC direct, costs ~$2,400/mo to run.
- Replaces
- Pardot / SFMC AE
- List
- $1.25K–$15K+/mo
- Build
- $24K fixed
SFMC at enterprise scale is $1M+/yr you don't have to pay.
Enterprise B2C marketing rebuilt on direct billing — email + SMS + push + journey orchestration on AWS SES + Twilio + custom UI. ~$48K build, $18K/mo managed.
- Replaces
- Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- List
- $200K–$2M+/yr
- Bundle
- $48K + $18K/mo
Sales Cloud at 100 seats is $400K/yr you don't have to pay.
Custom CRM on Postgres direct. Pipeline, accounts, contacts, activities, dashboards. Tuned to your actual sales process — no generic Sales Cloud config debt.
- Replaces
- Salesforce Sales Cloud
- List
- $165–$500/seat/mo
- Bundle
- $58K + $6K/mo
Outreach is sequences + dialer on top of Twilio.
Sales engagement (sequences, dialer, email open tracking) on Twilio + AWS direct. ~$22K build covers the standard sequencer + analytics + CRM sync.
- Replaces
- Outreach / Salesloft
- List
- $130–$250+/seat/mo
- Build
- $22K fixed
Gong is Whisper + Claude on a video archive.
Conversation intelligence rebuilt on Whisper (transcription) + Claude (summary, scoring, coaching) direct. Indexes Zoom / Google Meet / phone — no per-seat upcharge.
- Replaces
- Gong / Chorus
- List
- $240–$250/seat/mo
- Build
- $24K fixed
Apollo bundles three things. Each is commodity.
B2B contact data + sequencer + dialer rebuilt as three discrete modules on direct billing. Use only the modules you need; replace per-seat with per-API-call.
- Replaces
- Apollo / ZoomInfo
- List
- $49–$119/seat/mo
- Build
- $14K fixed
Intercom is a chat widget, an inbox, and an OpenAI wrapper.
Chat + inbox + AI deflection on direct billing. Same workflow shape, no per-resolution tax — Anthropic / OpenAI direct for the agent layer.
- Replaces
- Intercom Essential→Expert
- List
- $29–$139/seat/mo
- Managed
- $2.4K/mo
Zendesk is a ticket engine, a KB, and an AI add-on.
Ticket queue + KB + AI deflection rebuilt on Postgres + Claude direct. Migrate from Zendesk Suite without losing workflow logic — ~5K Claude resolutions/mo for ~$0 vs. Resolve's per-ticket fee.
- Replaces
- Zendesk Suite
- List
- $55–$169/seat/mo
- Managed
- $2.4K/mo + tokens
Datadog APM = Tempo. Logs = Loki. Metrics = Prometheus.
Self-host the LGTM stack (Loki + Grafana + Tempo + Mimir) on your AWS. Same dashboards, same alerts, no per-host or per-GB upcharge.
- Replaces
- Datadog Pro / Enterprise
- List
- $3K–$30K+/mo
- Deploy
- $22K fixed
Sentry is open source. sentry.io charges to host it.
Self-host the OSS Sentry on your AWS / GCP. Same SDK, same dashboards, same Slack/PagerDuty integrations — no per-event ceiling.
- Replaces
- sentry.io hosted
- List
- $1K–$15K+/mo
- Deploy
- $14K fixed
Mixpanel meters events. Amplitude meters users. ClickHouse charges per byte.
Self-hosted PostHog OR custom-built ClickHouse-based analytics on your infra. Cohorts, funnels, retention — without the per-event or per-MTU pricing meter.
- Replaces
- Mixpanel · Amplitude
- List
- $1K–$15K+/mo
- Deploy
- $14K fixed
Segment is a webhook router with transformations and a queue.
Self-host RudderStack OR build a custom event router. Same source/destination architecture, same transformations, no per-MTU billing.
- Replaces
- Twilio Segment
- List
- $1.2K–$15K+/mo
- Deploy
- $14K fixed
Algolia is Meilisearch with per-record pricing.
Self-host Meilisearch OR OpenSearch on your AWS. Same instant-search UX, same typo-tolerance, no per-record-stored ceiling.
- Replaces
- Algolia Build / Premium
- List
- $500–$5K+/mo
- Build
- $14K + $1.2K/mo
Cloudinary is S3 + CloudFront with per-asset pricing.
Direct AWS S3 + CloudFront with custom transformation pipeline (resize, format conversion, compression). Pay for storage and bandwidth, not per-asset stored.
- Replaces
- Cloudinary Plus / Advanced
- List
- $89–$3K+/mo
- Build
- $14K + $1.8K/mo
Stop paying Jasper. Pay Anthropic and OpenAI direct.
Custom AI writing UI on Anthropic + OpenAI direct. Templates, brand voice, document workflows — same Jasper feel, no per-seat tax.
- Replaces
- Jasper Creator / Pro
- List
- $39–$69/seat/mo
- Build
- $14K fixed
Harvey is GPT-4 with a legal CSS theme.
Custom legal-AI workflows on Anthropic / OpenAI direct. Document review, matter-aware retrieval, billable-time attribution. Reference: $686K Y1 reclaim on a 50-attorney firm.
- Replaces
- Harvey AI · Casetext
- List
- $1.2K–$2K+/seat/mo
- Managed
- $3.6K/mo + tokens
Workday at 1,500 employees is $720K/yr you don't have to pay.
Custom HRIS on Postgres + direct payroll integration (Gusto, Paychex, etc.). Modular — start with HRIS, add performance/ATS/engagement as you go.
- Replaces
- Workday HCM
- List
- $30–$100/emp/mo
- Bundle
- $68K + $14K/mo
NetSuite at 100 users is $300K/yr you don't have to pay.
Custom ERP on Postgres + direct accounting integration (QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite-import). Inventory, AP/AR, GL, financial reporting — at infrastructure cost.
- Replaces
- NetSuite ERP
- List
- $999–$6K/mo + per-user
- Bundle
- $68K + $12K/mo
Notion at 500 seats is $150K/yr. Outline on a VPS is $1,200.
Self-host Outline OR Affine on your VPS. Same wiki UX, same database+page model, no per-seat billing. Migrate from Notion in a single weekend.
- Replaces
- Notion Business / Enterprise
- List
- $25–$30/seat/mo
- Deploy
- $18K fixed
Shopify Plus takes 0.25–0.40% of every dollar you sell.
Custom commerce on Stripe + Next.js + Postgres direct. Catalog, cart, checkout, customer accounts, order management — own your stack, escape the GMV tax.
- Replaces
- Shopify Plus
- List
- $28K/yr + 0.25–0.40% GMV
- Bundle
- $68K + $24K/mo
Yotpo bundles four wrappers, all on top of Postgres.
Reviews + loyalty + subscriptions + referrals on direct Postgres + Twilio (SMS) + SES (email). Modular — pick the modules you actually use.
- Replaces
- Yotpo Reviews / Loyalty / Subs
- List
- $278–$1,200+/mo
- Managed
- $1.2K/mo
Where Upstream engagements concentrate.
B2B SaaS · E-commerce / D2C · Legal · Financial Services · Healthcare
→ ALL 8 SECTORSPattern-match to a shipped engagement.
- · CS-01 — wound-care AI mobile (Healthcare)
- · CS-03 — ed-tech multi-tenant analytics
- · CS-04 — HubSpot → Dynamics 365 CRM migration
Pick the tool. Or pick the combo. Or talk to us first.
A 30-min call: walk through your stack, get pointed at the right tile, get a fixed-price SOW within 24 hours. No fee, no obligation.
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