Build vs. Buy TCO Calculator
See the 18-month cost of building a developer portal yourself vs the Apigee integrated portal vs Launchpad.
Compare three real paths: DIY custom build, Apigee integrated portal, and Centauri Launchpad
Numbers anchored to a standard engineering cost model and Launchpad list pricing
Adjust for your team size, API count, FedRAMP requirements, and current portal
Your numbers
1 to 300
1 to 100 engineers
Fully loaded: salary + benefits + overhead. Default $220,000.
FedRAMP required
Affects which paths are viable and DIY hardening cost.
Build it yourself
6 months to build
Launchpad
48 hours to deploy
Build it yourself
$319,000
18-month total
About 2 engineers for 6 months to a v1, then permanent maintenance.
Auth, RBAC, spec rendering, CMS, theming, all yours forever.
Apigee integrated portal
$82,500
18-month total
Free to start, but customization is cosmetic (SCSS only, no CMS or forums).
No content-management API, so content is recreated and maintained by hand.
Centauri Launchpad
Starter tier$8,640
18-month total
Savings vs. DIY
$310,360
Live on your Apigee X org in 48 hours.
AI page builder, SSO/RBAC, multi-org included. Your team ships APIs, not portal CSS.
Estimates from a standard build model and Launchpad list pricing. Your numbers will vary.
How the estimate is built
DIY custom portal
Modeled as roughly 2 engineers at 50% allocation for 6 months to reach a v1, scaled sub-linearly with API count. Ongoing maintenance is estimated at 30% of one engineer's loaded annual cost per year. FedRAMP hardening adds a one-time audit and compliance cost that your team owns.
Apigee integrated portal
No licensing cost, but the hidden cost is manual content maintenance: there is no content-management API, so every page is recreated by hand. The model estimates 25% of one engineer's time over 18 months for that work. If you are migrating from an existing portal, developer accounts and passwords do not carry over without SSO, which adds a one-time migration cost. When FedRAMP is required, the integrated portal is not in scope and the path is blocked.
Centauri Launchpad
Priced at list rates. The model picks the lowest tier that covers your API count and team size (Starter at $480/mo, Growth at $780/mo, Scale at $1,860/mo, Enterprise at $3,000/mo). No setup fee. Live on your Apigee X org in 48 hours.
What varies in practice
Every engineering team is different. Build timelines can stretch, maintenance load can grow, and migration complexity depends on your existing data. These estimates are a starting point for an honest internal conversation, not a contract. Download the analysis and adjust the numbers for your context.
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