# Should I build EDI in-house or use a third-party provider? For most small businesses, use a third-party provider. We see this question regularly and the math almost never favors building in-house at your scale. Building EDI requires deep expertise in X12 standards, AS2/SFTP protocols, document mapping, ERP integration, and every trading partner's unique compliance specs. That's before ongoing maintenance — retailers update their requirements frequently, and every missed update risks chargebacks. What looks like a $20K project often exceeds $100K–$250K over a couple of years when you factor in maintenance, security, and compliance monitoring. Ironically, custom builds also create more lock-in. Once your mappings and partner configs are hardcoded, switching ERPs or adding partners gets expensive. With a managed platform like Elevate, we handle mapping, testing, certification, compliance updates, and monitoring: setup takes days, not months. No long-term contracts, transparent pricing, and you scale without re-engineering anything. We wrote about the pros and cons of build vs buy EDI at https://ihateedi.com/building-edi-in-house/ if you want the details. ##### Post Metadata - Posted at: 4 months ago - Author title: Always By Your Side, Solving EDI Challenges - Net upvotes: 1 ## Related Product [Elevate](https://www.g2.com/products/edi-support-llc-elevate/reviews) ## Related Category [Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)](https://www.g2.com/categories/electronic-data-interchange-edi) ## Related discussions - [How well does Trello scale into a larger team?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1-how-well-does-trello-scale-into-a-larger-team) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 6 - [Can we please add a new section](https://www.g2.com/discussions/2-can-we-please-add-a-new-section) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 0 - [Quantifiable benefits from implementing your CRM](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quantifiable-benefits-from-implementing-your-crm) - Posted at: about 13 years ago - Comments: 4