Defining different use cases
We calculate using three common use cases we see from our customers:
A simple editor
A traditional WYSIWYG single-user rich text editor with a basic command bar at the top, various standard elements like text, lists, tables, and images for basic content creation. No version history, AI, or multi-user features—just a JavaScript package to install into your frontend source code.
A medium editor
An advanced content editor with a modern editing UI, including slash command menus, drag-and-drop content blocks, real-time collaboration, commenting, and webhooks and APIs for further processing of editor content outside the editor.
A complex editor
A sophisticated editor interface similar to Google Docs or Notion, with real-time collaboration, offline support, role-based commenting, granular track changes, redlining, import and export of file formats like MS Word or Markdown, AI operations on editor content, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities across all editor documents in the database.
Workload
Over the past few years, we’ve co-developed different editors for a wide range of customers and tracked our work time internally. We’ve used these statistics as the basis for workload calculation. This includes not just engineering time but also project management, and team communication.
People Costs
Based on our experience, we assume different levels of seniority for the engineers working on your editor for the three cases (simple, medium, complex). We base our calculations on the average salary of full-time US-based frontend, backend, and DevOps engineers, as reported by Glassdoor. For more complex editors, we assume you’ll require more experienced engineers rather than junior employees.You can manually adjust the hourly rate in the calculator for a more accurate cost estimate.
Average team size
As your editor becomes more complex, you’ll need a larger team with specialized roles. While a simple WYSIWYG editor can be built by one frontend developer, more complex projects will require specialized personnel for frontend, backend, DevOps tasks, and ongoing maintenance. We calculate based on a minimum team size, though larger IT departments may increase your costs further..
Maintenance
When your editor grows in complexity and becomes the core of your business, you’ll need to maintain and enhance it to meet user demands and stay ahead of the competition. Our calculations account for ongoing dedicated maintenance costs starting from the medium editor case.
Maintenance becomes a significant cost factor for complex editors, and you’ll need dedicated people for this.
The raw calculator data
|
Simple |
Medium |
Complex |
| Workload |
24 days |
63 days |
560 days |
| People costs |
$36 / hour |
$53 / hour |
$63 / hour |
| Team size Ø |
1 |
3 |
8 |
| Maintenance / month |
– |
– |
220 hours |
| Initial development |
$6,912 |
$26,712 |
$282,240 |
| Maintenance / year |
– |
– |
$166,320 |
Some final thoughts on what to consider when evaluating Build vs. Buy
What happens when very specific editor knowledge leaves your organization?
Developing sophisticated editing infrastructure requires deep knowledge across multiple, highly specialized frontend, backend, and sysadmin technologies, along with best practices that take years to develop and scale. If these engineers or product managers leave your organization, you face the risk of slowing or stopping development and maintenance for months while you hire and onboard new, rare, and experienced experts.
Don’t underestimate the impact of Time to market
Delays in launching your editor can significantly affect your competitive edge, especially if building internally extends your development timeline.
Take care of your opportunity costs
Building the editor infrastructure yourself comes with significant opportunity costs. Your team will spend time developing both the frontend and backend of the editor, and maintaining and scaling the infrastructure. This diverts attention from other important areas like improving the user experience, adding new features, or accelerating time-to-market.
By choosing Tiptap, your team can focus on building unique features that differentiate your product while reducing overall development effort. This leads to faster deployment, fewer bottlenecks, and a quicker return on investment.
Build vs. Buy is a strategic business decision
If your editor is core to your business, key stakeholders from Engineering, Product, and Business should be involved in making a holistic decision.
