Buy the outcome, not the backlog.
An in-house automation framework looks cheaper on a slide. Here's what it actually costs once you account for the people, the infra and the maintenance that never ends.
In-house framework vs. TestCopilot.
The same job, lined up on the things that actually decide total cost of ownership.
| Dimension | Build it in-house | ✦ TestCopilot |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first automated run | ✕2–4 months (framework + CI + devices) | ✓~5 days, onboarding included |
| Headcount to stand it up | ✕2–3 senior SDETs | ✓0 — agents + your existing team |
| Test authoring | ✕Hand-coded, per flow | ✓Generated from English, specs, designs |
| Selector maintenance | ✕Ongoing, manual, per release | ✓Self-healing, ~94% automatic |
| Parallel infra & device cloud | ✕You build & pay for it | ✓Managed, or your VPC via local agent |
| Failure triage | ✕Manual, per run | ✓AI root-cause, flakes separated |
| On-prem / data residency | ✕Possible, more build effort | ✓Local agent in your AWS VPC |
| Year-1 cost (illustrative) | ✕$450K–$700K loaded eng + infra | ✓A fraction, usage-based |
Illustrative figures — we build a tailored estimate for your team size and stack on a discovery call.
What the build estimate leaves out.
The framework is never “done”
A DIY harness needs constant care — new OS versions, flaky-test fixes, CI upgrades, device-fleet upkeep. That cost never shows up in the original estimate.
Key-person risk
In-house frameworks live in the heads of one or two SDETs. When they leave, coverage stalls and the backlog grows. A platform doesn't resign.
Opportunity cost
Every sprint your best engineers spend on test infrastructure is a sprint they're not spending on product. Buying buys their time back.
See the number for your team.
Plug in your team size and release cadence and the ROI calculator models the hours and budget you reclaim in year one.
Buy the outcome, not the backlog.
See a tailored build-vs-buy model for your team — and watch the agents run against your own app.