&gt; The way I would view it would be to outsource it until you can afford to hire someone to work on that full time.<p>Exactly. I would outsource whatever the problem is that can be outsourced, in this case search to Algolia until we are far enough along that we can tackle it ourselves.<p>I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s a real equation for it until you get to the point you can no longer afford it, but at that point you probably waited too long (excepting the cases where you&#x27;ve run into stratospheric growth).<p>I think as a team you should be looking ahead at growth estimates and making the judgement call to begin working on bringing it in house. Ideally you want the opportunity to run both side by side for a while.<p>And, honestly, what if you architect it or don&#x27;t grow enough to make the cost a pain point? As long as the service provider is doing a good job, you could use the opportunity to extend your product into various other directions. Why build search if your focus is on something else and your provider is affordable?