Buy vs build: the honest maths on a Linnworks MCP server

Building one of these is a genuinely fun project. That is exactly why the maths deserves a cold look before you start.

What building really involves

Linnworks Application Token auth with session caching and refresh. A paginated, rate-limit-aware API client. MCP tool definitions over HTTP and SSE with bearer auth. Deployment, and then the long tail: Linnworks API quirks you discover one production incident at a time. Two to three weeks for a developer who knows Cloudflare Workers; more if they are learning as they go.

The £249 alternative

The source we sell is the connector we run against our own warehouse — full TypeScript, no obfuscation, deploy-to-your-own-Cloudflare, twelve months of updates. At typical UK dev rates the build costs £8k–£15k in time; the gap is not subtle.

When building is still right

You need write operations with your own safety model, deep custom tools, or the learning itself is the point. Fair — and starting from working source still beats starting from the API docs, which is why the licence allows unlimited modification and client deployments.

The decision in one line

Build if the server is your product. Buy if the server is your plumbing.

Questions, or want a tool we don't have yet? Email hello@grafto.co.uk — a real person replies.