Build or buy your moderation: how to decide
Building in-house makes sense for a few organisations. For most, buying is faster and safer. This page helps you place yourself on six criteria, then check your case with us in a 60-minute call.
The decision table
Read each line and note which column describes you best. Three or more lines on the right usually settle the question.
| Criterion | Building fits if… | Buying fits if… |
|---|---|---|
| Role of moderation | Moderation is part of the product you sell | Moderation protects your product but is not the product |
| Team | You can staff engineers, data scientists and moderators for years | Your engineers are needed on your core product |
| Deadline | You can wait months before the first useful decision | Comments, reports or a DSA question need an answer now |
| Doubtful cases | You have people to review reports and appeals every day | You want a team that handles them for you |
| AI models | You want to train, evaluate and replace models yourself | You want new models plugged in without work on your side |
| Compliance | You have legal and engineering capacity to follow the DSA | You want written reasons, history and appeals built in |
When building makes sense
- Moderation is a differentiating feature of what you sell, not a support function.
- Your content or rules are so specific that no existing service can be adapted to them.
- You already run an ML team and a moderation team, and can fund both over several years.
When buying makes sense
- You host comments on a website or social accounts and want them moderated well, quickly.
- You do not want to recruit moderators or build a review interface.
- You need the DSA basics (written reasons, reports, appeals, history) without a project.
- You want to compare before committing: a free test on your real comments shows every decision.
A middle path: build on top of a service
If you have your own platform and want to keep control of the interface, you can call our moderation API from your system and still rely on our AI and our team for doubtful cases. You build what makes you different and buy the rest.
What buying OpenModeration includes
Our own moderation AI
Built in-house, trained on millions of messages over seven years, cross-checked by other AI models on delicate cases.
Our team on doubtful cases
Doubtful cases, user reports and contested decisions are handled by our moderators. You see every decision and can override it.
Setup with you
We turn your rules into instructions and test them on your real comments before switching anything on.
DSA records and EU hosting
A written reason for every decision, traceable history, exportable figures. Hosted in the EU, GDPR-compliant.
Need the numbers behind the decision?
Our blog article breaks down, line by line, what an in-house moderation system costs over three years: engineering, maintenance, AI models, infrastructure and compliance.
Read the cost breakdown of building moderation →Questions before deciding
Is it cheaper to build moderation in-house?
Rarely. The first version is the visible part; maintenance, model changes, human review and compliance keep costing every year. The detailed breakdown is in our blog article on moderation infrastructure costs.
Can we start with a service and build later?
Yes. Nothing locks you in: your rules are written in plain language and your decision history can be exported.
Do we keep control if we buy?
Yes. You see every decision and its written reason in real time, and you can step in or override whenever you want.
How do we check that buying fits our case?
Book a call. We look at your volumes, platforms and rules together, then you can run a free sandbox test on your real comments.
Check your case in 60 minutes.
Book a call: we go through the decision table with your volumes and your rules, and tell you honestly if building makes more sense.
No credit card required · DSA-compliant · GDPR-compliant
Questions? contact@openmoderation.com