[xps]

> you’d already have to hire pretty much all the same staff

I don't know what most Algolia customers are like, but we have been using them for a long time and we are a team of... 2 (only 1 being a technical person).

So hiring a whole team to work on search is certainly not an option for everyone. By paying $29 / month and spending a couple of hours on integration, you get a working search that most small shops will be happy with. That sounds like a valuable proposition to me.