Why would I pay someone hundreds of dollars to build something that I don’t know how to maintain, when Zapier can do the same thing for free or $20/mo?
Give me a break - there’s no developer that anyone could reasonably trust to write even the simplest program and maintain and modify it throughout they year for less than $20/mo.
Maybe I spend several hours finding someone online who will do the job for $200, then I spend an hour communicating and clarifying my request, then another hour testing the result. 1 months later I decide I need the automated email to have a different subject line, or include an attachment that wasn’t there before, so I find the developers’ email address and pay him another $100 to make the change - or maybe I don’t because it’s too much trouble.
In the alternate world (in which I live), I simply fire up my browser and create a task in about 15-20 minutes. When I need or want a change, I change it myself.
Less time, less hassle, less risk, and in all likelihood less cost.
Your opportunity cost for the time spent maintaining, or managing people to maintain it is much higher than $20, if your business has more important problems you could spend time fixing. It’s very obvious that this is true if you’re a yc-type startup, which could be worth $0 or $1B depending on how you spend a few years.
Your return on investment at the $20.00 per month level is a year or less. So it depends on how long you need it for.