Build vs buy
Build your own sub-merchant portal, or license one.
For platforms on Adyen for Platforms deciding whether their own team should build the sub-merchant-facing portal. Building it typically takes six months or more, then it needs maintaining as Adyen evolves. Collimate gives you a white-label portal you can configure in days, so your engineers stay on your core product.
01 / What building involves
What it takes to build this in-house.
A sub-merchant portal is more than screens. It is onboarding and verification flows, transactions, payouts, split configuration and roles, built in close collaboration with Adyen’s technical team, then kept in step with every Adyen API change.
Scope
Sub-merchant onboarding, transactions, payouts and payout schedules, split configuration, reporting, roles and permissions, sub-merchant self-service.
Team6–7 people
Frontend, backend, Adyen integration, QA, BA, PM and design, with fintech experience.
Time to first release
Six months or more, even for a capable team with fintech expertise working closely with Adyen.
Ongoing maintenance
Adyen API changes and new capabilities, bug fixes, sub-merchant support tickets around transactions and payouts, and an ongoing roadmap for standard financial interfaces.
02 / Side by side
Build in-house vs Collimate, criterion by criterion.
| Criterion | Build in-house | Collimate |
|---|---|---|
| Time to launch | 6+ months of engineering | Sandbox in hours, configured in days. Production go-live depends on your setup. |
| Upfront cost | Estimated £300–500k to build | One-off setup fee |
| Ongoing cost | Engineering maintenance plus your own roadmap for the portal | Monthly subscription, tiered by platform size, not transaction volume |
| Adyen API changes | Your team tracks and implements every change | Handled within the Collimate product |
| Onboarding and verification | You design and build the flows | Sub-merchant onboarding included |
| Payouts and splits | You build payout visibility and split logic | Payout visibility, schedules and split configuration included |
| Roles and permissions | You build and maintain them | Role-based permissions on the roadmap |
| White-label and your domain | Fully yours to design | White-label portal in your brand |
| Who owns the code | You do, along with every line you have to maintain | Kindgeek. One codebase serves every platform, configured per tenant, never forked per client |
| Who owns the data | You, plus everything you store in your own stack | You and Adyen. Transactions, balances and KYB stay in your Adyen account; Collimate is a projection of that state, not a parallel ledger |
03 / What stays yours
Getting out-of-box portal does not mean giving up control.
Adyen stays the system of record, owning the financial infrastructure, eligibility, compliance and processing. Collimate provides the interface on top.
You own
- Adyen agreement
- Brand & domain
- Sub-merchant relationships
Adyen owns
- Processing & money movement
- KYB & compliance
- Ledger & balances
Collimate provides
- Portal interface
- Per-tenant configuration
- Adyen API upkeep
If you leave, your data is already in your Adyen account.
04 / The middle path
License the core, build what is specific to you.
Anything that benefits all platforms goes into the product roadmap and is included in the subscription. Work specific to one platform is scoped with you and quoted at a fixed price, so the budget is predictable.
In the subscription
Anything that benefits all platforms
- Onboarding
- Payouts & splits
- Roles (roadmap)
- Adyen API updates
Budgeted separately
Specific to your platform
- CRM and ERP integrations
- Custom flows specific to your platform
- Migration from AFP-managed to balance platforms
Questions
What if we expand into a new region?
You keep a single licence per platform, covering all regions and sub-merchants. If a new market needs an additional balance platform, there is a one-off configuration fee. Expanding into a new geography does not mean paying for another full licence.
How is pricing set?
A one-time setup fee plus a monthly subscription based on platform size, such as the number of active sub-merchants, rather than transaction volume. We can balance setup and subscription differently for platforms still ramping up.
What if we need something Collimate does not do?
If it benefits all platforms, it goes into the roadmap and is included in the subscription. If it is specific to you, such as a CRM or ERP integration or a custom flow, we scope it with you and quote a fixed price.
Who keeps the portal up to date with Adyen?
We do. Adapting to Adyen API changes, fixing bugs and developing the standard financial interfaces is part of the product, so your team does not carry that maintenance.
Next step
Bring every sub-merchant into focus.
We are taking on a small number of design partners: platforms on Adyen for Platforms who want a say in what gets built, direct access to the team building it, and early pricing.