Integration Partner vs. In-House Integrations: What to Know Before Building Internally

May 18, 2025May 29, 2025 by Joynd Staff

When it comes to HR tech, integration isn’t optional anymore — it’s table stakes. Vendors offering applicant tracking systems, background checks, HRIS platforms, and payroll tools are expected to seamlessly connect with their customers’ existing systems. And if they don’t? Sales cycles drag, customer onboarding slows down, and churn risk goes up.

That’s where the integration conversation begins — and why it’s so important to make the right decision about how your business approaches integrations: Should you build your own, or work with an integration partner?

This article explores the pros and cons of building integrations in house versus partnering with a solutions provider like Joynd. We’ll outline what to consider when making this strategic decision and highlight the key benefits of treating integrations as a product, not a one-off project.

The Case for Building In-House (And Why Teams Consider It)

Building your own integrations can be tempting. On the surface, it feels like you’re saving money, keeping everything within your team’s control, and building exactly what you need. You might have engineering resources on staff and figure that you can manage it just like any other dev project.

For some HR tech vendors with simple, limited integration needs, that may be workable. But the reality is that integrations aren’t a one-time lift — they’re living products that require continuous attention, support, and updates.

Some common reasons teams choose to build in-house:

They have internal technical resources available
They believe it will save costs
They want full control over the integration logic and experience

But here’s what’s often underestimated:

The ongoing maintenance burden
Versioning and API changes from partners
Customer support overhead when issues arise
The opportunity cost of not focusing on your core product

The Hidden Costs of Internal Builds

Let’s say your team decides to build a custom integration with Workday, Greenhouse Onboarding or Greenhouse Recruiting. Development might take 4–8 weeks (or more), not including time for QA, partner coordination, and documentation. Then comes deployment — and after that, the real work begins:

API monitoring: HR systems frequently update endpoints, change authentication methods, or deprecate fields.
Error handling and support: Who owns troubleshooting when something goes wrong with data mapping or scheduling?
Scalability: What happens when a second client wants the same integration, but configured differently?
Security compliance: Handling HR data means HIPAA, SOC 2, GDPR, and more.

Multiply that by every partner you want to support, then factor in internal bandwidth, the potential for technical debt, and a support team now fielding integration tickets.

It’s not just a build — it’s an ongoing product you have to support.

The Case for an Integration Partner

An integration partner like Joynd offers an alternative approach: Instead of investing months building custom connections, vendors can leverage pre-built, fully managed integrations to scale quickly and reliably.

What Joynd provides:

Vendor-tested, reusable connections to major HR systems
Managed deployment for each end customer
Ongoing monitoring, support, and updates
Custom mapping and configuration without custom code

That means no internal engineering lift, no scrambling when a partner changes their API, and no cobbled-together support paths. Joynd handles the entire integration lifecycle.

By positioning integrations as a product — not a project — we help vendors move faster, onboard more customers, and reduce churn risk.

Strategic Benefits of Partnering with Joynd

Faster Time-to-Market: Deploy integrations in days or weeks, not quarters. Your sales team wins more deals.

Reduced Engineering Load: Keep your product team focused on building features that matter.

Scalable for Growth: Whether it’s 10 customers or 10,000, Joynd handles the heavy lifting.

Lower Risk: With compliance handled and partner changes monitored, you avoid integration downtime.

Expansive Partner Network: With hundreds of vendors in our Partner Network, you gain access to other industry-leading HR tech vendor system integrations.

When to Choose a Partner Over Building In-House

If any of the following are true, it’s time to consider a partner:

You need integrations with multiple HR systems
You want to reduce engineering overhead
You’re losing deals because of missing integrations
You’re experiencing delays in onboarding customers
Your support team is spending too much time on integration issues

Partnering with Joynd helps future-proof your growth.

Ready to Scale Your Integrations?

Don’t let internal builds slow your sales and onboarding process.

Explore our integration network or contact our team to talk to a human about how Joynd can help you deploy and manage HR integrations at scale.

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