| Alinor | Existing buyer + Alinor | Starting from €3,000 a month | You want repeat sourcing work run for you |
| Hire | Fabrication / direct-materials commodity manager | Salary + on-costs, 3–6 months to fill | You need permanent sourcing capacity |
| Consultant | Metal sourcing specialist, project-based | Day rate × project | You need one-off expertise or a market reset |
| Network | Xometry, Techpilot or similar, plus your own process for everything after the quote | Platform fee or markup on parts | Supplier access is the main issue |
| Software | 3–4 tools stitched together: sourcing events (Keelvar, Archlet, DeepStream), spend analytics (Sievo, SpendHQ, Suplari), supplier discovery (Scoutbee, Veridion, Tealbook), plus your operators | 3–4 licences + buyer time + integration | Your team has metal expertise, time, and tolerance for switching tools |
| Build | Internal workflow: Claude / OpenAI APIs, n8n, Retool, Supabase | Build + hosting + maintenance + monitoring + security review | You want full ownership and have engineers to spare |
| Manual | Existing buyer, email, spreadsheet | Buyer salary and time | Event is occasional and capacity exists |