## How Netlify Powers “Ask Netlify” with Kapa.ai: A Build vs Buy Success Story

_Check out "Ask Netlify" on the_ [_official Netlify docs_](https://docs.netlify.com/resources/troubleshooting/ask-netlify/) _and within their app_

Netlify powers modern web development for millions of users worldwide. As its community grew, CTO **Dana Lawson** noticed a shift:

- **Experienced developers** were becoming power users of AI tools.
- **Newcomers**, technically-adjacent users learning to code for the first time, were also arriving in large numbers.

Both groups shared a common problem: getting pulled out of flow when searching for answers.

“Nobody's going to go into a docs page anymore,” Lawson explains. “They're going to ChatGPT and asking for answers. But ChatGPT doesn't have the latest. **With Kapa, we're trained on our stuff. We get to control it. We have the boundaries, we have the guardrails.**”

## **The Build vs Buy Decision**

Like many CTOs, Lawson faced the classic dilemma: **build an AI assistant in-house or partner with a specialized provider.**

At first glance, it sounds simple: just hook an LLM up to your docs. But the reality is far more complex:

- How do you **keep it up to date** as docs evolve daily?
- Who ensures it **doesn’t hallucinate** or recommend competitors?
- How do you ensure **accuracy doesn't lag behind the pace** of AI progress?
- How do you handle **spam prevention, abuse protection, and scaling** to millions of requests?
- What about the **analytics** to learn from user interactions and improve the product?

Lawson’s perspective was clear:

> “I don’t want to own a model. I just want to tell a model what to do. I don’t want to scale or worry about GPUs. We already have enough to do on our own roadmap.”

As she put it bluntly:

> “Everybody thinks they can do it cheaper, faster, smarter. They get 70% there, and then it never makes its way into production.”

## **The Solution: Kapa.ai on Netlify Docs**

Instead of building in-house, Netlify deployed **Kapa.ai** to power **Ask Netlify** directly within their documentation using the [Kapa SDK](https://docs.kapa.ai/dev/sdk/).

The experience has been seamless, or as Lawson describes it, **“set it and forget it.”**

### **Key Results**

- **200,000 developer questions** answered annually
- **1 week time-to-production** with the kapa platform
- **Zero maintenance overhead** for the Netlify team
- **Real-time insights** into user pain points and documentation gaps

## **Beyond Cost: Strategic Value**

While many internal projects stall at 70%, Netlify’s partnership with Kapa delivered immediate and ongoing value.

The biggest win: **intelligence from user interactions.**

“When I go look at our Kapa.ai summary – what are they hitting? What's the volume? Where are they at? It's a good product indicator,” Lawson notes.

She points out a striking trend:

- In the past, most questions were about **specific errors** (“Why did this fail?”).
- Now, many are about **foundational concepts** (“What is DNS?”).

This shift reflects the changing user base and helps Netlify improve both documentation and product design.

## **Looking Forward**

Netlify plans to expand Kapa’s reach further, embedding contextual help directly into the product. The goal: reduce friction for both seasoned developers and beginners learning to code.

For Lawson, the build vs buy choice remains clear: " **Time to market is critical right now.** Why waste time building from scratch and likely only make it 70% of the way to production? Instead, find somebody trusted you can work with."

For Netlify, that trusted partner is **Kapa.ai** - handling the complex infrastructure of AI-powered documentation while Netlify focuses on what it does best: empowering developers to build and deploy modern web experiences.

> ###### The value is irrefutable. Y’all have been great to work with – super easy, set it and forget it. As we expand what we're doing, we're just going to find more integration points to bring the information to users better. - Dana Lawson, CTO, Netlify

###### Name

Netlify

###### Website

[Netlify](https://docs.netlify.com/)

###### Location

California, USA

###### Industry

Cloud Computing

###### Deployment Method

###### Docs Widget