Perspective · How we build Doris
Why we refused to build native integrations
…and why you should be glad we did.
Every software product in our niche eventually faces the same question: does it connect to my accounts package, my mailing list, my calendar, my CRM? We spent a long time looking at that list of logos, and then we decided to do something different.
The traditional, expected answer is a list of native integrations: a QuickBooks button here, a Mailchimp checkbox there, a Stripe portal somewhere else. Customers look for these logos as reassurance that the software is modern and capable. At Doris, we looked at that list, and we refused to build them.
Instead of writing a dozen custom native integrations, we built a single, secure Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
This decision was not made to save us development time (building a secure, tenant-isolated OAuth authorisation server on Cloudflare Workers is genuinely hard). It was made to protect our customers from what we call the Integration Trap.
Here is why native integrations are a permanent liability for software providers, and why a "bring your own AI" architecture is better, cheaper, and safer for your business.
The Integration Trap: the hidden cost on your invoice
When a provider builds a native integration, they aren't writing code once. They are opening a permanent pipe to another platform, and pipes need babysitting.
API deprecations
Third-party APIs change constantly. Platforms deprecate endpoints, modify fields, and update security protocols on their own schedules. When they do, the pipe breaks.
The support burden
When an integration fails, the customer doesn't call QuickBooks or Mailchimp. They call the booking-system support team, because the invoices stopped syncing, and the developers must drop everything to rewrite the connector.
Licensing and rate limits
Large platforms cap how often a connector may call them, and some accounting suites require expensive partner tiers once enough organisations connect. Those costs land on the provider, and then on you.
Quietly added to a typical monthly bill
You pay for the whole development treadmill, even if you only ever use one integration on the list.
Custom integrations vs. a universal standard
Think of traditional integrations as bespoke bridges between two specific towns. Five towns means building and maintaining ten bridges, and if a town expands, the bridge has to be rebuilt. MCP is different. It is an agreed socket.
NATIVE INTEGRATIONS
5 tools · 10 bridges to build & maintain
ONE MCP SOCKET
5 tools · 1 shared standard, AI in the middle
Doris builds one clean connector to its own data and handles its own security. QuickBooks builds theirs. Stripe builds theirs. Instead of brittle field-mapping scripts, the AI assistant sits in the middle, reads the tool definitions from every socket, and handles the translation in natural language.
If QuickBooks changes its schema tomorrow, their MCP server updates and the AI adapts. Doris's code is untouched. Because we aren't babysitting a dozen custom pipes, our maintenance cost stays near zero, and because our costs stay low, your subscription stays low.
The "bring your own AI" revolution
This architecture shifts ownership of the integration to where it belongs: with you. Instead of paying a marked-up subscription for pre-built, rigid connectors, you bring your own AI assistant, the £20-a-month Claude or ChatGPT subscription you may already have. Three benefits follow.
Infinite flexibility
A native QuickBooks integration is only ever a QuickBooks integration. With MCP, point the assistant at a different socket: Xero, FreeAgent, even a local spreadsheet the vendor has never heard of.
No data markups
Because you pay your AI provider directly, Doris charges no premium to use the integration. Enterprise-grade automation at the cost of a standard consumer AI subscription.
Isolation by design
The connection is bounded by your own identity. The assistant sees only what you are authorised to see, and every query is scoped to your organisation at the data layer. Reaching another organisation's data is not a temptation it resists; it is a path that does not exist.
Doing one job brilliantly
Doris is a room-booking tool. Our job is to keep the diary honest, track availability, resolve schedule conflicts, and calculate what is owed. We want to do that one job brilliantly.
We do not want to be an accounting suite, an email client, or an IoT controller. Those tools are already built by best-of-breed companies. By exposing our data through a secure MCP server that only ever prepares and never commits, we get out of the way, we give your back-office assistant the data it needs, without locking you into a brittle, expensive web of custom pipes.
It is a simpler way to build software, a cheaper way to run a business, and the honest way to scale.
Booking software that gets out of your way
One secure MCP server, no marked-up connectors, and a subscription that stays low. Up to 28 days free, no card required.
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