It's definitely more expensive to build.I've built 1 mt bike and a road bike for me and my wife.But you get what you want when you build and dont need to upgrade.Its a blast spec'ing and building.Plus you learn a lot more while building yourself(i'm even in the middle of building the wheelset for mine for the first time).And if you already have a bike you can take your time building the new one(kinda like making payments)