Two Main Sources of ML Models: Pre-trained vs Custom — Which One Should You Use?

You want to build an AI-powered feature. Maybe a chatbot, an image classifier, or a recommendation engine. The first decision you'll face is: should I use someone else's model or train my own? This post breaks down both paths, when to pick which, and the real-world tradeoffs nobody tells you about upfront. Why This Matters Before you write a single line of code, this one decision determines three things: how fast you ship, how much you spend, and how well your product works. Pick wrong and you'l