Stock market signals services vs building your own: which approach wins in practice?

Can't decide whether to subscribe to a stock market signals service or just build my own thing with free data. Both have trade offs and I keep going back and forth.

Building your own: you understand every input, customize to your risk tolerance, it's free. Downside is it takes real time to build test and maintain, plus you need enough stats and econ knowledge to not fool yourself.

Subscribing: someone already did the R&D. Long track record (12+ years live) means higher probability the model works vs something you threw together over a few weekends. Cost is minimal relative to capital managed. Downside is you don't control methodology and you're trusting someone else.

I've been leaning hybrid. Track my own simple indicators (yield curve, ISM, VIX structure) for general awareness, then cross reference with marketmodel's daily signal which uses a much bigger 30+ input model. When mine and theirs agree = high conviction. When they disagree = dig deeper.

For anyone managing six figures+, subscription cost is a rounding error. Smaller accounts, DIY might make more sense financially even if suboptimal.