Building an Affordable LP Solver API for $5/month

The article discusses the high cost and licensing challenges of commercial LP/MIP solvers like Gurobi and CPLEX, leading the author to build their own affordable API solution using the open-source HiGHS solver.

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The article discusses the high cost and licensing challenges of commercial linear programming (LP) and mixed-integer programming (MIP) solvers, which are designed for large enterprises and not accessible to most developers. The author found that Gurobi, the industry-leading solver, costs $10,000 to $50,000 per year, with a licensing model that is incompatible with modern cloud-based infrastructure. Frustrated by the lack of transparent pricing and self-service options, the author decided to build their own API solution using the open-source HiGHS solver, which is proven in production and offers a more affordable and accessible alternative at just $5 per month. While commercial solvers like Gurobi and CPLEX excel at solving large-scale industrial problems with millions of variables, the author argues that for most developers' needs, the performance gap between these expensive tools and open-source options is negligible, measured in microseconds rather than hours.