SaaS Application Development

SaaS stands for software as a service. It's a method for delivering technology solutions, including software and applications, over the web. Typically, you purchase SaaS via a subscription model.

Software as a service, or SaaS, is a way of delivering applications over the internet as a service rather than via a standalone application. Instead of installing and maintaining the software and hardware necessary to host your data and applications, you simply access the application from a web browser.

SaaS applications are often referred to as web-based software, on-demand software or hosted applications. They’re typically run on a provider’s server rather than via in-house infrastructure, freeing the business from expensive hardware purchases and maintenance and improving security, availability and scalability.

SaaS companies are organizations that provide cloud-based applications and software to customers as a service. SaaS companies may develop, maintain, host and provide the product themselves, or it may be an organization that outsources the development of the product and provides the hosting and support to customers.

The biggest benefit of SaaS is cost-savings, as SaaS can provide significant savings for a number of reasons.

For starters, it eliminates the initial cost of purchasing and installing hardware. The equipment necessary to support dedicated applications and data hosting isn’t a factor for a SaaS solution. Moreover, reduced equipment overhead means less personnel required to update and maintain it.

Additionally, if you’re utilizing a cloud-based solution from a SaaS vendor, the solutions are often licensed based on subscriptions. This model eliminates the financial burden of purchasing and maintaining complicated software licenses, which oftentimes aren’t even used at full capacity. With SaaS, you purchase only the "seats" you need for each user.

Lastly, since SaaS applications are web-based, there’s no need for proprietary or specialized equipment. Anyone with a web browser and an internet connection can access the software, further increasing equipment savings.

No two companies are the same — even those operating in the same industries. Each business has its own unique needs and processes. To keep up with changing markets, organizations need to adapt to customer demands to stay ahead of the competition. The best way to do this is to have software that matches specific processes.

Choosing software that changes alongside your company is seldom an easy undertaking. Applications are usually designed and developed for entire industries and, as a result, it’s often difficult to tailor them to fit your business’s unique requirements.

This is a clear benefit of SaaS platforms. Because they’re built with web technologies, they’re highly adaptable and flexible. In other words, they’re much easier to customize to meet your business needs rather than your business to meet the needs of someone else’s product.

With a custom-built SaaS platform, you own the entire concept and product, top to bottom. You decide its features and how it’s built.

A SaaS developer is a freelancer or an agency that specializes in developing and maintaining SaaS applications. Typically, developers focus on creating complete solutions using web-based technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Python and Ruby, including relevant frameworks. They’re also fluent in database design and management, software design patterns such as MVC, and other various development methodologies and practices. They should also be fluent in user experience design and research as well as have a solid foundation in design thinking.

SaaS development is a complicated process, and the costs depend on the features required for your business, the scope of your project and the type of developer you choose to build your project.

Feature requirements vary from application to application and from business to business. Applications that require advanced database features and outside connections, for example, may take more development time, increasing overall costs.

The scope of your application also has a significant impact. In some instances, you may simply need a tool to handle one aspect or department of your business. In others, you may want to build a full-scale platform that handles all of your company’s processes across all departments.

Finally, the type of developer you use can impact your costs greatly. You can hire freelancers to build your product, though you risk sacrificing quality for lower rates. Partnering with an agency, on the other hand, can be more expensive but often well worth the costs. Working with an experienced agency ensures you get a full development process, including:

• A thorough discovery process
• UX design and prototyping
• Fully scalable architecture
• A thorough quality assurance process
• Maintenance and support

As you can see, there are no clear-cut or easy answers for how much it costs to build a SaaS application. Every project is unique, as is every business.