The SaaS industry expects to reach a remarkable $307.3 billion in 2026. Indeed, the SaaS business is growing and has established itself as a leading paradigm for software development.
One of the crucial elements of getting an audience is having a good SaaS App design. However, you'll need a SaaS product development company to help your company save costs on server maintenance and in-house hiring while still focusing on product quality and customer pleasure.
The Takeaway:
How to build a SaaS App: What is SaaS?
SaaS, which stands for “Software as a Service,” refers to cloud-hosted programs that can be accessed via a mobile or online interface.
A cloud computing paradigm in which users pay monthly or yearly membership fees to access the application's capabilities. Salesforce, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Office 365, Netflix, and many more are examples of famous and successful SaaS programs.
SaaS App Varieties
1. CRM
CRM is a SaaS tool for managing customer contacts that help businesses keep track of all client data, automate marketing operations, give insights and analytics, anticipate future sales, and so on.
2. Marketing Software
Marketing software assists firms in successfully executing campaigns, tapping into target audiences, and converting leads into revenues. It entails launching and assessing promotional efforts.
3. Collaboration Software
Slack and Trello are examples of SaaS products that mix project management and collaboration functionality. These are tremendous services through which users can communicate with others and their team, hold meetings, share files, leave notes, etc.
Such platforms can be used for business and entertainment purposes. Miro, Loop Email, Plivo, and Twilio are leaders in this SaaS market segment.
4. Fintech
SaaS applications for invoicing and financial activities are now available as part of cloud computing services. Zintego, for example, provides invoice and receipt templates that you can customize. You can save your designs, information, and assets on the cloud and work on them anytime, anywhere.
5. eCommerce
Most services for launching online stores and other commercial sites are SaaS, which allows you to launch a website and connect many useful functions to it: sales, communication with customers, payments, analytics, marketing, and more.
Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, as well as WordPress CMS, are in the lead here.
6. Apps for Sports
When combined with extended reality technology, sports simulation tools are famous instances of how SaaS development may assist sports aficionados.
With this SaaS application, users may perfect their golf capacities and play real-time games in a virtual world.
7. Apps for Gamification
Gamification is gaining popularity as a means of increasing productivity. It is a mobile app for enhancing productivity for firms wanting to increase employee engagement.
8. Project Management Tools
Most firms no longer spend on licensed project management software packages. Instead, they utilize SaaS tools like Jira and Monday to organize workflows, delegate work, and measure progress.
How to build a SaaS App: SaaS App Development stages
As a result, developing a SaaS solution is a complicated task that necessitates a defined product roadmap with numerous logical phases.
1. Evaluate the Market
At this step, you aim to gather as much data as possible about your potential consumers, rivals, trends, and upcoming technology. When combined with knowledge of the weaknesses of rivals' apps, insights into customer demands will allow you to create a unique SaaS product.
2. Make a Business Plan
When you wish to develop SaaS software, you need to layout a complete business strategy carefully. It is a well-defined set of financial and operational goals that you want to achieve.
Advertisements, subscriptions, and freemium models are the most extensively used in generating revenue.
If you plan to launch a commercial platform, you need to decide in advance on its monetization to implement the appropriate functions in your SaaS product immediately. This is how many cloud projects make money:
1. Freemium
This is a model where you give users free access to the core functionality of your application but, at the same time, encourage them to buy access to additional features.
Usually, for money, people can access analytics, turn off ads and marketing tools, user support services, and so on. This model is used by MailChimp, GeForce NOW, Slack, and others.
2. Subscription
This option implies access to the data only after paying for an hourly, daily, monthly, or yearly subscription. At the same time, such SaaS are not always completely paid; they often have a free option with restrictions that can be deleted by paying for a subscription.
This is how Office 365, Spotify, Netflix, Google Drive, and Google Stadia make money.
3. Advertising on the platform
Selling screen space to display banner ads, videos, and animations is the most popular monetization method through which SaaS products make money. YouTube, Facebook use it, and almost all mobile applications.
4. Pay-as-you-go
This model directly links the cost of a SaaS solution to its use: the more you use, the more you pay. Amazon Web Services, Mailgun.
5. Hybrid
A model that combines several monetization methods, such as Freemium and advertising. Most end-user applications use this scheme, including Spotify, Twitch, and Netflix (since August 2020).
3. Choose an Infrastructure Provider
To serve many users while protecting their data, you must choose established and trusted providers capable of upholding the highest encryption and database server security standards. Select a cloud provider capable of providing exceptional scalability, stability, and speed while enabling third-party integrations.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is also crucial for ensuring a seamless user experience and robust security. The importance of selecting the right SSO provider cannot be overstated for both small-scale applications and significant SaaS solutions. When building your app, you should consider comparing SSO providers to determine which option aligns best with your infrastructure needs and user expectations.
4. Design an MVP
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a test app version that only includes the most basic features.
However, deciding which features to use in your MVP will need some forethought. Incorporate the features that are the most affordable while being the cheapest option for the money. At this point, you aim to persuade your investors.
5. Testing and Implementing Changes based on Feedback
Once the MVP is released, gather feedback. The best way to do this is to directly ask users what they like or dislike about your product.
At this point, making changes to the feature set or application architecture will be relatively easy and not as painstaking as the following steps. The target group you choose for the proof of concept can then be the first mover of your application.
6. Outsourcing or Establishing an In-House Development Team
To turn your company idea into a profitable SaaS solution, you must first tackle the technical part of your project — SaaS development.
At this stage, your development team starts writing code using the programming language, toolkits, and frameworks of your choice. Using agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, or Extreme Programming will make development easier and faster while adhering to specification guidelines and ensuring quality.
Today's best practices involve integrating quality testing into every stage of software development. Also, stay in touch with your development team as you implement your SaaS application idea.
Your goal is to constantly check that you are staying on the same page and that you are following the product specifications correctly.
7. SaaS Application Promotion
Although the promotion is highlighted as a separate stage, it should be deployed simultaneously with the creation of your SaaS application.
By the time your first release hits the online stores, you should already have a community of fans waiting for the final release.
8. Maintenance and Launching
When you have finished all rounds of QA testing, your SaaS platform or online service is ready for launch. On the other hand, user acceptability testing will be the final phase of quality assurance and will occur after you have published your app.
After the final release, SaaS developers will need to provide continuous maintenance and application updates. Your users should be able to access technical support in case of problems easily.
Now there you go. So, get ready to build a SaaS App with the right approach. Still need any help? Feel free to contact us.
