Not so long ago, users had to install and update computer systems themselves. Now, however, most services and updates are performed in the cloud.
Advances in technology have accelerated end-users even more than before. Users no longer have to worry about the maintenance of the services they use. SaaS solutions play a significant role in this development.
SaaS is also known as Software as a Service. One of the fastest-growing sectors in technology that replaces traditional software license purchases.
Software as a Service delivery model has gained popularity in the last few years. It is a cloud-based solution that can be used on mobile apps or web browsers.
SaaS users don’t need to install and configure software anymore since the provider already handles all of it. However, users must still update their service regularly to enjoy all SaaS benefits more and stand up to the competition.
According to a survey conducted by Insight Partners, the SaaS market was worth $31.57 billion in 2015. Yet, it is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 18.6% between 2016 and 2025, accumulating $172.29 billion in 2025.
SaaS platforms are expanding rapidly due to the many benefits they offer. This is why most businesses are looking to outsource SaaS developers to create SaaS apps and reduce the size of their apps and the system memory required to use them.
However, if your company is attempting to develop Software, SaaS product development can be the best option for your business.
In this guide, we’ll discuss SaaS app development and why you should hire a web developer to help you achieve your SaaS goal.
Before you can gain many users for your SaaS product, your product needs to offer a solid and valuable solution to its users. Clients want to know the value of a product before they pay for a subscription.
SaaS Application Development
SaaS (Software as a Service) application development differs from the conventional approach to product development in many ways.
These differences may seem unapproachable to those inexperienced with SaaS. Nevertheless, cloud-based and conventional application development have many similarities.
The significant difference in creating a web application is that you first need to choose the right SaaS service provider.
One of the most significant advantages of cloud solutions is that clients characteristically don’t have to pay higher up-front expenses for the app itself and don’t have to give up much storage space and computing power to operate the app and get the job done.
However, you still need to look for the best and most trustworthy cloud service to host your SaaS platform and allow for easy access for your end-users.
How to Build a SaaS Application from Scratch
SaaS product development is quite different from normal mobile app development. The significant difference in creating a cloud-based solution is the need for a reliable cloud service provider.
Jeff Bezos’ money-making machine Amazon Web Services (AWS), is one of the most popular providers with plenty of excellent tools for SaaS experts.
To create a SaaS application from scratch, you need to invest your time and energy in the SaaS application development and understand your clients’ needs and demands.
Let’s look at each step in the SaaS application development process:
Step 1: Consider the product’s value
Before you can gain many users for your SaaS product, your product needs to offer a solid and valuable solution to its users. Clients want to know the value of a product before they pay for a subscription.
For example, suppose you are designing your SaaS product to offer a free trial for a certain period. In this case, clients can understand the value and benefits that your product brings them.
Also, you can offer to pay for single use of the app. This will be convenient for people that don’t use the service every time.
Step 2: Survey the market and consider your competitors
Before you start building your SaaS app, you need to study the market and know your target audience.
It’s essential to analyze your competitors, the features of their solutions, business models, pricing strategy, etc.
Having studied the market, you can brainstorm with your team to discuss how to make your SaaS product stand out from the existing products in the market.
Step 3: Collect project requirements
Before starting your app development, you need to state all your project requirements. It’s essential to create a list of features.
They can be different. It’s common to divide application features into two significant groups: basic and advanced.
Basic features stand for features required to satisfy the users’ needs. In contrast, advanced features stand to add more exciting functions to your SaaS product to engage more users.
SaaS solutions are of three types: functional tools, analytical tools, and management tools.
Functional tools: These are the main features of the SaaS. For example, Slack offers services like sending messages and making video calls.
Analytical tools: Any CRM platform should provide more services such as reports, and statistics, etc.
Management tools: SaaS solutions should offer an opportunity to choose user roles with many features and access layers to the SaaS product.
Step 4: Pay attention Your UI/UX
When you have decided on the required features, it’s time to develop a great UI/UX design for your SaaS project. Users tend to abandon applications or sites with unattractive and unclear designs.
However, to make your SaaS application profitable, you need to design a user-friendly product. SaaS development requires time and money.
Everything begins with wireframes. They provide a schematic placement of elements on the application screen. Wireframes are often monochrome and show the screen’s connection.
Wireframes
Designers pick the component colors, font, and other elements to plan the product.
The last step in the UI/UX design process is handling projects for the SaaS application development team. Then it’s time to create the product design. Designers create all the application screens and their conditions and then make a clickable prototype.
Step 5: Work on your pricing strategy
Pricing is an essential part of the SaaS development process. In this step, you need to develop different plans according to the user’s needs and expectations.
You can also offer accessible functions or a free trial period. For example, Google Drive enables users to use 15 GB for free. If a user needs more storage, they can buy a monthly subscription.
Step 6: Define technology stack
Choosing the right technologies for your software development can sometimes be challenging. You need to show your project requirements, business model, features, plans, and design to the developers.
Then you are in the best position to choose the required technologies to create a SaaS application. However, your solution must be up to date, so it is essential to pick the right tools to scale.
Cost of building a SaaS application
Software development costs can vary depending on the developers’ salaries along with other important web development team members. However, it is appropriate to add the cost of hiring a team and onboarding new technology experts to your budget.
Suppose you want to hire a SaaS development team. In that case, the prices you pay include the hourly rates of the developers and the SaaS development company fee.
According to YouTeam’s recent research, average hourly rates of software developers across the globe can vary between:
- United States – $100/hour
- United Kingdom – $90/hour
- Australia – $100/hour
- India – $30/hour
- Ukraine – $37/hour
- Ukraine: $37/hour
Why Do Tech Companies Go SaaS?
SaaS solutions have a high degree for enhancing business. The following are the benefits of SaaS solutions:
Cost efficiency: Using a SaaS service, you don’t need to purchase and maintain costly hardware. It’s common for SaaS platforms to offer a paid subscription.
You only pay for the required functionality. You can also stop paying for the service if your business no longer needs a SaaS solution service.
Scalability: Due to subscription plans, you only pay for the service you need. If your requirements change, it’s easy to upgrade from one subscription plan to another with a few clicks.
Reliability: SaaS is a cloud-based solution. Cloud refers to a network of services that can be accessed across the globe. So, if one server network goes down, your software will still work.
Security: Any cloud platform provider tends to consider security problems. So, as a result, all your data information is well protected and stored in a safe place.
Cloud-based solutions can also be accessed from different devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones from anywhere worldwide.
It’s also efficient for people who work on the road. They can work anywhere, any time.
Outsourcing a SaaS development team has become a standard technique for software development companies to handle their clients’ SaaS projects.
SaaS as a Cloud Computing Model
Software as a service (SaaS) providers offer clients network-based access to a single copy of the exact application that the provider has developed for the SaaS-based distribution.
The app source code is the usual code for all the client bases. When new features are enabled, they are automatically distributed across all clients in the SaaS model.
As for the SLA (Service Level Agreement), client data for every model can be stored locally, in either cloud or a hybrid role. You can integrate SaaS applications with other Software utilizing different APIs.
For instance, you can write your software tools and use the SaaS provider application programming interface to enable the SaaS service offerings.
However, the most usual SaaS apps are utilized for vital business technologies like CRM (Customer Relationship Management), financial management, human resources management, billing, software collaboration, and invoicing.
Today’s most prominent SaaS companies are; Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, Hubspot, SAP, and Intuit.
Top 10 Reasons You Should Hire A SaaS Developer
Outsourcing a SaaS development team has become a standard technique for software development companies to handle their clients’ SaaS projects.
Outsourcing means hiring a SaaS development company that is exceptionally skilled in doing the task you require them to do.
However, the following are the top 10 reasons you should hire developers for your SaaS web application:
1. Budget-friendly
One of the most significant benefits of outsourcing web development. Hiring software developers to take care of your web application development saves a huge cost of your budget, which is particularly great for businesses.
Thus, outsourcing developers is much cheaper than hiring full-time employees who you would have to pay a salary for years.
2. Enable backups and data recovery
If you have worked with in-house experts, you will discover that once an automated solution has been installed, the procedure of backing up your data frequently can be a painstaking task at the best of times.
Nevertheless, SaaS solutions do away with this activity, facilitating automated backups without user intrusion and ensuring your data is secure and up to date.
3. Unparalleled expertise
Hiring a software development company to develop your web application would give it a touch of professionalism that your in-house team would struggle to match.
This makes sure your web applications are always unique and creative, which could benefit your business in many ways.
4. Personal development
Web developers keep learning and improving on their skills because the world of technology is constantly advancing. So, they have to keep updating their knowledge.
SaaS developers participate in seminars, courses, workshops, and more to keep up with technology and updates.
5. A pool of knowledge
Since a team of developers often discuss particular problems or issues with the development processes, that means as a client; you get to tap into their large pool of knowledge.
Teams often consist of experts who are incredibly skilled in specific technologies. Thus, you get to benefit from such skills and knowledge at a low price.
6. Convenient b2b contracts
Software development companies have simple contracts regarding hiring their services, unlike hiring an in-house team of employees.
You are only signing them up for their services. If you wish to change things or end your contract with them, you can easily do so without going through a complex or lengthy process.
7. Entire Team
SaaS development companies have large teams consisting of software developers and every back-end developer, technician, and web engineer that could help make your SaaS applications unique.
8. Liability
When you hire an in-house team, any issues regarding the SaaS development would need to be handled by you as the team leader.
But signing a contract with a SaaS development team entails a legally binding document that makes it their responsibility to handle every risk.
9. Work hours
Time is money in the technology industry. Every second is precious since it could be spent on building new and exciting web apps.
The time to take you to go through the recruiting process could be spent on new concepts, strategies, networking, technologies, etc. This is where SaaS software development companies could come and help.
10. Handle on adversity
Hiring an in-house development team means you are ready for unexpected hindrances that may occur at any time. One of them could fall sick, which may cause delays during the development process. That is why a SaaS software development team is the best option.
A SaaS software development team signs a contract stating that they would provide you with the result you desire no matter what.
Final Word
Hiring a SaaS development team to develop a SaaS application introduces many opportunities and benefits to your business.
Most of the popular SaaS products you see today were developed by experts around the world. Outsourcing to a SaaS development company to develop a SaaS application will always save you time and money, provides affordable talent, and flexible plans with specialized service providers.
However, if you are considering hiring developers, choose your potential vendor wisely. Find a trusted team for your web application. Then, your relationship can last a lifetime and help to scale up your business seamlessly.
