Whatever stage your business is at, considering working with a SaaS development company is a smart move. Maybe you’re just setting out and you want to start with the best foot forward. Or maybe your business is well established and you’re looking for something more agile and efficient. Regardless of your reason, you’ve come to the right place. SaaS is becoming so popular that it could very soon replace the traditional model of software licensing.

Software as a service (SaaS) has been the fastest-growing and largest market segment since 2019. By 2028, the market is expected to grow up to $716.52 billion, according to Fortune Business Insights. Get ahead of the competition while you still can and get involved in what Harvey Nash considers to be the most important technology in business success.

What is a SaaS development company?

A SaaS development company is an organization that provides cloud-based software and applications to customers as a service. Some SaaS development companies create, maintain, host, and provide the software themselves, while others outsource the development of the software and provide it, along with support, to other companies.

Almost all SaaS products which are currently available are applications for mobile and the web. The reason they’re becoming so popular is that they work under a subscription model and require zero installation. This is beneficial for both the SaaS development company and users.

Thanks to the cloud-based development and delivery of SaaS products, users have instant access to distinctive functions and features that simply would not be available in traditional software forms. This gives the customer the power to choose between a complete software package or the individual segments they’re interested in.

SaaS company examples

Some of the biggest SaaS development companies include:

• Google Workspace
• Dropbox
• Salesforce
• MailChimp
• Zendesk
• Slack
• DocuSign
• Hubspot

These organizations provide software to their customers online. As you’ll notice, all these names are huge corporations that have been around for years and generate considerable income. Many industries practice SaaS to a certain degree, for medical applications to smaller companies about digital signature products, for example. If the biggest companies in the world believe in SaaS products, it’s a smart move to get on board.

Building SaaS applications

Even if you’ve already decided to hire a SaaS development company, there’s a lot of work you first need to do before working out your product idea. Here are the steps involved in creating SaaS applications you need to consider:

Market and Competitor Research

The first step is to have a clear idea of what your product will be and how it will work. Then you need to settle on one of the following types of focus:

• Horizontal: Specialize in software categories, such as sales or marketing
• Vertical: Specialize in SaaS software for certain industries

Deciding on a horizontal or a vertical focus will help you identify your customer base. After that, it’s time to carry out market, competition, and customer research to narrow down the focus of your application and define the features. 
 

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

A minimum viable product meets all the essential needs of your software. This can be the most basic goal of the SaaS development company and provide a solid framework for the complete product. When you’ve decided on your MVP, your can build upon it and add specialist functions for specific user groups.
 

Features and Functions

Identify the most important part of your software and work on it first. Ask real users to test it and provide feedback so you can improve it before launch day. The trick to standing out from the crowd is to offer valuable features and sleek functionality that your competitors lack. 
 

Pricing Model

Setting a price is one thing you can decide without the help of a SaaS development company. This important decision can make or break an application. Return to your research and see what prices are available for similar products. There are several different pricing models to choose from:

• Pricing per feature: Bundles of specific features which can be accessed for different prices
• Pricing per user: The complete product or set of features for a single user
• Flat rate: The complete package for one fee paid monthly or yearly
• Freemium: A free version of the software with restricted features that can be unlocked by paying for upgrades
• Use-based: Payment for software according to how much someone uses it

Benefits of SaaS

When used properly, SaaS products can save a significant amount of resources, time, and money. Here are the main advantages you can expect when you start working with a SaaS development company:

• Reduced costs for software and applications
• Reliable income for developers and companies due to the subscription model
• Trial periods that let customers test out and become comfortable with the software
• Better scalability and accessibility
• Ready-to-use products that can be updated long after purchase

FAQs:

Q1. What is a SaaS development company?

A SaaS (software as a service) development company provides cloud-based applications and software to other businesses as a service. There are 2 main types of SaaS companies:

1. The company outsources the development of the applications and software to a third party and then provides it to its customers with support.
2. The company develops, maintains, hosts, and provides the software to its customers themselves.