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Complexities and Costs involved in Building SaaS Applications

SaaS is Software as a Service (SaaS) that uses cloud-hosted applications and it's a new way for many businesses to use it. Almost all organizations today use SaaS for activities like CRM, HRM, writing, emailing, groups, file sharing, etc.

In 2022, the SaaS industry is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 13.1 percent to $220 billion. Because of this trend, SaaS development applications are predicted to account for 80 percent of office apps by 2022.

Why SaaS is so trendy?

SaaS development has become so popular because it offers many benefits over traditional software.

  • You can run from any device via the internet.
  • Data is saved in the cloud on a regular basis, hence the data is safe.
  • Multi-tenant architecture
  • Easy to set up and rapid deployment.
  • Acquisition rates are exceptionally high.
  • No upfront hardware and maintenance charges
  • SaaS platform is scalable to meet the changing needs.
  • Flexible pricing model.

The graph below shows nearly 75% of businesses (2021) use SaaS and it will continue to grow.

Saas Growth

 Source

Complexities in building SaaS  applications

There are so many things to consider when building a SaaS application.

 

Failing business paradigm (poor execution)

business-failureWhile the startup scene has changed drastically over a couple of years, one thing remains constant. SaaS Startups are established with the purpose of scaling. To scale your product and services, you need a good product-market fit, a strong team, and a clear vision for growth. Customers should feel like they are getting a lot more value out of their investment and they should be willing to spend money on your SaaS product.

If your churn rate is considerably greater, examine what needs to be fixed in terms of your retention strategy. The strategy is to decrease churn is to stay in touch with your consumers. You can expect longer client life cycles. Hence, more steady income if you make sure they're satisfied with your product and continue to find value in your service.

Read more: 10 Reasons Why 7 Out of 10 Businesses Fail Within 10 Years

Minimize Downtime

When building any software, there is always the possibility of downtime. Whether it is an unexpected crash or a planned update, downtime can be incredibly costly for businesses. There are many ways to minimize downtime during the software development process.

It is important to know how application instances, access points, and network channels have been set up to deliver SaaS applications to reduce complexity. More lag is introduced as the distance between application instances and the end-user gets bigger, combined with more routers and interconnects over the network. Developers should use a zero-time deployment technique to avoid this. It lies in ensuring full system responsiveness during deployment, allowing you to eliminate downtime.

HAProxy is a great tool for this task because it can be configured in either HTTP or TCP modules. It works well for all web applications as well as any other type of network traffic. HAProxy is easy to use, set up, and deploy. It is a solid product with a powerful load balancer in production.

High-level Data Security

global-data-security-personal-data-security-cyber-data-security-online-concept-illustration-internet-security-information-privacy-protection_1150-37375When building SaaS applications, there are many things to consider in order to make sure your application runs smoothly and securely. The most crucial consideration is security since you do not want your customer's data to be hacked.

It is necessary that you know how hackers break into applications so that you can prevent the same from happening to yours. It’s also important for developers to understand what kind of information hackers are seeking so that they can design their apps properly.

The most popular SaaS applications are built on top of an API. These APIs are exposed to external clients, which call the APIs through REST, SOAP, or web sockets.

To avoid security breaches and software incompatibilities, SaaS solutions should provide system upgrades to consumers on a regular basis. Also, updating should not interfere with customer daily activities or saved data.

Ensure compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and SOC 2 Type 2 (Service Organization Control) standards for the European Union, United States, and AICPA respectively, early on the project. To verify that limited access to information is implemented, integration and unit tests should be used throughout the development process.

Access control

In a SaaS development model, the application is hosted by a provider and users can access it from anywhere via an internet connection. This has its own challenges–How do you ensure that only specific users have access to data? How do you enforce security policies for accessing certain data?

There must be a dedicated team in place to ensure that the assets used to deliver various services are used responsibly. The assets must be used strictly under the company's policies and procedures. These assets must be well-maintained in order to achieve the objectives over a longer period. Some staff must be granted the responsibility to regulate cloud integration services in order for resources to be protected and maintained on a regular basis.

Payment Integration

What-is-Payment-Gateway-and-How-It-WorksPayment integrations are one of the most common and important features of any software. But, if your goal is to build a successful SaaS product, you need to make sure that there is no friction in the payment process. Customers will leave if you make it tough for them to sign up and pay.

Integrating with SaaS development apps allows companies to collaborate more closely with their external applications, services, and third-party platforms. When developing a SaaS integration strategy, there are two options:

• Consistent interactions with a remote (internal or external) SaaS application, such as a customer resource management (CRM) system. 

• Providing a consistent, responsive, and security-focused method for your business to access third-party platforms (for example, a legacy platform hosting domain-specific services).

The payment capability in SaaS apps is primarily handled through system interaction with third-party payment services. When looking for an appropriate provider, look for those that give advanced integration assistance, such as PayPal, Braintree, and Google Pay, which all offer libraries for successful integration.

Alternatively, developers can research the technical aspects of seamless external payment integration and verify that it works properly by establishing relevant application elements such as gateways and services.

Integrating SaaS apps into their architectures provides companies with rapid availability across applications and platforms, while also making their technology flexible for the foreseeable future.

Customization

customizationCustomization is critical when developing SaaS applications. It’s the ability to change the look and feel of your application for each customer or user in order to make their experience unique.

The importance of customization has ballooned in the past few years, especially with growing competition in almost every industry, and companies are using it as a differentiator to encourage users to switch platforms

Customization is required at all levels of an excellent system, from the interface to subdomains. Setting up each aspect independently for different clients is not simple work for a developer, but skilled customization implementation will provide considerable long-term benefits to an organization.

What is the cost of creating a SaaS app?

Cost-SaaS-DevelopmentTo begin, the cost of developing any form of software is determined by the time frame. It depends on the complexity of the product, the technology stack chosen, and the quantity and skill level of individuals working on the project.

Most entrepreneurs and startups will choose in-house development when developing SaaS software. As a result, they are forced to hire in-house developers who work on the same floor as them. The problem with this approach is that it’s expensive and a waste of time.

The price varies because of the unique nature of SaaS, which varies from project to project (starts at $60,000 for MVP) and highly depends on the customer's needs, goals, and the vendor's capabilities.

The average cost of developing a SaaS app is around $7,000 - $14,000. If you want to develop a complex app for the enterprise level, it will cost you around $50,000.

Here are a few parameters to consider when developing SaaS:

  • Choosing a development team

Choosing developers for your SaaS application can be a daunting task. This team is a core component of software development. You have to make sure that the product you release is effective, which means you have to work with a team of developers who will build your software from scratch.

  • UX/ UI design

UI/UX designA great UX/UI design makes it easy for your users to understand your product’s value, and quickly figure out how to use it. Ultimately, that means more conversions, more sign-ups, and more revenue. It turns out that the quality of your UI can have a tremendous impact on all these metrics.

It's critical to focus on the visuals in order to create a brilliant layout that will entice SaaS product buyers. This can take anywhere from 25 to 200 hours.

  • Hosting service
    web hosting-techradarIf you want to build your website or app, then it is very important that you should know about the hosting service cost.

If you are a starter and want to develop an app for your business or yourself, then it is very important that you should learn about the hosting service. But this will increase your budget as well as the time required for the development of the same.

Smaller companies can't afford costly hosting services. So what's a small company to do? Hosting is an essential part of any app development. But it doesn't need to be costly and complicated.

A lot of SaaS apps require cloud-based hosting solutions because they need to be accessed by anyone from anywhere. There are many options, for such services - but many smaller companies don’t know which one is best for them and how much it will cost them.

Hosting services are available in three types: shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated server. If we compare all these 3 options, then we can say that there is a significant difference between these services and their prices also differ.

AWS, Google Cloud, HubSpot, Wix, Cloudflare, and DigitalOcean are some of the best SaaS hosting services.

Read more: What Is Web Hosting? A Detailed Guide To Different Types Of Web Hosting

  • Constant support and updates


Today's environment is extremely competitive. If you just launch a SaaS into the market, it might do well for the first few weeks or even months, but without constant support and updates, your service will quickly lag what customers expect.

Create a team of experts who are the best in the business with estimating the cost of SaaS products. Then you'll get the most out of your SaaS projects.

  • Outsourcing SaaS software development

Outsourcing -SaaS -software- development

 

When creating a product, it is important to consider what parts of the project should be done in-house and which can be outsourced. Hire Your Own Talent The first step in outsourcing is to hire your own talent. This involves finding an individual who has the faculties you need at their disposal. This could be somebody with expertise in programming languages like Ruby, Python, or JavaScript; somebody who has graphic design skills.

 

  • Hire online outsourcing

The second way is to use online outsourcing websites to find the best freelancers available for your particular project. Hire someone who has experience creating similar products and knows the latest technologies.

  • Measure your product growth

The success of a SaaS development company is driven by its users. If the number of users is increasing, it means that the product is well received and if not, then there might be a problem. So, tracking the right metrics is crucial to a SaaS business. There is a good deal of metrics to keep an eye on, but there are a few that will give you a clear idea of what is going on with your business. 

Conclusion

As SaaS development applications become more sophisticated and complex, building them also becomes more difficult. There are many complexities involved in creating software as a service application, and these must be taken into consideration before you build your SaaS application.

If you want to be successful in creating a robust and scalable software product, you will need an experienced team of professionals who can help you get your product off the ground and fully operational within a short time. Instead of going through all this hassle on your own, you can work with us to help you build a SaaS application from scratch.

Undaku is a powerful no-code SaaS development platform that lets you create enterprise apps for websites, web applications, mobile apps, CMSs, CRMs, and more. With drag-and-drop technology, this platform makes it simple for companies to jumpstart their SaaS development process and reach out to clients as quickly as possible.

Undaku helps in creating affordable SaaS apps with all the complexities in mind. Check out how our experts can help you or do a free trial!

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