Introduction to SaaS Platform Development

SaaS (Software as a Service) revolutionises how software is accessed and utilised.

Essentially, it’s about accessing applications via the internet through a web browser or installing locally on your computer.

Logically if you are considering hiring a SaaS development agency there is a lot of things to consider, but at a high level you can think of it as 2 business concerns:

A platform which allows users to authenticate and handles the RBAC (role based access controls) i.e what features a paying vs non paying customer can access
The actual product that people wish to use and pay for, a good example of such a product would be Adobe’s Creative Cloud where you must pay a subscription to access the product.

At REPTILEHAUS, We have a long history building SaaS development projects in various industries internationally to date in various sectors (Gaming, Blockchain, AgeTech and FinTech).

If you are considering turning your idea into a real tangible product we will run through a few things on the initial discovery call.

The most important is that you have taken the necessary steps to validate the idea, you have identified your ideal customer profile and you understand the itch to which your solution will provide the scratch. This is an essential phase and one that cannot be skipped or rushed, it can be as simple as doing some or all of the following:

Surveys and questionnaires – Create an online survey using platforms like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.
Competitor analysis – Identify your major competitors in your SaaS niche, checking their keywords, customer profile, price points etc.
Interviews and focus groups – Probably the easiest, ask friends and colleagues, even people on Reddit or twitter if they will do a one-on-one intereview asking them to share their pain points and experiences related to your SaaS idea, or the itch which your SaaS will scratch.
Social media listening – pay attention to what peers are saying on social media about existing solutions and identify any recurring complaints or unmet needs.
Keyword research – using Google Keyword Planner, Spyfu or SEMrush to find relevant keywords related to your SaaS idea to gauge interest in what you want to build.

Following on from that we explore the KPIs that are important to you

Key SaaS Business Metrics and Their Significance

In the dynamic landscape of SaaS, certain metrics play a pivotal role in gauging success:

Customer Churn: Retaining customers is as crucial as customer aquisition. Monitoring churn rates helps in understanding customer behavior and improving retention strategies.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): provides insights into the long-term value derived from customers, aiding in strategic decision-making and investor relations.
Revenue Churn: Evaluating revenue churn alongside customer churn offers a comprehensive view of business sustainability.
Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC): Understanding the cost involved in acquiring new customers is essential for maintaining a healthy business model and is a make or break factor.

SaaS Development Company Irealand

Understanding SaaS Development Costs

The cost of developing a SaaS solution varies based on factors like developer rates and project complexity – aside from this there are many other things to take into consideration and by this stage a non-negotiable is that you have done your market research / sentiment analysis.

While individual developers may offer competitive rates, partnering with boutique agencies like REPTILEHAUS ensures access to a seasoned team of professionals and streamlined project management.

To give an example, hiring a freelance developer based in the EU will cost on average €60 per hour, if your SaaS is relatively basic, we can assume a build time of ~4 months or 600 developer hours culminating in a total cost of €36k, however, it is likely that it will cost more due to the inexperience, lack of planning and resources or worse, a security breach when the platform goes live.

Development costs are one thing, but the cost of not doing things the right way can be catastrophic for a brands reputation (and wallet).

Architecture, Security and Tech Stack

SaaS architecture generally revolves around a globally scalable well built web application, secure cloud based hosting and subscription-based licensing model.

The tech stack used to build it really depends on the business use case for high performance SaaS platforms we generally use Javascript (Angular/React) on the frontend and either Golang/NodeJS on the backend paired with a database such as MongoDB or Postgres – we also do implementations in PHP / MySQL which again has its pro’s and con’s depending on your goals.

For almost every use case these technologies allow us the flexibility to deliver anything comparable to any SaaS on the market today.

The correct stack to use depends on your use case as well as your plans for the future or existing/legacy tech.

Architecturally we always consider security as a forethought rather than after the fact, always important and especially important when the deliverables is a multi tenant SaaS platform with many different roles and access control lists

So, to summarise, we specialise in every aspect of SaaS application development:

Custom SaaS Platform Development – We help our clients select the best tech stack to achieve their business goals, a reliable cost effective cloud architecture, maintenance and ongoing support. We are experts in architecting SaaS solutions and making them engaging from realtime notifications based on some event to gamification.
UI/UX Design – are pivotal pieces of any SaaS product, it is the difference between converting a visitor into a customer and we implement enterprise-grade design principles.
Technology Migration and Re-Engineering – If you have an existing business or website and you would like to know more about converting it into a SaaS platform we can help
SaaS Solution Mobile App Platform – We can also create a mobile application to compliment your SaaS, we have expertise in creating apps for iPhone and Android
Secure and Compliant SaaS Solutions – We follow best and industry-grade practices to ensure the security of SaaS solutions. With proper compliances in place, we focus on meeting compliance requirements when building SaaS platforms.
Support and Maintenance – Our tech team is complimented by infrastructure experts and as a whole can support any maintenance needs you may have for your SaaS product to ensure that the application never deals with downtime and always remains up-to-date with the latest OS releases and security patches.