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A Beginner-friendly Guide on How to Build a SaaS App
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Toluwani Folayan
April 17, 2023
This article contains a beginner-friendly guide to building a SaaS app. We have divided this guide into nine essential steps for easy comprehension. These steps include your idea generation process, team building, choosing your technical stack, building your MVP, payment gateway, and the essential features every SaaS app must have.
Outline
What is SaaS
How to Build a SaaS Product
What is SaaS?
Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a program delivery model in which a third-party provider hosts software apps and makes them accessible to customers online. Customers in this approach can use a web browser or a specific mobile app to access the software applications, and they can pay for the service via a subscription or usage-based pricing.
The main idea behind SaaS is that customers do not have to buy or manage their software or hardware due to its use of cloud computing services.
"The cloud" applies to distant web servers in different data centres that run application code and host databases.
How to Build a SaaS Product
1. Generate an Idea
The first step in building a SaaS product is to generate an idea. This point is closely related to analysing your market. This is because you will need to analyse your market to come up with a profitable saas idea, and you will also need to analyse your market to guarantee that your idea will be profitable.
There are several examples of SaaS products, with each providing different services. Therefore, you need to determine the service you want your software to provide.
Here are some tips to consider when generating an idea for your startup:
- Survey the market for problems you encounter daily that existing software has not been able to solve
- Define your target market
- Identify your competitors
- Discover your customer's pain points
- Describe your target market’s business models
Once your goal has become clear, describe your target market. This aims to make your SaaS product appealing and straightforward so people can select your software over your competitors.
Pro tip: Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield maintains the viewpoint that it is crucial to develop a cloud product that stands out from competitors' offerings when coming up with a go-to-market plan. For example, he revealed the three areas that the business has improved our search, sync, and file-sharing simplicity. Due to this, Slack has risen to the top among businesses like its own
2. Define your SaaS features
SaaS cloud computing handles various tasks, leading to a broad range of features in SaaS development. However, all SaaS products need to include fundamental features. These features include:
Features of SaaS
a. Multi-tenancy model
The Multi-tenancy model is an essential architecture model for SaaS software applications that make it possible to provide services to numerous customers using one software deployment.
The model’s name itself denotes what it is about. Each customer is called a “Tenant”. Hence, multi-tenant implies multiple customers.
Each Tenant can customise some parts of the application to their preference. However, these applications are often made so that each tenant's storage area is segregated by having a separate database altogether, leading to a different set of schemas inside a single database or the same database with discriminators.
b. High availability
High availability in SaaS means such applications or software must be globally accessible to people everywhere. This is because SaaS operates based on the multi-tenant feature, so it is expected to be available to numerous people.
As a result, the Software as a Service app should offer its users a high level of Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Also, applications need to be constantly accessible and must expose management and monitoring API to allow for continuous availability and health checks.
c. Security (Data and application)
Since SaaS offers services to numerous customers worldwide, there must be a provision to protect the service from attacks and unauthorised entry. Information for a particular tenant must be encrypted so other tenants cannot access it. Hence, there is a need for the provision of a strong Key Management Framework or the capacity to interface with and incorporate external Key Management.
Regarding application security, all SaaS applications must be secured from OWASP/SAN-reported vulnerability. SaaS applications should also have a solid identity and access management controls activated. The following additional features round up the security of the Software as a Service application:
prevention of buffer overflow assaults, open integration points with CASB, strong execution of duty separation, enhanced authentication methods like passcode lockout, multiple-factor verification, recognising illegal sessions, and preventing multi-session usage.
d. Single Sign on
Single sign-on is a log-in feature that allows users to verify their identity and use a system. This requires a simple integration with several identity management systems.
This crucial component is typically enabled by Software-as-a-Service apps using SAML or OpenID impersonations. In addition, since SaaS apps are multi-tenant, each tenant would want to authenticate using their own identity & access management system.
Essentially, all SaaS applications must have a single page where users can enter their login information and access all of the Software as a Service app that has been provided to them.
e. Subscription-based billing
Pricing for SaaS apps does not include complicated license costs, upgrade costs, etc. Rather, most Software as a Service (SaaS) applications are subscription-based, allowing users to purchase them as required and cancel their subscriptions whenever they want.
SaaS applications typically use a seat-based charging model, in which the quantity bought determines the price.
It can have different pricing structures and invoicing cycles, such as monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and annual fixed. Only a small number of present-day SaaS apps allow for usage-based billing.
f. User activity monitoring
SaaS applications must have an audit log, making monitoring user activities easy. Audit logs are also crucial for protecting data and addressing problems with access and integrity.
3. Sketch a design
Fortunately, SaaS design best practices are very similar to those used to create conventional solutions. Therefore, as required, you must create a user interface (UI) that is simple to use and effectively completes the users' tasks.
Also, remember that most SaaS apps now require a mobile feature, so your mockup designs will also need mobile functionality. Basically, your future app should include role-based access capabilities in addition to additional security measures.
4. Hire your team
A product's outcome is greatly influenced by the team that develops it. Hence, here are the essential people you need to hire for your team.
(Note: your team can include more than this list depending on your resources and app features).
- Software developers
- Project manager
- Quality assurance manager
- Designer
- Business analyst
5. Choose the appropriate technical stack and engineering
We are done with the theoretical aspect of building your SaaS app. It is time to get technical by deciding on the tech stack that serves as your web app's foundation. Engineering is the largest aspect of your SaaS software development, requiring the most labour.
This is because a SaaS application must be created from the ground up, which takes months and a large crew of experts who are each specialised in a particular area.
There is no perfect way to develop your cloud software. However, let us start by discussing the most popular and required technologies developers use to build their SaaS apps:
Front end
Everything a user sees on a screen is a result of front-end programming. Even without any functionality, your front-end developer can transform your designer's designs into something you can click through and load as a web website.
HTML, JavaScript, and CSS are the primary technologies typically needed for a web application to run smoothly.
One of the most widely used front-end development platforms for creating web solutions is Angular.js. But it can also work well for creating SaaS applications. Using Angular.js will accelerate the development of your SaaS because its components can be fully reused.
However, we recommend React or Vue.js apps if you want lightweight, simple-to-update applications.
Back end
Server-side operations are handled by back-end programming. It develops the basic functionality of your SaaS product and determines its responsiveness while remaining invisible to users. Use a dependable system, in this case, like Ruby on Rails, Node.js, or Django.
Protip: For Node.js, use API server with Express JS. (Express is a Node.js web application platform that makes creating reliable APIs and web servers much simpler and cleaner. It is a small application that does not conceal the essential Node.js features).
Redis will help you save user session information and cache the outcomes of searches.
Database
Databases store the data required by your apps. We advise using MySQL, NoSQL, or PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL, the most cutting-edge open-source database, is the best relational database for creating an online web solution, while MongoDB is a good non-relational database choice.
Payment gateway
A payment gateway is a service that enables businesses to process debit or credit card payments from clients while conducting business. SaaS billing is managed by recurring payments or subscription billing.
Paypal, Stripe, and Braintree are great payment gateway services.
There are three steps you must adhere to guarantee that customers will automatically obtain a paid subscription to your SaaS product:
Step one: Payment gateway, where interaction occurs when a client buys a subscription plan for your SaaS product. At this point, they choose the payment option, subscribe, and enter their payment information.
Step two: Merchant account, where money is transferred to the vendor account after the payment information is then processed. Often, merchant accounts are provided by payment gateway companies.
Step three: Subscription regulation to keep track of recurring payments, save your subscription information (monthly, yearly, etc.), and upgrades, downgrades, withdrawals, and other actions are managed.
Cloud services
Since your SaaS app is cloud-based, you will need to select an excellent cloud service for your software. Some examples include Amazon (AWS), Google, Microsoft, and Heroku.
Pro tip: If you use the Google Cloud Platform, use GAE for Node.js hosting, GCE for Redis hosting, and Firebase for hosting your SPA.
6. Partition
You must partition the data in your software to allow for future changes to the program, such as scaling and speed improvements, operational flexibility, and improved security. This eliminates the complexity of managing the complete database and simplifies managing each partition separately. The major types of partitioning methods are vertical, horizontal, and functional.
7. Build an MVP
An MVP is not a finished product. However, it has enough features to draw beta testers and prove a concept. Despite not being a final product, it resolves a significant issue for your clients. An MVP must make your target market adore your product and appeal to them. It also allows you to try out different perspectives and collect and analyse feedback.
It is an excellent move to include manual and automated testing techniques in your quality assurance process to encompass the software completely. Additionally, beta evaluators can assist you in identifying some non-trivial use cases you may not have even considered. This procedure can also include a cloud security assessment.
8.SaaS Deployment
Any forward-thinking firm must consider SaaS deployment as a crucial business strategy. It sets the groundwork for businesses to easily maintain their competitiveness and scale through unforeseen difficulties.
The SaaS deployment model includes a private cloud, on-premise data centres, single-tenant, and multi-tenant architecture.
9. Monitoring and Optimisation
Your solution's service and business worth are just as crucial as the SaaS product. To better meet your customers' expectations and swiftly respond to their shifting needs, you must manage, monitor, and optimise its performance after it has been thoroughly tested and released. You need to carefully monitor any potential security holes, address the user experience problems, and maintain your solution prepared for rapid scaling at this stage of development.
Conclusion
Creating a great SaaS application takes effort, commitment, and technical know-how. However, working with a team that knows what makes a successful SaaS application is an excellent approach.
Remember to use our beginner-friendly guide on building a SaaS app, and ensure your app is designed to stand out from your competitors as much as possible.
You can also take an easier alternative by hiring Wazobia Technologies to help you handle your project.
Wazobia Technologies is a Software Development Agency that provides intelligent solutions in most modern software technologies, such as DevOps, Cloud, and more. In addition, all our operations are scalable and sustainable, so you can continuously add features and upgrade as required.
You also do not need to worry about costs because each project is tailored to fit the specific needs of each business and meet any budget.
Click here to send a message to Wazobia Technologies.
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