SaaS Integration: When and How to Apply SaaS? How Much Does it Cost to Develop SaaS? ( guide 2021 ) #ExceedTeamInc

SAAS INTEGRATION: WHEN AND HOW TO APPLY SAAS? HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP SAAS?

13 min

Apr 15 2021

Nikita LExecutive Director

Danil LWeb Developer

Today, there are many ways to apply SaaS for your company – for example, one can purchase a standard solution from a vendor or develop a custom version for unique purposes. You’ll decide which way is better for your business goals while we’re answering the most popular questions about SaaS technology, monetization, implementation, and cost to develop.

Table of contents

How to Apply SaaS to Your Business

SaaS Application Features – MVP & Advanced Product Design, Testing, and Security When You Apply SaaS Technology Stacks to Develop SaaS Platforms Launch and Maintenance of B2B SaaS Platforms

SaaS Development Cost

Ready for SaaS? Here’s How Exceed Team Can Help

When you apply SaaS from a third-party vendor, there are always many issues to address. The custom solution, however, doesn’t have all these problems. If you apply SaaS with the help of a web development company, the software will be tailored to your needs, goals, and expectations.

HOW TO APPLY SAAS TO YOUR BUSINESS

SaaS Application Features – MVP & Advanced Product

B2B SaaS platforms and applications should have basic functionality to operate workflow and some industry-related features that help perform specific tasks. Let’s discover all of them in detail. A typical set of features for SaaS development includes:

Sign-in, Log-in, and Log-out systems;
User profiles with editing tools and settings (change passwords, select subscription plans, etc.);
Admin account where you can remove users or choose different roles for them, edit all content, etc.;
Dashboard to view statistics, reports, graphics, etc.;
Billing system (if you apply SaaS to offer your services by subscription);
Notifications (push, SMS, email, etc.).

When startups apply SaaS, they usually begin with a minimum viable product – MVP. How is it built? Within a few weeks, a team (1 UX/UI designer and 1-2 developers) creates a basic app to try with real users on the market. MVP is your experimenting field. It can teach you how to build a SaaS platform that will succeed. The primary advantages to an MVP:

Relatively short time-to-market;
Fast feedback from users;
Minimal cost to develop SaaS;
Fewer financial risks.

Based on your real-life experiment results, you can make minor adjustments or significant changes, build up your product, and eventually create a full-blown B2C or B2B SaaS platform. There also can be some advanced functional tools solving your customers’ problems and enabling them to perform specific tasks. For example, a business needs to apply SaaS for their routine jobs, management, and collaboration. What features will be there? File sharing, Document management, Live chats and Voice calls, Search, etc. Additional features can raise the cost to develop SaaS, but they solve some specific issues as well. What you can add to SaaS products:

Enhanced security features to protect sensitive information, financial or personal.
Role-based access, managed by platform’s admins.
Single sign-on, meaning that users don’t need to log in every time they use a SaaS app. They can also enter multiple services with the same username and password.
Advanced statistics, including business metrics and advice on improvement.
Audit log. This feature helps you track any user activity to prevent suspicious actions.

Mvp and additional features of saas apps

This functionality you can create for an MVP or a fully-fledged SaaS platform

No matter what features you’d choose to build for your SaaS app, all of them should bring value and solve your customers’ pain points. As long as you see how they use the basic set, you’ll be able to introduce some advanced functions gradually.

Design, Testing, and Security When You Apply SaaS

Let’s dive into some other significant aspects of SaaS development and integration. Why do you need UX/UI experts for a SaaS application? It’s not only about aesthetics and visual impressions. Excellent UX/UI design is crucial if you want to apply SaaS. An experienced designer makes the navigation clear and user-centered, enabling convenient and prolonged use of your website or app. What about QA testing? Why is it an integral part of SaaS development? Specialists carry out quality assurance tests continuously at each stage of the project. It’s an essential part of building SaaS architecture and features. A/B testers pay much attention to the following aspects:

User experience;
Functionality;
Compatibility;
Performance;
Security.

Is it possible to release a SaaS platform without stepwise and pre-launch testing? No, it’s too risky for your product’s safe and stable work. What is more, you risk making an awful first impression if users find too many bugs and glitches. The ideal scenario is when you work with a test group of potential customers before the official launch of your SaaS product. These first users will help with priceless feedback on how effectively all the integrations, logic, and design work. It’s easier to fix and improve things before a SaaS app goes to the real market. What are some regulations for SaaS development? Security is one of the top priorities when you develop and apply SaaS. Compliance with industry standards is also essential. TLS and SSL encryption protocols are standard security measures for SaaS platforms and applications. Moreover, think about national and international regulations for a sector where you apply SaaS products. For instance, the healthcare industry requires GDPR or HIPAA compliance, and the developers’ previous experience will help a lot.

Technology Stacks to Develop SaaS Platforms

SaaS development starts with a professional team and high-end technologies. There are many suitable programming languages, libraries, frameworks, and other tools to help you develop and apply SaaS. Whether it is an MVP (Minimal Viable Product) with basic functionality or a fully-featured SaaS solution, we can recommend a few reliable technologies.

These tech stacks will help build a SaaS solution

Mobile development frameworks and programming languages include Flutter, Java, Kotlin, and Swift.
Frontend (client-side) development is conducted with JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue.js.
Backend (server-side) development uses such programming languages (frameworks) as JavaScript (NodeJS), PHP (Laravel), and Ruby (Ruby on Rails).
A server for a SaaS app can be Apache or Nginx.
The databases for SaaS apps are MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis.
A cloud host for SaaS platforms can be either AWS (Amazon Web Services), Azure, or Google Cloud.

When creating a B2B SaaS solution, it’s essential to have flexible development resources that can, for example, enable smooth work with the required minimum of resources. It’s not enough to apply SaaS; you should also prepare it to manage the users’ increase without glitches or slowing down. All successful platforms are built with scalable architecture that enables constant growth and provides an excellent user experience. You should also create a plan of future integrations, extensions, customization, security frameworks, backup, and recovery. How will developers build the back-end functionality for your SaaS platform? There are two ways:

from scratch (fulfilling custom needs);
with API integrations (reducing the development time).

When you create and apply SaaS, it’s important to estimate each step – how scalable it is, how much are initial costs and potential profits, etc. The right choice of tech stacks may affect the overall quality and the cost to develop SaaS. Consult with your IT partner to find the best solution for your industry requirements and specific business goals.

Launch and Maintenance of B2B SaaS Platforms

When you launch a SaaS product, it’s important to be compliant with technical specifications and security regulations. Make sure the launch is income-oriented, meaning that you engage with active marketing, collect customer feedback, and monitor significant metrics. Moreover, the end-product needs to be frequently refreshed, updated, and optimized. These operations add up to the cost to develop SaaS, but they are vital for stable work on each user’s side. Developers ensure no-downtime deployment so that all updates and new features are rolled out simultaneously for all customers. How do you know you’ve launched a B2B SaaS product successfully? Follow this checklist.

Here is what you need to make your SaaS platform work

SaaS integration for any industry includes:

A ready-to-use solution to solve the customers’ pain points;
Enough storage space and usable settings;
Secure data transfer and storage;
Multi-device access via the same account;
User-friendly feature sets and subscriptions;
A free trial period;
Easy upgrades or downgrades;
Regular maintenance and updates for users, without them even noticing.

SAAS DEVELOPMENT COST

The cost to develop SaaS depends on several factors. The most prominent of them is the project’s complexity – features, third-party integrations, etc. How can you reduce expenses here? First of all, wisely select two types of functionality: essential and additional. Your development team can help you with that at the first stages of project designing and prototyping. Having chosen what to start with and what to add later, you don’t overpay. What are other components affecting the cost to develop SaaS products for startups? Let’s list them:

The development team’s location – American developers work for $150-200 an hour, while Eastern European experts have $30-50 of hourly rates.
The product’s type and complexity – the more features and integrations with other services you need, the more you have to pay.
Some tech-related choices – a platform’s architecture, backend development tools, etc.

The development team for saas integration

These experts will build a SaaS solution for you

Apart from web developers and UX/UI designers, the cost to develop SaaS will include some other specialists’ work. The whole development team has:

Project manager (PM);
Business analyst
Product manager (a startup founder is the most qualified candidate for this role);
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designer;
Cloud solutions architect;
Backend developer;
Frontend web developer;
Mobile frontend developer;
DevOps specialist;
QA engineer.

Suppose you’ve chosen to hire SaaS software developers in Eastern Europe or Russia. If the specialists charge $30 per hour and your product takes around three months to develop, it will cost from $15 000 to 20 000 for an MVP. If you decide to add a mobile version of your product, the cost to develop SaaS may double. A full-blown platform with mobile versions for Android and iOS may cost you anywhere between $70 000 and $200 000. Besides the general cost to develop a SaaS app, there will be some post-launch expenses. They include:

Promotional and marketing;
Licensing;
Subscription;
Updates;
Tech support;
Employee training, if necessary.

Well-informed decisions will help you save considerable expenses. Ask your project manager and developers for a consultation on how to achieve the minimum required performance, user experience, and safety within your budget.

READY FOR SAAS? HERE’S HOW EXCEED TEAM CAN HELP

We’ve talked about the ways to apply SaaS, some examples and technologies, monetization models, and the cost to develop SaaS. If you understand the basic principles of how this technology works and what advantages it brings to a business, you can then choose functionality for your specific needs. Exceed Team’s in-house expertise allows us to develop successful SaaS platforms for various industries:

Real estate;
Insurance;
Finance;
Travel;
Education;
Manufacturing, and more.

The technical solutions we offer help our clients save both their time and budget. Do you need a customized, unique SaaS solution in line with your business requirements? Our professional team will design, code, test, and launch a smooth-working product. Are you concerned about how a new SaaS platform will cooperate with your other business tools and third-party services? Don’t worry, our experts will provide seamless integrations. Perhaps you’d like a helping hand at the moment – write us about your business and what you need to apply SaaS for, and our knowledgeable consultants will prepare all the necessary information.

When do you need to apply SaaS?

If you have a company with a certain structure and long-term goals, SaaS solutions will be beneficial for you. Smaller businesses can effectively use read-made software from vendors, while middle-sized and large companies will get the best from custom SaaS platforms where everything is tailored to their business specifics.

What are the main advantages of using SaaS?

1. Increased productivity. 2. Easy connection. 3. Customization and integrations with other apps. 4. Reduced expenses (when you buy a subscription to use a standard solution). 5. On-demand services or features. 6. Easy access from any device or location.

How much does it cost to build a custom SaaS platform?

Suppose you hired developers in Eastern Europe or Russia. If the specialists charge $30 per hour and an MVP takes three months to develop, it will cost from $15 000 to 20 000. A full-blown platform with many integrations and mobile versions for Android and iOS may cost you anywhere between $70 000 and $200 000.

What is a typical set of features of any SaaS platform?

1. Sign-in, Log-in, and Log-out systems; 2. User profiles, editing, settings; 3. Admin account; 4. Dashboard, statistics, reports; 5. Billing system; 6. Notifications.

What integrations and advanced features are useful in SaaS solutions?

It's possible to make integration with your Enterprise Management System (EMS), Risk management software, etc. The advanced features also include: 1. Enhanced security; 2. Role-based access; 3. Tracking user activity; 4. Single sign-on; 5. More statistics with business metrics and advice.