SaaS development is a challenging process. But the reward is worth it. The revenue of cloud software is going to reach $278 billion by the year 2021. Your own SaaS product could expand in the market.

It is not easy to with other high performing software. For instance, your daily  Slack, Dropbox, or Canva. Yet, combine a valuable idea with precise implementation. It can lead to a proficient SaaS platform development.

What Is SaaS Application Development?

The development of a SaaS platform is cloud software development. Yet the founders should understand a simple thing. The business development of the product is important. It must have a higher priority, than technical solutions.

But without a good architecture technical background. The product won’t provide the desired greatest business value proposition.

The process of SaaS development includes:

Validation of the business idea

Market, competitors, and customer researches

• UX/UI design
• Development
• Testing
• Debugging
• Product launch
• Post-launch maintenance

Also, the business model of SaaS requires a few things to consider during development. One of those essential aspects is understanding the development process. Next, is the SaaS software development costs.

1. Integration of third-party services

The core feature of SaaS software is its payment system. There are two options to consider while developing such functionality. Both of these options have varied development costs and time consumption.

2. Secure  and Well-Designed Database

The standard security protocols of database providers use TLS and SSL encryption technologies. It protects the data and communications of users.

Yet, there exist extra technical solutions. They help make your SaaS even more secure at the development stage.

3. No-downtime deployment

The key to building a successful SaaS platform is a constant update. The uninterrupted availability of your product is a must-have for its development.

You should avoid the case when one part of users use an outdated version. While the other part uses the current version. It leads to customer dissatisfaction and plenty of bugs.

4. Management of a Subscription Lifecycle

The Software as a service subscription deals with a bunch of processes. It includes:

• subscribing,
• trailing,
• upgrading,
• canceling,
• unsubscribing.

It is imperative for the process of how to create a SaaS for the desired results. All these processes and procedures are essential.

5. Scalability and customization of the whole platform

Scalability is another factor to improve the success rate of the final product. A complex SaaS platform must be customizable at each layer. Such a SaaS platform development procedure provides a lot of value in the long-run.

How to Create Software as a Service?

Before you look for how to create your own app. As a founder, you need to clearly formulate the core value proposition of your Software as a Service. This is the first step for any kind of cloud-based software development.

Yet it is especially crucial for a SaaS application development.

Hence, the development of your SaaS should start with three kinds of research:

• Market research
• Competitors research
• Customer research

These activities are a part of the validation of your business hypotheses. And demand the product. Without validation, you could not prove the real existing on-market demand. And with no validated demand, you will burn out your own funds on the development of useless software.

SaaS Software Development Costs

It’s a complicated task to define the approximate costs of a SaaS platform. There are too many factors to consider in its development:

• The complexity of core features
• HIPAA or GDPR implementation
• The number of third party integrations and its complexity

Yet, we could calculate the development costs for SaaS software based on two factors. The average number of hours required for an MVP.

So, an average MVP takes 1,000 – 1,500 hours to complete.

Let’s say you want to build a mobile SaaS app for the architectures. It’s a camera-base application that makes 3D models using real photos. And it works online, so it is a software as a service too.

First, you need to know how to create the software framework and its value proposition.  Users can edit photos, edit models and show the final results to their own customers, through the web. It should include:

Artificial Intelligence algorithms to analyze photos and convert them in 3D models

Advanced visual editor, that enables them to  edit both 2D images and 3D models in real-time

Perfectly designed a database to ensure the scalability of the application. Because 3D rendering is a very resource-intensive process.

The SaaS software development costs for the MVP could be much higher. Because there are a few complex features besides the core enhancements. These are the most essential aspects when you build SaaS applications.

We consider three options to start MVP and identify the development costs.  They are American digital agencies, Indian and Ukrainian outsource development teams. Even though all of them know how to create SaaS software. The quality of the final product is different.

They all have benefits and drawbacks in cooperation:

The American developers look like the most reliable partners. But, their development costs are too high.

Indian developers have much less cost. But the quality of the SaaS software code is relatively low.

Ukrainian teams cost a bit higher, then Indian, but with a quality equal to American.

Want to Build Your Own SaaS Application?

The team of SpdLoad has focused on the development of SaaS applications since 2013. It’s our core design and development expertise. We have prowess in building software as a service. From the initial stages of planning and allocation, to how to create it, we can do everything.

Besides the development itself. We pay great attention to the business component of each product. Because a product without users leads to an unrewarding expense of the founder.

For this reason, we provide each customer with experience in growing SaaS startups.

Read more about SaaS Development.