SaaS development
A software product with subscriptions, built by people who run four themselves.
What does SaaS development involve?
Getting SaaS developed means having a software product built that multiple customers use at the same time, each in their own protected environment, usually against a monthly subscription. Not a project with one end user, but a product with a earning model underneath.
That difference is bigger than it sounds. You build for one organization that you know. At SaaS you build for customers you don’t already have, with a login process, a trial period, payments, billing, different packages and users who forget a password at three o’clock in the morning.
All these parts are not in the functionality that your product is really about, and they cost half the work. That’s exactly where most SaaS plans are on the beach.
We’ve done it four times for ourselves.
No theory from a book, but four rotating platforms with paying users.
AdComPro
Multi-tenant, subscriptions, trial-flow, volume discount and invoicing. The complete story, from registration to monthly invoice.
adcompro. appCasaMio
Fifteen languages, links to external booking platforms and a guest portal. SaaS that has to work across national borders.
casamio.appSmart Boekhouden
AI processing, bank links via PSD2 and a credit system on top of the subscription. SaaS with a user-dependent model.
smart-boekhouden.nlAltena Rijschoolsoftware
A niche complete operation: planning, balances, billing with iDEAL and a portal for the end user.
Driving School Software. OnlineThey’re online: adcompro. app, casamio.app, smart-boekhouden.nl and Driving School Software. Online.
Everything that’s not your core functionality.
This is the layer everyone underestimates, and we’ve built it four times.
Bringing in customers
- Self-registration and onboarding without intervention
- Test period with a proper transition to paying
- Multiple packages or stalls
- Volume discount and annual payment
- Invite and manage teams
Collect payments
- Payments, collection and repeat invoicing
- Invoice PDFs with your own corporate identity
- Receive failed payments without losing customer
- Scale up and down mid-period
- VAT treatment, including for customers abroad
Keep things running
- Multi-tenant architecture with strict data insulation
- Roles and rights by organisation
- Monitoring, logging and automatic backups
- Scalability without rebuilding when it hits
- One API so customers can connect
Start small. Really.
The biggest mistake with SaaS is that you want to build everything the existing players have. Those features have been added in ten years, based on customers they already had. You don’t have those customers yet, so you’re building on assumptions.
We therefore start with an MVP: the smallest product that someone really helped and wants to pay for. First live version usually within four to eight weeks. Then you build out based on what users do, not what they say they want.
That’s not a cut-back but a risk spread. It saves your months of work on functions that no one was waiting for, and you’ll need that money later, when you know what to do. See also the packages for how such a trajectory has been built.
Clear answers to frequently asked questions.
How much does it cost to have a SaaS platform developed?
An MVP is a journey of several weeks with a fixed monthly capacity; an adult platform subsequently grows in rounds. The largest cost item is rarely the core functionality, but everything around it: registration, payments, rights. After one call you get a concrete estimate within a week. See sample paths and build up your quote.How long does it take until I can have paying users?
A first live version including registration and payment is usually within four to eight weeks. That is the starting point and not the end point: you want to know as soon as possible if people are willing to pay for it.What is the difference between SaaS and custom software?
SaaS is built for many customers simultaneously, with subscriptions and self-service. Custom software you build for one organization, just on her process. SaaS has more edge; customization has more customization.Whose product is it?
Code, data and the product itself are your property, we build it, we maintain it if you want to, but you’re not attached to anything.Can you help us develop the business model?
Yes, and we offer that input proactively. We run four SaaS products with subscriptions, trial periods and pricing tiers, so we know the practical challenges: converting trial users into paying customers and handling failed payments.Who’s building it?
Altena, a Dutch software company by Marcel Altena. Four own SaaS platforms live.From software idea to scalable product.
Do you have an idea for a software product? Send a few sentences about who it is to help and what it is to help with. You get a substantive response within one working day, including whether it is actually a product or better to remain customized.