SaaS companies are pretty popular, and that’s not a coincidence. After all, they are scalable products that don’t require much hardware equipment and can easily grow in time without big investments. While there are still some SaaS development costs, it is not that much if you have a plan in mind.
In this article, we will see how to calculate the cost of building a SaaS product.
What is SaaS?
Before you check the cost to develop a SaaS program, you need to know what SaaS is. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a server-based computing model for providing access to software applications online. This fast and scalable method of distribution allows for on-demand software delivery. Unlike traditional software deployment, there’s no need to install or maintain any hardware or third-party software.
What affects SaaS development costs?
The SaaS app cost to make depends on many different factors which you have to take into consideration before going in. Let’s see the main ones.
Your product
Today’s customers expect your product to perform. They’ll never admit that they’re comparing you to the newest releases on the market, but they will walk away if your product doesn’t give them a truly unique experience. That’s why you need to create a stunning SaaS product. However, the more complicated your project becomes, the more expensive it gets. Two factors are taken into significant consideration.
- Services sold – if you want your customers to subscribe to a product or two, then you will come up with more accessible apps, and this results in lower prices. Vice versa, multi-service products can be heavy and time-taking. This also increases the complexity and requires you to step up when choosing a team.
- Complex design – let’s say you wish to create a flashy product. Then, you might have two similar products with totally different price tags but doing the same job.
Your team
SaaS development teams are as important behind the scenes as they are to customers — and business owners should know that. This dedicated group of engineers, coders, developers, testers and managers is tasked with building a constant cycle of software updates and improvements for your product. A smaller team can bring you more flexibility on the types of features you can build. But a more extensive team could provide better quality software for your features.
Project workflow
While most businesses understand the importance of SaaS and its potential, not everyone knows how to implement it. Depending on the project’s complexity, resources, tools, and frameworks used to develop it, creating a software as a service platform can be quite costly and time-consuming. We’ve already mentioned that larger teams are more agile and can spend more time doing quality checks. They cost more but can save you lots of money, especially if the alternative is poorly written code.
How much does it cost to build a SaaS platform?
Sooner or later, this question pops into everyone’s head. But how much does it really cost to build a SaaS application? Unfortunately, you cannot say a number and expect that exact number. It can start from £18,000 for the most simple projects and go up to over a million dollars.
Phase hours
The MVP will take you approximately 150-200 developing hours. The development process can take 500-700 hours and even more, and then there’s the maintenance of at least 30-40 hours per month.
Pricing tiers
Cloud developers can cost in excess of £100 per hour. You can get someone at around $100 per hour. And even if we make the simple calculations, with the most simple calculations, you have to pay about £60,000 for a project. In Western Europe, you will probably have to splash around £45,000, and Eastern European developers can go even lower. Starting from £40, you can get a small project for less than £28,000. That’s almost three times as little but quality-wise.
Final words
Creating SaaS applications is one of the sweetest things business owners can do. You can save costs from hardware and get a scalable solution in your hands. However, SaaS development costs can be overwhelming if you don’t pay them enough attention, but with some help, you can trim them to a very bearable level.