The main reason why some companies decide to develop their own software is the apparent cheapness of this approach. Because things are not really what they seem.
Let’s look at the main ones and weigh the pros and cons of SaaS noticed by experts of the company that provides SaaS application development services.
Option 1. You will develop a digital product for the company yourself
Of course, this is a flexible approach that will allow you to realize all your desires, but there is quite a lot of work behind it. At the same time, in-house development is possible in two scenarios – when the company does not have a development team, and when there is such a team.
The option of creating and maintaining a full-time development department is viable only if the company has plans to develop and launch more than one service. Then you will have something to occupy the development team for a long time, and probably the investments will be justified.
Option 2. If it is expensive to maintain your own development team, then the best option would be to turn to the services of a company that will make the product according to your requirements
This option is suitable for those who know the IT component of their business very well and understand what exactly they need to develop and promote the solution. As a result, you are more likely to get what you describe in the TOR. But first, you will have to pay a large amount for the initial development of the necessary system, spend time compiling the same terms of reference, agreeing on it, and constantly monitoring what is happening. If you are going to use a ready-made SaaS solution, you just need to choose the one that suits you for the most part. At the same time, the launch usually does not exceed several days, and the monthly fee is relatively low.
But you have to pay regularly for a SaaS product. Yes, as well as for your own development, because your software must be located somewhere (server fee), it may have bugs that need to be fixed (for a fixed cost or a subscription fee that exceeds SaaS payments), and what is more significant, you will probably have requests for improvement, which, of course, are additionally paid. In contrast, the cost of SaaS products already includes the amount of both problem-solving and servers, and additional features appear according to the Product Roadmap. Companies that develop SaaS products are not only technically savvy about how to write code, but also experts in the application of these solutions. Therefore, situations are extremely rare when product development will go against the requirements of customers. In addition, in this type of product, wishes are often collected from customers, and there is a high probability of getting a feature at your request for free and in a fairly short time.
In that case, here are a few more pros and cons that may influence your choice:
– SaaS solution is ready to use. You just need to choose the right one.
– Installation time of a SaaS solution is from 1 to 14 days depending on the complexity, while in-house development can take from 3 months to infinity. So, for example, at least 2 years of painstaking work have been invested in each of our products.
– The SaaS product may suddenly shut down. But usually, in such cases, companies upload all the necessary information to the client so that he can work with it further. It is not uncommon for owners of other SaaS products to import this data at home. And in order not to get into such a situation, familiarize yourself with the history of the company, its cases, and the number of customers – if there are many of them, then the product is unlikely to be unprofitable and will be closed in the near future.
– By choosing SaaS, you will have to live and put up with its roadmap. In other words, each SaaS solution has its own vision and development plan. It may turn out that the functionality you need is not included in this plan at all.
