Ask HN: Is SaaS really so bad? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is SaaS really so bad?

8 pointswaselighis9 comments

It seems like every time someone brings up SaaS offerings, people immediately begin dunking on the idea.

Fundamentally, is the business model really so bad though? On one hand, I understand that many of these businesses tend to resort to predatory practices like vendor lock-in, price hikes, manipulate sales tactics, and more. On the other hand, it's not like businesses can't maintain their software for free forever, regularly rolling out security patches, bug fixes, and new features.

I honestly believe that we've been spoiled by the huge plethora of FOSS offerings that you never have to pay a single cent for. For example, too many people threw a tantrum when Red Hat decided to stop supporting stable releases of CentOS, but what duty do they really have to support an enterprise grade Linux distro for free forever? Even if you pay $2 for a mobile app, people will expect the developer to support it forever at no extra cost. Maintaining software isn't free, not even cheap. I believe SaaS could be a fine business model for software that requires constant maintenance and support, at least when done with trust and care. I think it's the predatory practices that many of these businesses engage in that has shattered trust in the SaaS model.

Other models simply don't work for most people. Very few independent open source developers are able to live off of donations alone. Most mobile developers aren't surviving off the sales of their mobile app. It's simply not sustainable.

I'm curious to see what you all think.

> people immediately begin dunking on the idea

If you're talking about people here, don't take it so seriously. SaaS makes the most sense for most software businesses. I will say, though, that some software is SaaS even though it's not necessary. An example I personally dislike is workout tracking apps for iOS and Android. Personally in that case it makes more sense to charge for the app and then additionally for extra workouts, than monthly IMO.

it probably depends on the customer type.

consumer - probably ads and in app purchases and pro subscription.

business - saas, possible free tier for leads.

enterprise - add consulting and plus charge alot more - more team based features and better support

devs- don't bother they're a horrible market to go after.

if your looking for HN approval your already working against yourself.

think about it like this. If some people is willing to pay you for the second years subscription your doing something right and you probably have a business.

unless someone is paying your rent you don't need their permission.

> I honestly believe that we've been spoiled by the huge plethora of FOSS offerings

Those days are slowly dying. For too long companies have leeched off FOSS, yet some have sponsored them out of good faith and respect for how valuable these FOSS offerings are. Many developers are building in business logic instead of liberally dumping their hard work on GitHub / Gitlab for everyone to leech off. This doesn't mean Open Source as an ideology is dead, just that developers are getting more business savvy.

In my mind what sucks about SAAS is the organizations, not the idea of paying a little money every month. Specifically the executives, managers, and product people who steer the decision making inside SAAS companies. They make the product suck as time goes on. Poor or non-existent customer service for paying customers, feature bloat, greed, it's just a very predictable course where these products get worse over time while the people responsible fail upward

What are some products where this is true? (you see what I'm doing here :) -- digging for ideas)

- Substack

- Twilio

- Digital Ocean

- Spotify

- SoundCloud

Spotify is just a service. They provide content

I've been working on a sustainable SaaS (for me, anyway) for a few years now, it's significantly easier to sell someone a one-off product like an ebook than a subscription

> it's significantly easier to sell someone a one-off product

That's true. I recently had more success in two months of working on one-off products than in 2-3 years of working on SaaS projects.

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