What makes SaaS different
A SaaS product isn't just a web app with a login. Every customer is a tenant whose data must stay separate, every plan needs billing logic, every team needs roles and permissions, and every release has to ship without breaking accounts that already pay you.
A team that hasn't built those foundations before will learn on your budget, and retrofitting tenancy or billing after launch is far more expensive than designing it in. That's the first thing to test when you compare companies.
The checklist
What to look for, and the answers that should worry you:
| What to check | Good sign | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-tenancy | Explains how tenant data is isolated, e.g. row-level security | "We'll add team accounts later" |
| Billing | Has shipped subscription billing with trials, seats or usage | Plans hard-coded into the interface |
| Scope | Proposes a smaller MVP with a written feature list | Quotes everything you asked for, unquestioned |
| Ownership | Repository, cloud and payment accounts in your name | Hosts the product on their own accounts |
| Progress | A demo on a staging link every week | A big reveal at the end of the month |
| Team | You meet the engineers who'll build it | You only ever speak to sales |
| Security | Auth, roles, audit logs and backups in the plan | "We'll harden it after launch" |
Questions to ask before you sign
- Which SaaS products have you built, and what did your team build on each?
- How will you separate one customer's data from another's?
- How will billing handle trials, upgrades, failed payments and cancellations?
- What would you cut from our feature list to launch sooner?
- Who will work on our project day to day, and can we meet them?
- How do you test, review code and deploy?
- What do we own at the end, and when do accounts transfer to us?
- What happens after launch: who fixes bugs and builds the roadmap?
Fixed price, time and materials or a dedicated team?
A fixed price per milestone works when the scope is clear, typically for an MVP with a signed-off feature list. Time and materials suits products whose scope will change as you learn from users. A dedicated team makes sense once you have a roadmap and need steady capacity month after month.
Many products move through all three: a fixed-price MVP, then time and materials while you find product-market fit, then a dedicated team. If you need engineers inside your own team, see how to hire React developers or Next.js developers.
What a good first month looks like
- Week 1: discovery. Users, plans, the core workflow and success metrics agreed in writing.
- Week 2: clickable flows for sign-up, the core workflow and billing, reviewed before code.
- Weeks 3–4: authentication, tenancy and the first slice of the core workflow on a staging link.
- Every week: a demo, a short written update and a list of decisions that need you.
How we approach SaaS builds
Our SaaS development work designs tenancy, roles and billing in from the first sprints, usually on Next.js, TypeScript, Node.js and PostgreSQL. A focused MVP typically takes 8–16 weeks, and if you're still validating the idea, our MVP development process starts with a scoping workshop and a clickable prototype.
We also build and run SaaS products of our own. The Deeporax case study shows credit-based billing and scheduled publishing in production, and the Grokified case study covers a prepaid API product with usage reported on every request.
Frequently asked questions
A focused SaaS MVP with sign-up, the core workflow, billing and an admin panel typically takes 8–16 weeks. Larger platforms are delivered in phases after launch.
Freelancers can work for a narrow, well-defined piece. A company is usually safer for a whole product, because you need design, front end, back end, DevOps and continuity if someone leaves.
Choose a mainstream stack your future team can hire for. Next.js and TypeScript with Node.js and PostgreSQL is a common, well-supported choice, with Stripe for billing.
You. The repository, cloud hosting, domain and payment accounts should be in your company's name from day one, with the development company added as users.
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