Did anyone have success with using WordPress as a SaaS platform?
If It does not work, care to tell me why? What are the main problems that make WordPress not work for SaaS platforms? And If it works, please share your experience.
I would like to start developing a SaaS platform but I've been using WordPress for 10+ years so this is why I want to choose WordPress obviously. But I'm open to ideas.
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I may be wrong, but I believe Credo (getcredo.com) is built entirely on WP. Just one of dozens if not thousands of SaaS platforms built via WP.
Even though I have a love/hate relationship with WordPress, it’s hard to deny that the sheer scale and implementation of WordPress has created some insane possibilities.
I currently run a SaaS built in Laravel, and a SaaS built in WordPress. The difference is that I had to hire someone to flesh out the Laravel app, but I built the WP app myself. I’m a crappy developer, but that means I can easily adjust and change the WP app at a moment’s notice, while maintaining the Laravel app can be a real pain for me.
Yes. Many companies have done that. Many have later done rewrites in an MVC stack like Cake or Laravel after getting traction and money to pay for it.
I've recently been thinking an idea to Plugin WordPress, but I've fear of anyone easily copy and resell it.
Are you a maker or marketer? If you are marketer, let's talk. We can build that awesome thing if you've validated the idea. :) The market is so saturated, how are you sure that your idea is unique? I say so because you're afraid someone can copy the general idea and do it.
Hey @ahmedfouad, I've recently been working on building a licensing api for WordPress plugin/theme developers (https://keykit.io) and would love to hear more about what it is you're thinking about building!
The model that I've seen work in the WordPress world usually revolves around building a plugin/theme and using a licensing model to offer users upgrades/automatic updates, monthly/yearly support, or other advanced features. Are you thinking your platform would provide resources for WP developers to achieve this more effectively, or perhaps something else entirely?
Hey @zanzibar, that sounds like a great idea. Is it off the ground already? And have you managed to market it to plugin authors yet? Looks awesome already!
The thing I am trying to build is something else entirely, I would like to use WordPress MU to build a SaaS networking platform, which users can use to build a community around anything with user profiles, messaging, feed posts etc. The only thing that is concerning me is that "MightyNetworks"and others are already established and they're doing really well.
Also for your project, I think the competition is high as well. You have freemiums which is very popular WordPress platform, and EDD licenses plugin. Both are well popular. Do you do marketing also? If so, how is it going so far?
Thanks @ahmedfouad! I'm still just starting to roll it out, so far it's a slow process. (If you have any ideas on the best way to reach out to that audience I would love to hear!)
I think those are all great points though. I don't know a lot about Freemiums to be honest, but I think EDD's licensing extensions are only available/usable for people who are using EDD. Additionally, because what I'm working on is an API as oppose to a WordPress plugin, there's not any lock-in to what platform someone has to use to distribute their product and create license keys if that makes sense.
@zanzibar I'd start posting more often on Twitter and engage with as many plugin authors as much as I can. I do not have the actual stats but there are thousands of premium WordPress plugins and lot of them have twitter accounts. Having a licensing system that is not tied to another plugin is great as in your case.
So I think yea, go on Twitter, follow plugin developers and authors, offer them a trial and get the ball rolling. Also I'd contact the major WordPress blogs and let them know "Hey I built an awesome API tool for WordPress, you might be interested in reviewing it.. and explain it" WPMayor, WPKube, WPBeginner, WPExplorer, are just a few on the top of my head.
Best of luck with your service!
If anyone managed to make this work, please I am interested as well. It must have been quite a feat!
@ahmedfouad, if you are interested to try out Rails or Django, there are quite a few very good solutions, some fully open source, like what we are building at DjaoDjin (https://github.com/djaodjin/djaoapp/).
Thanks for the reply @smirolo. I've been thinking about WordPress for some time and I can't find why It should not work. It would save tons of time and money for a developer to build upon a solid framework/cms already. But still hearing actual experiences is gold. I hope someone will enlighten us a little about this topic.
Unfortunately, I never learnt Ruby. Used PHP like a textbook for years and also the fact that I worked with WordPress a lot. It left no chance to learn something new, but now I have a good idea for a SaaS platform, it's just that WordPress + SaaS might seem a bit odd. I'm trying to find out more :)
Yes. If you are fluent in PHP maybe starting with Laravel might work best. Maybe something like https://spark.laravel.com/ ?