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3 Comments

How should I offer/sell my product? As SaaS, PaaS or Desktop App?

Hey Indies,

I come in great need of an advice.

I am almost done with building MVP for my project, it is a No-Code platform for UI testing. You can Create -> Debug -> Run -> Schedule UI tests without a single line of code.

Link: https://testnot.com
Live demo you can try here: https://demo.testnot.com/dashboard

It is like programming but with code blocks.


Now, the question is how should I offer this product?

If I go with SaaS approach:

Pros:
      - Recurring Revenue
      - No maintenance for my users
Cons:
      - If they want to test the apps on not publicly available websites they will need to allow access from my app - security  is concern to them here

If I go with PaaS approach:

Pros:
    - Well I don't have to host anything by myself
    - Users will be able to run the app on their computers
    - I won't have to worry about network traffic
Cons:
    - Missing out recurring revenue
    - I provide them with all the code

If I go with Desktop app:

Pros:
    - As above, I don't have to host anything by myself
    - Users will be able to run the app on their computers
    - I won't have to worry about network traffic
Cons:
    - Also I am giving them my code
    - I will probably need to organize paying per license 

Any suggestion on how to offer this product will help me a lot!

on June 4, 2023
  1. 3

    For the SaaS approach, I don't think anyone would be happy to open a network connection to your app and it would typically need a lot of approvals in orgs.

    For Desktop app also, most orgs need a lot of security approvals.

    Go with PaaS approach. You may miss traditional SaaS recurring revenue but you can still charge 'License fee', may be license for every 1 year.

    1. 2

      Thank you for advice!

      Last night I was calculating the pricing for PaaS approach and I will go this way. Offering one time payment which would get you docker images, also fee for additional yearly support of updates and maintenace.

      1. 1

        That's what most SaaS Starter Kit players do. This is no different.