SaaS Platform Development

SaaS platform development

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a software delivery model where the application runs in cloud and users pay for access by subscription. Technically: multi-tenancy, billing management, self-service onboarding, automatic updates, and SLA.

Multi-tenancy architectural solutions

Pool model (shared everything): all tenants in one DB, isolated by tenant_id field. Risks data leak on query error, harder meeting customer isolation requirements.

Silo model (isolated): each tenant — separate DB or instance. Maximum isolation, expensive to scale to thousands.

Bridge model: shared infrastructure, separate PostgreSQL schema per tenant. Balance between isolation and cost.

Choice depends on market: enterprise-SaaS (banking, healthcare) requires silo, SMB-SaaS benefits from pool model.

Billing and subscription management

Implementing billing yourself is bad. Standard choice:

Stripe Billing: subscriptions, trials, usage-based billing, automatic failed payment handling (dunning), coupons, taxes (Stripe Tax).

// Create subscription
const subscription = await stripe.subscriptions.create({
  customer: 'cus_xxx',
  items: [{ price: 'price_pro_monthly' }],
  trial_period_days: 14,
  metadata: { tenant_id: 'tenant_123' }
});

Paddle: alternative with Merchant of Record function — Paddle handles VAT calculation and payment in different countries. Good for B2C SaaS going international.

Chargebee / Recurly: advanced tools for complex pricing (seats, usage, flat + overage).

Pricing models

Hybrid model (base subscription + overage) is most popular for variable consumption SaaS.

Self-service onboarding

After signup, users must get value without salesperson. Typical onboarding:

1. Signup → create workspace (tenant)
2. Email verification
3. Wizard: profile setup, first object (project/team/document)
4. Feature discovery: tooltips, empty states with CTA
5. Activation event: first key action, after which user is "activated"

Activation event determined by analytics: which action correlates with 30-day retention.

Feature Flags and plans

Functionality divided by plan via feature flags:

// Laravel example
if ($tenant->plan->hasFeature('advanced_analytics')) {
    // show analytics section
}

Flags stored in plan_features table. Can also use LaunchDarkly or Unleash for A/B tests and gradual rollout.

SaaS Metrics

Key metrics to monitor:

• MRR / ARR — monthly/yearly recurring revenue
• Churn rate — % customers canceling subscription
• LTV / CAC ratio — lifetime value to customer acquisition cost
• NPS — Net Promoter Score
• Time to value — signup to activation event

Technical stack

Timeline

MVP SaaS (auth, multi-tenancy, one core feature, Stripe subscriptions, self-service onboarding): 3–5 months. Full platform with usage-based billing, teams, advanced analytics, integrations API: 6–12 months.