FAQ
Questions We Get Before a Build Starts
The eight questions that come up in almost every first call about a SaaS build, answered the way we would answer them on that call.
1What does SaaS development cost?
A production-grade SaaS MVP covering onboarding, multi-tenancy, billing, one core workflow and admin tooling generally runs $60,000 to $140,000. A full platform with deeper workflows, integrations, analytics and a mobile app typically runs $150,000 to $350,000. Enterprise platforms with heavy compliance, complex tenancy or multi-region infrastructure start around $350,000. Cloud hosting, third-party licences, payment processing fees and audit costs sit outside the build. Every figure here is an estimate, not a fixed quote, and your exact number comes out of a two-week scoping exercise.
2How long does it take to build a SaaS platform?
A focused MVP usually takes three to five months from kickoff to first paying customer. A full platform runs six to ten months, and enterprise builds with compliance certification and multi-region infrastructure run ten months and up. The variables that move the timeline most are how many integrations you need on day one, whether you require SOC 2 or HIPAA at launch rather than later, and how many user roles the product has to support.
3What is multi-tenancy and which model should I use?
Multi-tenancy is how one running application serves many customers while keeping each customer's data separate. There are three common models. A shared database with a tenant ID on every row is the cheapest to run and the fastest to ship. A separate schema per tenant gives stronger isolation with moderate operational overhead. A separate database per tenant gives the strongest isolation and is often what regulated enterprise buyers require. The right answer depends on your customer size, your compliance obligations and your cost target, and it should be settled in architecture rather than retrofitted later, because changing tenancy model after launch is close to a rebuild.
4Do you build the billing and subscription system too?
Yes, and it is usually underestimated. We build plan and pricing configuration, seat and usage metering, trials, upgrades and downgrades with correct proration, coupons, dunning and failed-payment recovery, tax handling, invoicing, and revenue reporting that reconciles to the cent. We wire this to Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle or whichever provider fits your model, and we keep pricing logic configurable so you can change plans without a code release.
5Can you make the platform SOC 2 or HIPAA ready?
We build to the technical controls those frameworks require: encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access control, audit logging, secrets management, backup and recovery, vulnerability management and infrastructure-as-code so your environment is reproducible and reviewable. We also produce the architecture and control documentation your auditor will ask for. We are a software development partner rather than an auditor or law firm, so the certification itself is issued by a qualified third party, and we build to the requirements they and your counsel define.
6Do I own the source code and infrastructure?
Yes. You own the source code, the infrastructure accounts and the intellectual property outright, and we hand over documented repositories, infrastructure-as-code, runbooks and architecture decision records at the end of the engagement. The platform runs in your cloud accounts from the first deployment rather than ours, so there is no migration event when the engagement ends and no dependency on us to keep operating.
7Can you migrate our existing software to SaaS?
Yes, and it is one of the more common engagements we take. The usual starting point is single-tenant software installed per customer, or an on-premise product your team maintains across many versions. We assess the current codebase, design the tenancy and data isolation model, build the tenant provisioning and billing layer, then migrate customers in waves with a rollback path at each wave rather than in one switchover. Existing customer data and uptime commitments shape the sequence more than the code does.
8What happens after launch?
Most clients keep us on for platform engineering after launch, because a SaaS product is never finished. That covers monitoring and on-call coverage, incident response, security patching, cloud cost optimization, and the next round of features and integrations. We also hand over enough documentation and knowledge transfer that an in-house team can take ownership whenever you are ready, which is the point of owning the code and the infrastructure in the first place.
Still Have Questions?
Book a free strategy call and we will walk through your specific build, including the tenancy model, the billing model and what your compliance surface actually looks like.
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