SaaS

A SaaS is a product strangers use. They find it, read what it does, sign up, and work in it with their own account, often for a monthly fee. It needs a front door as much as it needs the app behind it.

When to choose it

Pick SaaS, the stack of layers above the box on the dashboard.

The difference from a web app is the door. A web app opens straight into the working screens, for you and your staff. A SaaS puts a home page in front, then sign-up, then the app.

What you get without asking

• A home page first. What the product does, what it is good at, and a button to get started. Visitors read it without an account.
• Sign in and Get started in the header, opening real sign-in and sign-up screens: Continue with Google, and an email with a password. Signed in, people go into the app, with Sign out in the header.
• Each account its own data. What people enter is saved on Setherion's database, is still there after a reload and on any device, and nobody else sees it.
• Letters that go out on their own: confirming an account, resetting a password, a sign-in link, in the language of the app.
• Account actions the sign-in kit already covers: changing the email address (the new one is confirmed by a link), changing the password with a code emailed to the person, and deleting the account. Ask for the ones you want on a settings screen.
• Forms that really send, like a contact form on the home page. You read every message in Manage, under Cloud, then Forms.
• A layout for phones as well as computers.

Ask like this

Say what the product does, who signs up, and what each account keeps. Name your plans if you know them.

A SaaS for personal trainers to plan their clients' workouts: a home page
with three plans, sign-up with Google, and a dashboard of clients and sessions

A SaaS for freelance translators to track projects, deadlines and invoices,
with a free plan and a Pro plan at 9 euros a month

A habit tracker people sign up for: a home page that explains it, then
daily habits, streaks and a weekly chart for each account

A SaaS where small teams collect feedback from their customers: a form
to share, the answers in a list with tags, and a summary of each week

Pick SaaS and leave the box empty, and ideas appear under it. Pressing one puts it in the box, ready to change, and the arrow beside them, Other ideas, shows more.

Who can get in

The app's accounts are yours to look after, in the editor under Manage, then Cloud, then Users. Every account is listed there, and Sign-in settings decides who may join and how. A change applies to the published app straight away.

You can also add a person yourself, with + Add user: by an email invitation, where they choose their own password, or by creating the account with a password you pass on.

The letters these send are in Manage, under Cloud, then Emails, where you can read each one and send yourself a test. If they do not arrive, see Troubleshooting.

Charge for your plans

The plans you name show on the home page from the first build. Taking money for them is Stripe's job:

1. Connect Stripe in Manage, then Payments.
2. Under What this app sells, add each plan with its price and Monthly or Yearly.
3. Ask: "Make each plan's button start a Stripe subscription".

People pay on Stripe's own page. To cancel or change their plan, ask for "a Manage subscription button in the account settings": it opens Stripe's own billing page for that person, with nothing for you to build. Until Stripe is connected, the plan buttons say payments are not set up yet. See Online stores for the setup step by step, and where the payments arrive.

Make it yours

Good to know

• Apple accepts an app people can sign up to only if they can also delete their account. Ask for "a Delete account button beside Sign out" before you go to the app stores.
• Each plan includes a number of records and a monthly allowance for what published apps do with them. See Pricing.
• With Power Seth a SaaS gets a settings screen that saves, search and filters on its lists, and an empty, loading and error state everywhere, even unasked. See Build modes.