Software you sell, not software you use
Everything else on this site is software a business runs on. This is software a business sells: other people sign up, pay every month, and expect it to be there.
That changes what has to be built before launch. Accounts have to be separated so one customer cannot see another's data. Roles have to work, because a customer's own staff will have different access. Plans and billing have to be right from the first paying user, because fixing money after the fact is the most expensive kind of fixing.
What a subscription product needs before launch
- Customer accounts. Sign-up, sign-in, organisation separation, and recovery that does not need you in the loop.
- Roles and permissions. Role based access control, so your customers can administer their own users.
- Plans and billing. Recurring payments through a provider, plan changes, failed payment handling and invoices.
- An admin view. Who is on what plan, who is in trouble, and the numbers you need to run the business.
- The product itself. Whatever the thing actually does, on top of all of the above.
What it costs
Subscription software with billing starts at NZ$16,999, the highest starting point in the price guide, because the base is larger than any other kind of build. You get one fixed price, written down before we start, and anything extra is quoted separately.
How the project runs
You tell us what you want to build, a senior engineer scopes it and puts one number on it in writing, you test it as we go with something clickable in the first week, and then it goes live. After launch you choose how to run it, from self-hosting the code yourself to a monthly plan.
Key takeaways
- Applicable builds subscription software from NZ$16,999, including accounts, roles, plans and recurring billing.
- The base is larger than an internal app because every customer's data has to be separated from every other's.
- Applicable spent 10 months rebuilding Perceptive's Customer Monitor SaaS inside a live product with paying customers, until its success justified an in-house team.
- Clients own the code, the customer data and the payment provider account.
