Comment by Grollicus
6 years ago
I'd say it's even simpler: Software as a Service is a lot easier to develop than software that a third party has to install: Integration of build pipelines that deploy the software immediately are a blessing for bugfixing and you can build an insane backend out of third party dependencies noone but you has to ever install and connect to each other.
I don't like the privacy problems this generates, but in a business environment I want my stuff to work for my customers, and that means I do the hosting.
There is also the huge advantage of not having to install anything. It's already hard enough to convince my friends to switch to any open source videoconferencing in-browser solution, I would never go through having them install a whole application.
"No install" is a major selling point, unfortunately.
"No install" is a major selling point, unfortunately.
I'm not sure that's entirely true, but since most people are now familiar with the likes of mobile app stores or one-click/one-command installations that Just Work(TM), the insane complication and risk that come with trying to install and manage software on a major desktop platform like Windows is now obvious for all to see.
It depends heavily on the market.
For B2B products, it's a huge win for driving market penetration on otherwise locked-down work computers. While development and IT sometimes get exceptions easily, the majority of business users have pretty locked down machines with minimal flexibility in installing software.
For consumer markets, you're right that it may not be as big of a factor, other than user expectations on the Just Works(TM) model from app stores.
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Keep in mind that it's possible to develop Software as a Service by selling software that the user has to install - we have done it with our accounting software Solar Accounts. This approach is probably more painful to develop than the traditional web app, but it does give our users features such as (a) end-to-end security and (b) storing data locally - which are selling points for some users.
SAAS and the goals outlined in this article can be perfectly complementary if you let client-side JS do most of the work. Just because an app runs in the browser doesn’t mean that you also have to share all your data with the developer, or lose your ownership of it.