Building a SaaS based on Wordpress?

[SparksCW]

We're currently trying to get an app made and one of the local developers we're talking to have suggested, and given us a quote, to build based on Wordpress.

At first I was a bit against it, but having done some research and looking into their reasoning it does sound pretty plausible.

I was just wondering if anyone here has built a SaaS web application with Wordpress as a backend??

The app is used for estimating jobs with some industry specific "trickery". it's essentially a very clever ecommerce site with some CRM features.

The company that have quoted it are aware of all of our future possible features and nothing seems impossible on Wordpress. They will be masking all wordpress specific URL's, custom dashboard, custom log in etc - to the paying software user they won't know it's wordpress. The Wordpress back end makes user management, content management etc. etc. really easy and thus cheaper.

The thing is, building on Wordpress is at the top of our initial budget, building bespoke is going to add another $15000 to the build cost which might delay us for some time.

Saving money is no good if the product doesn't work/isn't scalable - as I say though, they are very confident Wordpress is a commercially viable route to market.

What are your thoughts?

 

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[LittleWolfie]

WordPress is a lot more than just the plain old LAMP these days. I think your prejudice against it might simply be a result of not being technical. I'm sure you can think of something in your area of expertise which the average person would be suprised at its usefulness

Assuming your running a proper progressive web app on your own server and your dev can add in plugins as needed, it sounds like it could be suitable. You can always write your own plugin for the extra functionality.

TechCrunch, zillow and etsy all run on WordPress, and those have scaled to market pretty well.

I can think of three major showstoppers;
1) SaaS needs to work offline
2) You need to store large amounts of data on local devices and it can't be easily split or restricted only to users with supported browsers
3) You have lots of complex interactive graphics (think app game)

I can't see how any of these woukd apply to an industry-specific CRM.

The thing is, building on Wordpress is at the top of our initial budget

That's the only real point of concern I can see here. What happens if you run out of money to complete the project when there is a sudden suprised?

 

[RB96]

Wordpress is Brilliant but i would suggest going on Youtube or udemy and learning the basics for yourself as It will help drastically.

having dealt with devs, I have realized that it starts brilliantly BUT and its a big BUT most will hold you to Ransom with increased costs etc the closer you get to your milestones and deadlines. You WILL no doubt have new things come up to add to your Milestones that you initially think is enough for an MVP if you will and thats where you may get caught out.

What I am going to do now is find Devs that are interedted ina an equity share or get someone that is a Dev themselves and be a Co-Founder. Hopefully that helps but I am no Millionaire or Big Bucks Success (yet lol) just giving you my 2 cents