These days, numerous companies are turning to SaaS products to improve their business operations.
The shift has been largely motivated by the global pandemic, but there are other reasons why such products are becoming more appealing to growing companies. The most common ones are saving costs, easy implementation, and increased productivity.
Because of this, there’s been a considerable increase in the number of SaaS apps companies use, and the popularity of SaaS products will only continue to grow.
If you want to join the ranks of successful SaaS companies, then you’ll need a lucrative product idea. Luckily, there are still some niches you can explore which aren’t overly saturated.
So to get you started, here is a list of some SaaS startup ideas to inspire you.
Marketing Automation Software
Marketing automation helps companies streamline and automate their marketing activities.
The purpose of automation software is to increase efficiency by handling repetitive tasks such as email marketing or social media posting while providing a personalized experience for customers. Such solutions also measure the results of different promotional campaigns.
The best part is that marketing automation is a highly profitable SaaS niche, and demand for such solutions is still high.
However, the problem is that there are also many established competitors, like a well-known HubSpot. The company offers an all-in-one marketing automation solution, and today, they have over 100,000 customers and a $1 billion annual recurring revenue.
Source: HubSpot
But even with such tough competition, marketing automation software is still a great startup idea to consider.
Live Streaming Platform
Live video is deeply integrated into our daily lives. Who among us hasn’t watched at least one live news broadcast or sports live stream?
If you’re not convinced that building a live streaming platform is a viable idea, just consider the fact that Twitch, a leading platform in this niche, has had a total of 6.34 billion hours of watch time in 2021.
Source: Twitch
The industry is growing, and the use of live streaming platforms is expanding. The worldwide pandemic has made this trend even more notable, since people have started sharing live videos with other people to a larger degree.
With a great live streaming platform, companies have also been able to reach large audiences remotely, but it has also been helpful for schools and individuals.
So, you should consider tapping into this profitable industry because the need for live streaming platforms is only going to grow.
Team Collaboration Software
Once working environments have become predominantly remote, the demand for team collaboration software has skyrocketed. In fact, the use of collaboration software increased by 176% just in May 2020.
But even after the pandemic is long forgotten, you can count on the demand continuing to rise, as many organizations (like Facebook and Shopify) adopt remote work as a standard.
So, many businesses are considering different tools that will enable them to manage projects virtually and improve employee productivity in the coming years.
The leader in this area is Slack, which covers almost 70% of the market share for team collaboration software. Nearly 10 million people use Slack daily.
Source: The Verge
However, as the industry grows, there is still room for innovative, new startups that can offer customers cutting-edge platforms for communication and collaboration. Yours could be one of them.
Property Management
Property management software is designed to help property owners stay on top of their rentals, tenants, and finances. They include features like tenant screening, posting vacancies, and managing online rent payments.
AppFolio is an example of a successful property management software for users with residential and commercial properties. Its focus is on management and leasing.
With SEO tools estimating over 70,000 monthly visitors from search engines for AppFolio, we can say that property management has a big audience and is a lucrative niche to explore.
Source: AppFolio
The good news for new SaaS entrepreneurs is that this is still a new niche with relatively little competition. This means it doesn’t take a lot of effort or resources to study your competitors and get into this industry.
Content Planning App
Content as a marketing strategy is applicable across the majority of industries.
Nearly 40% of marketers consider it an indispensable part of their strategies. As a result, they keep increasing their investments into content marketing year by year. But planning and creating content requires a lot of work.
That’s why many companies rely on content planning software like Concured to help them with mapping out, analyzing, and producing content for their specific needs.
Source: Concured
While the demand for such SaaS solutions is high, the competition is also on the rise. Nevertheless, if you can help your customers with all aspects of content creation, you can become a part of a highly profitable SaaS niche.
Meeting Management SaaS Startup
From small companies to large enterprises, meetings are a crucial part of business. Regular meetings facilitate the exchange of ideas and the development of a strategy for the company’s business operations.
However, ineffective scheduling systems often hinder meeting management. Meetings can overlap, or the intended participants can miss them because they weren’t notified of them on time. In the meantime, make sure to reduce background noise and focus on other technical aspects of your meetings.
This is where having an automated meeting management software can help.
If you’re thinking about developing a product for this niche, you’ll be joining a whole host of other SaaS startups. One of them is Calendly, which offers a software solution enabling companies to schedule meetings and events for teams and individuals. There are also several Calendly competitors you can try to see which is best for you
Source: Jea Digital Media
These SaaS solutions are easy to use, and the demand is high. So if this is where you want to take your business, now is the best time.
Workforce Management
The shift to remote working has already been in motion before 2020. The pandemic has only accelerated the transition and allowed more people to see the benefits of working from home.
The appeal of remote work is so great that only 3% of employees say they want to work in a physical office full time. Others prefer a hybrid model where their working hours are split between working from home and in the office.
This puts a lot of pressure on managers as they strive to manage their workforce efficiently.
So, companies like ADP have developed workforce management software to help businesses track employee work, schedules, and paid time off.
Source: ADP
You can join ADP in the workforce management software market to help companies solve the increasing problems with having to manage different kinds of employees.
In this area, the competition is fierce, but every product has its own angle, and the demand exists.
Video Editing Software
Recent research shows that customers watched more videos in 2020 than ever before. But it’s not just the result of a lockdown and spending more time on the Internet.
Customers prefer watching videos to learn about products and brands. So naturally, 68% of marketers report that video had a better return on investment than other forms of content, and that they’d create more videos if they had an easy way to do so.
So if you want to facilitate their efforts, think about developing video editing software.
This kind of software allows users to create engaging videos with different effects, filters, and similar elements. You can help brands establish their online presence with quality video content so people can learn about their favorite products.
Even though Adobe is one of the leaders in this industry with its suite of products, many smaller companies have found ways to carve out space for themselves, like Corel with VideoStudio.
Source: Corel
If you consider the fact that people, on average, watch 18 hours of online video content per week, you can expect the demand for high-quality videos to increase.
Companies will always need good video editing software to cater to those needs, so why not be one of their solutions?
Note Taking App
Whether you are a student, a team leader, or a CEO, you’ll find note taking a common activity.
While there are some established companies in this niche, such as Evernote, the market allows for new ideas and solutions. Notion proved that.
Source: Notion
When it was first launched, Notion was primarily intended as a note-taking app for students. But the company soon developed into an all-in-one productivity platform for individuals and teams.
Apart from note-taking, customers can also manage projects, track tasks and organize day-to-day priorities.
The company’s $2 billion value proves that there is a great demand for similar apps. And you can be one of them.
Telehealth Platform
It is no surprise that COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of telehealth software.
Telehealth platforms provide services and support for private, secure virtual consultations for doctors, hospitals, or clinics. The software has tools for live videoconferencing and remote patient monitoring.
Moreover, many medical institutions and practitioners see other advantages to these SaaS offerings.
For instance, such solutions bring quality healthcare for people living in remote communities. Simply having virtual consultations with a healthcare professional can positively impact an individual’s wellbeing.
But to showcase how profitable this industry actually is, let’s look at one of the bigger players, Teladoc, with a net worth of $23 billion.
Alongside them, there are at least 100 other companies offering some type of telehealth software. Overall, the global telehealth market is expected to reach $636 billion by 2028.
So, with medical needs growing worldwide, this is an ideal opportunity for SaaS startups to implement new ideas in the telehealth market.
E-Invoicing SaaS
Digitizing documents helps combat tax evasion and financial fraud, so governments are increasingly demanding transitions from manual to electronic invoices.
So, it is no surprise that studies estimate that the e-invoicing market will reach $15.5 billion by 2027.
Some companies like Freshbooks have already successfully integrated into the market.
Source: Freshbooks
With e-invoicing software, businesses can accelerate invoice approval, improve accuracy and reduce fraud. Because everything is automated, customers save a lot of time and effort when it comes to billing.
If you have some expertise in the field and want to provide your own solution for the e-invoicing market, why not start today?
CRM for Freelancers
More and more professionals are opting for freelance work.
But because they’re their own bosses, freelancers have to manage everything regarding their work themselves. That makes the CRM niche a profitable area for startups to implement new products.
Specialized CRM products can help freelancers track customer interactions, access analytics, and reporting tools. Bonsai, a freelance-first product suite covers everything from proposals, to taxes.
Source: Bonsai
You can join other successful companies like Bonsai in providing freelancers the freedom they want, and help organize their work lives.
Social Media Management Startup
Did you know that there are 4.3 billion social media users in 2021?
Social media has been a great way for Internet users to stay in touch with their family and friends, but also a source for them to find inspiration to buy products.
That is why almost 89% of marketers use social media platforms to distribute organic content to their customers. Social media posts are a great way for businesses to interact with their customers and spread awareness about their products.
However, not many of them know how to distribute that content. At least 33% of marketers claim they face content distribution challenges.
That’s where you can come in with a brilliant social media management tool!
Source: Hootsuite
Just like Hootsuite, you can help marketers deliver quality content to the right audience. The important features of these tools are scheduling and operating with multiple social media platforms, so your customer’s messaging is consistent and timely.
Car Parking App
Every car owner living in a busy urban area knows how difficult it is to find a parking spot. Laying hold of one during rush hour is simply impossible.
That’s where savvy SaaS entrepreneurs come to the rescue! Many have developed useful mobile apps to find available parking spots, like ParkWhiz. This app shows you available parking spots in garages, lots, and venues in over 300 cities.
Source: ParkWhiz
But there’s more good news!
Apart from it being potentially profitable, new startups will be pleased to know that the competition in this niche is relatively low. So you can confidently put your foot in the door and possibly lead the market with the best product for car parking.
Personal Habit Tracking App
Building good habits is always beneficial. So why not serve the growing community that tracks how many times a month they did yoga or how many days in a row they repeated some activity?
There’s a special satisfaction in building a streak and seeing your progress over time, right?
If you want to bring other people the same satisfaction, look into developing a habit tracker. These products can help customers track anything they want, and it’s a powerful way to reach personal milestones.
What does a good habit tracker need?
You can look at what Habitify offers.
Source: Habitify
They have an interesting feature in which you can create categories in which to sort one’s habits. The defaults are Morning, Afternoon, and Evening, but users can add their own.
Also, users can set reminders for each habit they track. It’s pretty handy for anyone needing a reminder to take important medicine or pick up gym equipment. Finally, like any other habit tracker, Habitify has a Progress tab that lets users see data and their general progress.
Why is this SaaS startup idea worth pursuing?
Because habit trackers are versatile and popular across many demographics. You’ll undoubtedly find an audience who will use your product, so don’t be too worried about competition.
Accounting SaaS Startup
Now, we have some good news and bad news regarding accounting as a startup idea.
The bad news is that the competition is quite considerable. There are over 300 apps that offer accounting solutions.
However, the good news is that accounting software will always be in demand. Simply put, everyone needs to handle their finances.
Moving financial data to the cloud helps customers manage their banking accounts and provides an easy and comprehensive overview of their financial health.
The need is so great that Forbes Business Insights expect the accounting software market to reach $20 billion by 2026.
That is also why companies like Xero managed to raise the number of their subscribers by 20%, which resulted in a $790 million revenue for the company in March 2021.
Source: Xero
This might be the most common SaaS startup idea, but it’s an incredibly lucrative one. If you have some expert knowledge in the field and you want to help your customers with their accounting needs, then go for it!
Online Courses Platform
The first massive online open course (MOOC) platform was established in 2007, and the e-learning industry has been growing ever since.
Soon enough, some of the most popular online learning platforms like Udemy and Coursera were created to provide online education to millions of people.
Source: Udemy
What do customers see in online learning platforms?
For one, platforms allow access to quality education whenever the students want. It’s extremely useful for educational institutions, but many corporations are also taking advantage of online education as they provide training to their employees for their business purposes.
This means the field is brimming with opportunities.
However, if you choose to build one, you will also need to tackle administrative elements like registration, billing, and user management. Luckily, there are software solutions like Regpack that can take care of this aspect of running an educational platform.
But more importantly, is this industry profitable? Well, some estimate that the MOOC market is currently worth $5.16 billion.
So, if you’re still debating whether developing an online course platform is a suitable SaaS startup idea, now you have two good reasons why you should do it: increasing demand and profitability.
Conclusion
In the end, all great businesses start with a single idea.
Hopefully, you’ve found your niche in this list of startup ideas worth exploring and that we’ve managed to inspire you to turn your ideas into profitable SaaS products.
Remember that even with increased competition in some areas, you can still find space for your product. All you need is a unique angle to set yourself apart!
