Selecting Your Framework When Building SaaS Applications

The framework you select can make a big impact on the success of your SaaS. 

The right framework can streamline your workflow and provide robust tools to accelerate development. Choose the wrong framework, and you'll be mired in bugs, technical debt and frustratingly slow progress.

This post will walk through a few important things to keep in mind when selecting a framework.

We'll also introduce Archie, our AI-driven product architect that can help you choose the right framework.

Building A SaaS Product? Keep These Factors In Mind

One of the key characteristics of SaaS products is multi-tenancy. You're developing a single software application that is going to serve multiple customers (tenants) simultaneously.

This requires you to build for:

1. Data isolation
2. Efficient resource allocation
3. Tenant-specific customizations
4. Scalability

While also selecting a framework that:

1. Is flexible
2. Is scalable
3. Developers can build in
4. Has a track record of regular maintenance and updates
5. Has comprehensive documentation, active support and a large community
6. Includes built-in tools, templates and plugins to support rapid development

Popular Frameworks for SaaS Application Development

Here are some commonly used frameworks, along with their advantages and drawbacks:

1. Ruby on Rails

Advantages

Rails provides sensible defaults and conventions, which speed up development, and has a rich ecosystem of gems (plugins) available for almost any functionality.

Drawbacks 

Rails can be slower compared to other frameworks, especially with high concurrency, and its convention-over-configuration approach can be confusing for beginners.

2. Django (Python)

Advantages 

Django's built-in admin interface and ORM accelerate development, and it comes with built-in security features to protect against common vulnerabilities.

Drawbacks

Django encourages a monolithic structure, which can be harder to manage as the application grows, and may require additional optimization for very high traffic applications.

3. Node.js with Express

Advantages 

Node.js's non-blocking, event-driven architecture makes it suitable for high-concurrency applications, and using JavaScript for both frontend and backend simplifies development.

Drawbacks

The asynchronous nature can lead to complex code management, although modern practices like async/await can mitigate this, and security requires careful handling due to the large ecosystem.

4. Spring Boot (Java)

Advantages

Spring Boot is robust and scalable, making it ideal for large, complex applications, and provides extensive support for microservices and distributed systems.

Drawbacks

It can be overkill for smaller projects due to its enterprise focus and requires a good understanding of Java and the Spring ecosystem, which can be a steep learning curve.

5. ASP.NET Core (C#)

Advantages

ASP.NET Core offers high performance and scalability, and strong integration with Microsoft tools, making it suitable for high-traffic applications.

Drawbacks

It can be complex for those not familiar with the Microsoft ecosystem, and while ASP.NET Core itself is free, associated Microsoft tools and services can be costly.

6. Vue.js

Advantages

Vue.js simplifies the development of dynamic user interfaces with its reactive and component-based structure and is lightweight and fast, making it suitable for modern web applications.

Drawbacks

The ecosystem, while growing, is still smaller compared to React or Angular, and additional tools and practices may be required for large-scale applications.

7. Laravel (PHP)

Advantages

Laravel simplifies common tasks with elegant syntax and built-in tools like Eloquent ORM and Blade templating, and has strong community support and a vast array of packages.

Drawbacks

It can be slower compared to other frameworks, particularly for high-concurrency applications, and requires familiarity with PHP and the Laravel ecosystem.

8. Angular

Advantages

Angular provides a comprehensive solution with built-in tools for routing, state management, and form handling, and is suitable for building large-scale, complex applications.

Drawbacks

It has a steeper learning curve compared to other frontend frameworks, and its larger bundle size can impact load times and performance, especially for smaller applications.

What About Low-Code?

As we mentioned above, it's important to choose a framework that your developers know how to use. It doesn't matter if a framework ticks all of the other boxes; if it has a steep learning curve, it can kill your momentum.

Low code's absolute superpower is the ease of learning it. Any JavaScript developer can start with zero low code experience and, within 1-2 days, become 3X more productive .

But how is this even possible?

Low code, like 8base's backend-as-a-service is just an extension of existing technologies like JS, MySQL, GraphQL, and AWS. So there's very little to learn. Most developers already know everything there is to know about low code.

This means anyone can test these productivity claims  with very little risk. And if they prove to be even remotely true - you’ll know you just stumbled upon something huge.

Endless Customizations in 8base

While low-code technology is easy to learn, it's important to carefully evaluate a platform's customizability.

Setting up a backend in 8base is really easy. All you need to do is define your data model by creating database tables, and you're done.

All the GraphQL endpoints are automatically created, and the entire backend is live and ready for production .

For anyone who had to deploy a backend app to production, the simplicity of this process feels surreal.

But the benefits don't end there. For example:

• Custom Filters and Role Based Access Control gives you fine-grained data control of who gets to see/access what information.
• Autogenerated GraphQL API can be extended with custom resolvers , so you're not stuck with the default ones.
• On top of that, you don't even have to use GraphQL. Custom REST endpoints can be created with webhook functions.
• And server-side data validation can be done through trigger functions.

So, What Is The Best Framework for Building a SaaS Application?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of the best framework for SaaS applications.

The ideal choice depends on the specifics of your application, including its complexity, scale, performance requirements and your team's expertise. 

A small startup might benefit from the rapid development capabilities of Django, while a large enterprise might find the robustness and scalability of Spring Boot more suitable.

Every project is different, and that's why we created Archie.

Archie is 8base's AI-powered product architect. We fine-tuned it on every stage of the product lifecycle to create an AI assistant that not only gives you actionable feedback and recommendations on your SaaS idea, but also gives you detailed and comprehensive technical documentation.

Archie helps product leaders, engineers, agencies and stakeholders think through the difficult technical questions with their project.

It's free to try. All you need to do is give it a few details about what you're building, and you might be surprised by the insight it can deliver.

To Sum It Up

The ideal SaaS framework will depend on your specific needs, including the application's complexity, scalability, and your team's expertise.

Archie, our AI-driven product architect, can help you make an informed decision and ensure your SaaS project is built on a solid foundation.

To Learn More About 8base Low-Code Technology

• Give Archie a try (it's free!)
• Read about the 8base Backend
• Visit the Community or Documentation
• Contact sales and partnerships