{"id":873,"date":"2014-02-25T01:44:29","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T09:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/?p=873"},"modified":"2014-02-25T01:45:21","modified_gmt":"2014-02-25T09:45:21","slug":"what-is-saas-pros-and-cons-for-using-it-for-your-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/873\/what-is-saas-pros-and-cons-for-using-it-for-your-website\/","title":{"rendered":"What is SaaS, pros and cons for using it for your website"},"content":{"rendered":"

No typo, we are talking about SaaS – the acronym for “Software as a Service”<\/strong>. \u00a0It means that you pay to get access to the software online; once you stop paying, you lose that access. \u00a0\u00a0The software and associated data\u00a0are centrally hosted on the “cloud”\u00a0. \u00a0Examples of SaaS simple website builders include\u00a0Wix, Weebly, and VistaPrint<\/a>, SaaS e-commerce website builders include\u00a0Volusion, BigCommerce, Shopify<\/a>, and SaaS social networking website builders include\u00a0Wild Apricot<\/a>,\u00a0Ning<\/a>, and\u00a0SocialGo<\/a>. \u00a0While there are some advantages to SaaS, the disadvantages can outweigh the good for you so that it’s not the best choice for your website.<\/p>\n

Let’s compare the pros vs the cons of SaaS, along with alternatives:<\/strong><\/p>\n

SaaS Pro:<\/strong>\u00a0Software upgrades and updates are handled automatically.<\/p>\n

SaaS Con:<\/strong>\u00a0You can’t control when and if you get the software updated.<\/strong> \u00a0Maybe you would prefer to use the older version at the time, but you don’t get the choice with SaaS. \u00a0Sometimes newer versions of software have less features as they are getting built, or may introduce new bugs – customers of the GoDaddy website builder v7, for example, have posted reviews with those complaints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alternative:<\/strong> You can get free upgrades and updates services with special offers – we offer install\/upgrades services free, for example, on UltimateWB when you host with us. (optional choice)<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 You can also just take care of the updates yourself. \u00a0For UltimateWB, it just involves uploading the new software files and then going to the update page on your website and it will run the update script for you.<\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Pro:<\/strong>\u00a0You don’t have to worry about a separate web hosting account. \u00a0No need to worry about hardware.<\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Con:<\/strong> You are losing your choice of web hosting. \u00a0You stop paying for your web hosting account, you lose your website. \u00a0Your website is connected to your web hosting account. \u00a0If the website builder doesn’t offer an export function or save function, you can’t take a break from your web hosting payments or you will have to start your website over from scratch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alternative:<\/strong> Get a good web host –\u00a0most web hosting companies take care of the hardware for you anyways! – it’s called managed web hosting<\/strong>, available even for VPS (Virtually Private Servers) or a Dedicated Server. \u00a0Just make sure to choose a good web host, and that the server is compatible with the website builder software you would like to use. \u00a0This is as easy as emailing the web host with the Server Requirements page, for example\u00a0this page<\/a>\u00a0for UltimateWB software.<\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Pro:<\/strong>\u00a0Subscription based model instead of purchasing upfront. \u00a0Can cost less to get setup.<\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Con:<\/strong> You pay the fees they set – you can’t switch web hosting because your website is attached to your web hosting.<\/strong> \u00a0Just paying a monthly or yearly cost for keeping your website online – a subscription payment – instead of having an upfront flat fee cost for the software, like with UltimateWB, plus the web hosting of your choice, does not mean you will be paying less. \u00a0It doesn’t mean you will be paying less in total or even on a monthly basis if you were to just get a separate web hosting account and install the website builder on your server, i.e. a self-hosted solution.<\/p>\n

Alternative:<\/strong> Self-hosted solution: you choose your web hosting, you choose your website builder. \u00a0You have flexibility and more control of your costs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Pro:<\/strong> Easy to manage your website via an admin panel from any computer with internet access.<\/p>\n

SaaS\u00a0<\/strong>Con:<\/strong> That is a very important feature, but you can get that with website builder software you upload to\/use on your own server, without losing your flexibility.<\/p>\n

Alternative:<\/strong> Use website builder software that has an online admin panel, while also being downloadable software – i.e. you can download the software and install it on your own web hosting account. Like UltimateWB.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A self-hosted solution for your website doesn’t have to be complicated. \u00a0Choosing good companies to work with that provide great tech support is important. \u00a0We do provide\u00a0web hosting packages<\/a>\u00a0in addition to the\u00a0Ultimate Web Builder software<\/a>\u00a0which are available as an optional add-on.<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Hosted solution, self-hosted website, and the best of both worlds
\n<\/a>What is the difference between hosted website builders and website builder software?<\/a><\/p>\n

Find website builder comparison charts here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

\n \n \"good-better-best\"\n <\/picture>\n <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No typo, we are talking about SaaS – the acronym for “Software as a Service”. \u00a0It means that you pay to get access to the software online; once you stop paying, you lose that access. \u00a0\u00a0The software and associated data\u00a0are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,100],"tags":[530,523,200,638,126,241,639,130,529,18,384,153,392],"class_list":["post-873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-website-builder-software-comparison","category-web-hosting-2","tag-bigcommerce","tag-hosted-solution","tag-ning","tag-saas","tag-shopify","tag-socialgo","tag-software-as-a-service","tag-vistaprint","tag-volusion","tag-web-hosting","tag-weebly","tag-wild-apricot","tag-wix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatewb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}