What is SaaS?

As you might have already guessed, the SaaS definition is "Software as a Service". This type of software is being delivered online via a browser and is hosted by the software vendor or another third party. A regular monthly fee is being charged for the use. On rare ocasions there are one time payment deals. The vendor of the web-based solution delivers a service that covers all security, availability and performance standards. An Internet connection is all the client needs in order to access the service.

The services that we, WebSitePulse.com, provide are a great example of SaaS. Creating an account is very simple and only takes a couple of minutes. To do that a customer should simply fill a few fields here and click the Sign Up button. Once logged in, a monitoring target can be created in a matter of minutes. The whole process from creating an account to actually starting to use the service is less than 10 minutes, which is very convenient as there are no installations involved.

What is SaaP?

SaaP stands for "Software as a Product" and it is the increasingly less popular type of software being used these days. It requires the client to purchase a license for a software solution that will be hosted on the client’s computer. The one-time fee is more expensive compared to the monthly fees a SaaS software would have, but there are no further payments to be made except for the initial one. Upgrading the product in the future or installing an add-on for it might incur additional costs. Aditional costs may occur if you want to install the software on another computer.

SaaP software is usually more customizable than SaaS as you own the software and run it on your machine.

Monitoring SaaS and SaaP

SaaP software requires special tools to be installed in order for it performance to be monitored, if such tools are available at all. For proper saap monitoring, the machine the software is installed on must be on and online all the time. On the other hand, SaaS being web-based is much easier for its performance and availability to be monitored.

We have a lot of clients that rely on us to let them know if their SaaS applications are working properly. This is usually done with a Web Transaction or an In-Browser monitoring level. Both monitoring levels will simulate a real-user experience and will follow a predefined scenario, consisting of several steps to ensure that the SaaS solution is 100% operational and available.

SaaS software is becoming increasingly more popular and it seems that the trend will continue in the future because of its scalability, versatility, ease of integration and monthly billing. However, if you need a more customizable and functional solution, SaaP might be the way to go.