😩 7 Painful Stages of SaaS Development (Yes, You're Gonna Cry Somewhere in the Middle)
"Building SaaS is easy," they said.
"It’s just a few APIs and a login form," they said.
They were wrong. So very wrong.
Welcome to the emotional rollercoaster known as SaaS development — a journey of passion, despair, bad commits, midnight coffee, and the occasional therapy session with Stack Overflow.
Let’s break down the 7 Painful Stages every SaaS developer goes through. If you’re in the middle of one, just know: we see you. We believe in you. And you’re not alone in the abyss.
1. ✨ The “Idea High”
"This is it. The billion-dollar SaaS. No one has ever thought of this before!"
- You buy a domain (probably with "app" in it).
- You mock up some wireframes.
- You tell your friends. They nod, confused.
- You code for 14 hours straight on day one.
Mood: Invincible.
Reality: You’re building another to-do app.
2. 🧱 The MVP Swamp
"Okay so I just need login, payments, user roles, dashboard, charts, emailing, dark mode..."
- You’re 90% done, but you’ve been “90% done” for 3 weeks.
- Technical debt is already taller than you.
- You learn what CORS means... and scream.
Mood: Burned out but stubborn.
Reality: Your “Minimum” Viable Product has 94 features.
3. 🐞 The Debugging Abyss
"Why does it work on localhost but crash in production?"
- You deploy to Heroku/Vercel/Render and it dies.
- Logging? You forgot that.
- Database? Whoops, forgot to seed that too.
- Nothing works but the favicon.
Mood: Betrayed by the computer.
Reality: 90% of dev time is just fixing your own mistakes.
4. 📢 The Launch That Nobody Notices
"Just launched my startup 🚀 Check it out pls 🙏 #buildinpublic"
- You hit “launch” and expect the world to crash your servers.
- You get... 3 visits. Two are you. One is your mom.
- Someone reports a bug in the sign-up form.
Mood: Crushed ego, awkward silence.
Reality: Building is only 50%. Distribution is the other 150%.
5. 💸 The “Why Won’t Anyone Pay?” Phase
"Free plan: 72 users. Paid plan: 0."
- You realize pricing is hard.
- Your users love the product... as long as it’s free.
- You consider making it a non-profit (unintentionally).
Mood: Financial panic.
Reality: You’re providing value... but giving it away like Halloween candy.
6. 🔄 The Refactor Spiral
"Let’s rewrite the whole thing in Next.js 17 + TypeScript + AI + Blockchain..."
- You decide your entire architecture is garbage.
- You rewrite it… badly.
- You cry when you break production on Friday at 10pm.
Mood: Perfectionist spiral.
Reality: Users don’t care if you used monolith or microservices — just make it work.
7. 🔥 The Rage-to-Glory Pivot
"Screw it. I’m shipping this update and sleeping."
- Something clicks. You simplify.
- You charge $19/month. Someone pays.
- You dance alone in your room with pizza and Red Bull.
- You realize: hey, maybe this can work.
Mood: Hope restored.
Reality: The real SaaS journey is about learning, adapting, and surviving the chaos.
Final Thoughts 💡
SaaS is hard. Not because the code is hard (though it is), but because everything else is hard too: marketing, talking to users, pricing, onboarding, and even just staying motivated when no one cares yet.
But if you push through these 7 painful stages — especially stage 4, the dark night of no traction — you’ll emerge wiser, stronger, and maybe, just maybe… profitable.
"The only difference between a failed SaaS and a successful one is the number of times you didn’t quit."
Bonus Tip:
Start small, charge early, and yes — launch even if it’s ugly.
Need more laughs or tears from the trenches of SaaS? Let me know, and I’ll write “The 8th Stage: Burnout and Boba” next. 🧋
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