Hi all, for the last two years I’m running SaaS that helps websites to improve their SEO scores, increase organic traffic, get discovered by AI chats, e.g. modern AEO/SEO/GEO.
Disclosure: I need feedback, no links, no brand names, no self advertisement in this post.
But so far it was in B2B format (although SaaS is self-serve). Meaning long sales, onboard teams, configure everything for client, run manual reports, etc.
It’s pretty successful and I was able to build strong team, and collect some cash aside to kickoff service in a new format. B2B is difficult to scale and my main goal is to make it available to broader public.
Our first goal was to simplify integration to a few clicks. This is the moment we realized that service will need to act as proxy in front of websites. If we act as proxy we will need to issue SSL certs, and maintain DNS records, while service itself works as CDN. This was the moment when we realized that we are building something that is very similar to Cloudflare in the way it integrates, works, and operates.
What I’m trying to understand and need help with is two questions:
- If you use Cloudflare: have you ever wanted to switch? If so, why and did you manage to move away or stayed with CF?
- What would be the reason for you to switch off free Cloudflare and use its paid alternative?
I tried positioning it as “SEO-focused alternative to Cloudflare” but got a lot of negative feedback in Reddit, apparently SEO tools are still equal to snake oil for many professionals, if you have any suggestions for its “one liner” - I’d appreciate that
Top comments (2)
If a company already has an established setup, their Product Owners or dedicated DevOps engineers will almost always block a change like this. They usually have battle scars from past infrastructure tweaks that went sideways. Touching the infra level is always their absolute last resort, and they rarely want to experiment with critical layers like DNS or CDNs. It is going to be an intense uphill battle to convince established companies to rip and replace a working setup.
Instead of fighting entrenched infrastructure, your ideal self-serve audience might be creators and founders starting brand new projects (new blogs, podcasts, courses, or SaaS launches), because they have zero technical debt and no legacy infrastructure dependencies to unravel. Give them $100 in free credits.
And if its feasible go a step further than just offering free credits and become a domain reseller and cover the cost of their new domain (for standard, non-premium TLDs). If they register their domain directly through your platform, you automatically control the DNS and routing from day one.
And drop the word "alternative" entirely. Position the SaaS as a fundamental prerequisite for AI discovery.
Good luck.
Great feedback Distalx 🙏
We are definitely will be focusing on new projects. We will rollout domain registrar in 2-3 months after launch, I’m glad you had it on your mind as well.
Migrations most probably will be used for B2B sales