There are many Top SaaS companies out there that have achieved tremendous levels of success. Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses are part of the larger cloud computing movement and accounts for close to 150 billion dollars in revenue since 2019. And as these companies and the industry continues to grow, we continue to learn from, and be inspired by, some of the best.
The availability of software such as those on the list are strong examples of the success and influence of SaaS applications in the modern business world. After all, for many, SaaS platforms such as Netflix and Dropbox are household names.
The cloud is truly powerful, empowering businesses to access special software over the cloud with fewer resources. Sometimes all that is needed is a simple web browser. In this blog post, we will take a look at six of these SaaS applications and analyze what makes them so successful. We will also explore the lessons that we can learn from them in order to help our own business achieve similar levels of success.
1. Airtable
Airtable is a SaaS business that has achieved amazing success. The company was founded in 2012 by Andrew Ofstad, Emmett Nicholas, and Howie Liu, who met at Duke University as undergraduates. Airtable started out as an internal tool for the founders to collaborate on projects together before turning it into a public product which launched in 2013 after raising nearly $700,000 in initial investment.
Since then, Airtable has grown from just being a collaboration tool to becoming one of the most popular SaaS businesses in the world. Major companies across the internet use Airtable, including Time, Netflix, Medium, and Expedia. In fact, this SaaS even helps to empower another SaaS on this very list: Shopify.
Airtable is known for its amazing user experience, boasting a beautiful interface and ease of use. It allows people who are not tech-savvy or have no coding experience whatsoever to create databases that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.
You can even integrate video into Airtable. This is one of the reasons why Airtable has been so successful; it makes complex tasks simple and accessible for everyone.
What is Airtable’s business model?
In terms of business model, Airtable follows a freemium model. The company offers a free tier that allows users to create up to two bases (databases). If they want to create more than two bases, they will have to upgrade their account.
The pricing for the paid tier starts at $12 per user per month or further depending on how many users you need (the price increases as more users are added) and the difference between the ‘Plus’ and ‘Pro’ packages.
Airtable has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company has managed to raise nearly $1.4B in funding from top investors like Silver Lake, Benchmark Capital and Caffeinated Capital. It is also valued at more than $11 billion, making it one of the most valuable SaaS businesses around today!
As information becomes more accessible and regarded as an asset for brands, more companies will look to collect and provide access to knowledge management tools to support organizing and collaborating leveraging data.
2. HubSpot
HubSpot is a SaaS business that has achieved tremendous success. The company was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, two MIT graduates who met while working at Xerox PARC together before striking out on their own to launch HubSpot.
Since then, the company has grown to become one of the most popular SaaS businesses in the world, at over 113,925 business customers across 120+ countries.
Some of these business customers are major brands such as Crunch Fitness and Airstream. Such big names say a lot about how successful HubSpot has been.
What is HubSpot’s business model?
HubSpot is known for its marketing automation software, allowing users to automate their marketing tasks like email marketing, social media campaigns, and lead nurturing, making it easier for them to focus on the strategic aspects of the customer journey.
The software is easy to use and can be easily customized to fit the needs of any business. In terms of pricing, HubSpot offers a starter tier that allows users to have up to 1000 contacts. The professional starts at $800 per month and goes all the way up to $3,200 depending on the number of contacts and features you need.
HubSpot has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company raised over $100 million in funding from top investors like Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures before going public in 2014. It also has a market cap of $22.34 billion, which makes it one of the most valuable SaaS businesses around today!
HubSpot has done so well because they have a great product and have been able to expand their offering over time. They started out with just marketing automation software then added on CRM tools like Salesforce and Pipedrive.
3. Asana
Asana is a SaaS business that was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, two former Facebook employees. The company is best known for its task management software which allows users to manage their tasks, projects, and team members in one place. As for their success, Hello Leads suggest Asana has well over 50,000 paying customers using their service.
The list of major companies and industry leaders who use Asana is incredible in scope, from major media companies such as Spotify, Comcast NBC Universal, and Time Inc., to platforms such as PayPal and GoFundMe.
What is Asana’s business model?
In terms of pricing, Asana offers a free tier that allows users to have unlimited projects with up to 15 team members per project and does not include any advanced features like Gantt charts or Kanban boards.
The paid tier starts at $10.99 per user per month and goes all the way up to $30+ depending on how many users you need (the price increases as more users are added).
Asana has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company raised over $453 million in funding from top investors like Silicon Valley Bank and Founders Fund before going public on Apr 30, 2019, with an initial price range of $21 per share (NYSE:ASAN). It has a market cap of $9.2 billion according to PitchBook Data Incorporated which makes it one of the most valuable SaaS businesses around today.
Asana has done so well because they have a great product, offer a free tier, and have been able to expand their offering over time. They started out with just task management software then added on CRM tools like Salesforce and Pipedrive before moving into the world of content creation by integrating solutions such as Zenkit.
4. Salesforce
Salesforce is a SaaS business that was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris, two former software developers at Oracle. The company is best known for its CRM software which allows users to manage their sales pipeline, customer data, and marketing campaigns in one place.
Many prominent companies across multiple industries utilize Salesforce. To name a few, there is Canon, American Express, Toyota, RingCentral, and Amazon Web Services. This is only just a small sample of the many companies that utilize this SaaS.
What is Salesforce’s business model?
In terms of pricing, Salesforce offers a paid tier that starts at $25 per user per month and goes all the way up to $300+ depending on how many users you need (the price increases as more users are added).
Salesforce has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company raised over $300 million in funding from top investors like Emergence before going public on June 23, 2004, with an initial price range of $11 per share (NYSE:CRM).
Saesforce is also valued at more than $213 billion, making it one of the most valuable SaaS businesses around today! Impressively, Salesforce’s growth has continued steadily from 2001, with revenue climbing from $5.02 million then to $19.98 billion in 2021.
Salesforce has done so well because they have a great product, offer a free tier, and have been able to expand their offering over time. They started out with just CRM software then added on marketing automation tools like HubSpot before moving into the world of content creation by acquiring companies like ExactTarget for $2.5 billion in 2013.
5. Shopify
Shopify is a SaaS business that was founded in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake, three entrepreneurs who met online. The company is best known for its eCommerce software which allows users to create their own online store and sell products/services online. Since its launch, Shopify has empowered over 1.7 million merchants to sell their wares.
Shopify is the backbone of many services that are used by millions of users. This includes Zendesk, TerraCycle, and many others across multiple industries.
What is Shopify’s business model?
In terms of pricing, Shopify offers a paid tier that starts at $29 per month and goes all the way up to $299+ depending on the features.
Shopify has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company raised over $120 million in funding from top investors like Bessemer Venture Partners before going public in May 2015 with an initial price range of $17-per share (NYSE:SHOP). It also has a market cap of 108.86B, making it one of the most valuable SaaS businesses around today!
Shopify has done so well because they have a great product and have been able to expand their offering over time and are in a prime position to gain more market share. They started out with just eCommerce software then added on payment processing tools like Stripe and PayPal before acquiring companies like Eporta in 2021.
6. Dropbox
Dropbox is a SaaS business that was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, two students at MIT. The company is best known for its file sharing software which allows users to store their files online and share them with others.
Dropbox’s list of customers is quite impressive. Major media companies such as News Corp, National Geographic, and the Sundance Institute use Dropbox in their day-to-day business.
Dropbox integrates with countless other productivity apps and email programs like Gmail or Mailbird and Office 365. The SaaS is also quite popular with education institutions as well, such as the University of Sydney, Arizona State University, and Kansai University.
What is Dropox’s business model?
In terms of pricing, Dropbox offers a free tier that allows users to have up to two gigabytes of storage space and does not include any advanced features like sharing large files or collaboration tools. The paid tier starts as low as $9.99 per month and goes all the way up to $1200 depending on the tier, with Dropbox Business Advanced being the highest tier.
Dropbox has achieved immense success in a short period of time. In fact, the company raised over $600 million in funding from top investors like JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, etc. before going public on March 23, 2018, with an initial price of $29 per share (NYSE:DBX). It has a market cap of $9.426B according to PitchBook Data, making it one of the most SaaS businesses around today.
Dropbox has done so well because they have a great product, offer a free tier, and have been able to expand their offering over time. They started out with just file sharing software then added on productivity tools like Slack before moving into the world of content creation by acquiring companies like HelloSign for $230 million in 2019.
Final Thoughts
There are so many great SaaS businesses around today and it’s amazing to see how they’ve achieved such success. We can learn a lot from these companies and apply their strategies to our own business in order to achieve similar results. Stay tuned for more posts like this where we’ll dive into the inner workings of some of the top SaaS businesses and see what makes them so successful!
Want to get into the SaaS market? Browse SaaS businesses for sale on Flippa here.
