

Ask HN: Do you run a SAAS app? - sheff

It would be interesting to see how many HN readers develop and run SAAS apps, and whether they are side projects or your primary focus.<p>And, as this is HN, what tech does your app run on ?
======
dzabriskie
We've built LeaseMatrix ([http://lease.io/](http://lease.io/)) over the last
18 months. The stack is Linux/Apache/MySQL/Rails along with Bootstrap and
Javascript. The app is a web-based alternative to a spreadsheet for commercial
lease analysis and comparison. We (obviously) use Bootstrap 2.3 with very
little customization, as most of our development focus has been on the backend
thus far because it is heavily finance focused with many complexed
calculations. We use AWS and Rackspace for hosting. Other apps we use include
Stripe (love it), Intercom (love it), Optimizely (love it), Google Maps API,
Google Charts API, Feedjit and Wordpress (for blog only). We've played around
with integrating KISSMetrics and considered Mixpanel, but our traffic volume
is such that Google Analytics + Intercom + Feedjit works well enough for now.

------
MeoMix420
I work on a YouTube music player for Chrome as a side-project:
[http://streamus.com/](http://streamus.com/). It has done reasonably well for
itself - 14k users and a 4.8/5 in the store.

I think my front-end is pretty standard: jQuery, jQuery UI, jQuery Transit,
qTip2, Backbone, Backbone Marionette, Lo-Dash, Jasmine.

Back-end is all Microsoft-land because I was more comfortable building it in
C#. NHibernate (ORM), AutoFac (Dependency Injection), AutoMapper (DTO<->Domain
object mapper), NUnit (Test). Database is MSSQL. It's hosted by AppHarbor:
[https://appharbor.com/](https://appharbor.com/)

------
seven
I just started to work a bit more on my side project Template2pdf
([http://template2pdf.com/](http://template2pdf.com/)). It is an API to enable
developers to produce nice PDFs out of templates that their customers can
modify on their own.

It runs on Debian with ruby/rails, java, postgresql and some system tools.

I also do some work on a SAAS to build wireless hotspot systems. I don't own
anything of it, but is an interesting field once you hit scalability problems.
We use all kinds of technology but the core components would be linux/freebsd,
freeradius, postgresql and ruby.

~~~
davidddavidson
The site template is a very bland and looks just like out-of-the-box
bootstrap. Also you have a typo above the signup box:

> Sign up for a free trail

should say "trial" instead of "trail"

~~~
seven
Typo is fixed. Yes, my design skills are very limited. In case more people
find the service useful I will for sure get somebody to make the page look
nicer.

Thanks for your comment.

------
nlp
I'm just finishing up work on a foreign exchange data platform:

[http://fxdata.net](http://fxdata.net)

The client is JavaScript and SVG.

Backend is Nginx, Java, and C++.

------
jlsync
My primary focus is running these two SAAS apps

[http://rotaville.com/](http://rotaville.com/) \- employee scheduling,
rosters, rota management

[http://Big.first.name/](http://Big.first.name/) \- print awesome name badges
for your event

These apps are built on a mixture of technologies including Rails, postgresql
and backbone.js

~~~
anilgulecha
What is the javascript framework you use for rotaville? Is a single app
packaged across iOS, Android and mobile web? It looks pretty good.

~~~
jlsync
The Rotaville web interface is mixture of backbone.js models along with my own
solution for view routing, view rendering/templating and also keyboard
controls.

Rotaville mobile is available on the web and also iOS and Android (using
phonegap/cordova). The backbone.js models are re-used from the web app.
jquery-mobile is used for the view styling and transitions.

~~~
anilgulecha
Sorry, diod not phrase my question right. I meant to ask what is the UI
framework you used? The one that creates touch phone like interface and look-
n-feel.

~~~
jlsync
The UI framework used for our mobile apps is
[http://jquerymobile.com/](http://jquerymobile.com/)

------
0mbre
About to launch Nota ([http://nota.io/](http://nota.io/)), a feedback/bug
tracking tool for web apps. Code base is mostly front end (Backbone) but some
PHP (laravel) on the backend as well as some nodeJS.

------
NameNickHN
I run an online appointment scheduling software
([http://www.appointmind.com/](http://www.appointmind.com/)). The software
stack is PHP and MySQL on Ubuntu. I do this alongside my my freelancer job.

~~~
amarghose
Do you mind me asking how you market that? I tried something similar in the
past and couldn't get consistent sign ups.

~~~
NameNickHN
I do Google Adwords (profitable, but no great volume), SEO, advertorials
(profitable, too), guest blog posting (meh), Twitter, APIs (MailChimp,
GetResponse), small business coaches, white label solution for partners,
partners in general (web directories, homepage builders).

Getting sign ups is a very slow process. Can be frustrating from time to time.

------
ashokvarma2
I run a Saas app called
ReportGarden([http://reportgarden.com](http://reportgarden.com)). It is
currently my primary focus.

Our stack includes Rails+Postgresql+Delayed jobs+Pusher

------
veesahni
[http://www.SupportFu.com](http://www.SupportFu.com) is my primary focus.

Backbone, Ruby, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, Redis. Everything lives in EC2

------
ra00l
I am working hard to launch www.biz-eye.com, a tool that monitors external
factors(Blacklists, PR, MozRank, etc) of a website.

