Microservices Architecture for Your SaaS App

Software as a service (SaaS) is one of the most popular software delivery models today. According to the 2024 report from GII Research, the SaaS software market was valued at $248.76 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2%, reaching $325.84 billion by 2028.

The ability to generate stable income from monthly or annual user subscriptions is one of the reasons why SaaS software development has become increasingly popular among tech companies. However, a SaaS product needs a future-proof architecture to grow and expand, so the company can increase its revenue over time. Due to its scalability, flexibility and security, microservices is the best architectural solution for SaaS applications.

This article highlights reasons to opt for a microservices architecture for your SaaS app project and provides tips for implementing it.

How Microservices Architecture Fosters Digital Transformation in SaaS Businesses

Microservices architectural style implies developing and deploying software as a set of small components, or services, that are connected but work independently (a typical microservice has a separate business logic and a dedicated database). Such a microservice commonly fulfills one function, for instance, user authentication or invoice generation.

The microservices architecture is an efficient solution for building a more future-proof and flexible SaaS business. By splitting up their SaaS solutions into modular and more manageable components, businesses can expand or upgrade their SaaS solutions and improve their performances faster, which in turn contributes to a company’s cost-effectiveness.

Westech, an international martech provider, implemented microservices to modernize its SaaS application infrastructure. The company managed to accelerate new feature delivery from more than a year to a few months and weeks and thus became able to meet customer demand faster. Microservices also helped Westech reduce the number of physical servers by 50% and cut IT maintenance costs.

Another SaaS business providing a video commerce platform, AiBUY, migrated its entire backend to the microservices architecture to streamline the solution’s maintenance and reduce costs. As a result, the company accelerated the deployment of new releases from 40 hours to 30 minutes and decreased overall feature delivery costs by 30%.

Benefits of Using Microservices in SaaS Development

• Enhanced software scalability

The modular microservices architecture can provide numerous advantages for a SaaS solution, and advanced scalability is among them. Scalability is essential for a SaaS app. If an app experiences performance issues when the number of users, data, or transactions goes up, a business can not expand its customer base and grow steadily.

Microservices architecture can help businesses overcome scalability limitations and easily handle increased traffic and workload by allowing them to scale individual services on demand instead of scaling an entire monolithic app. So, if the number of user requests to a particular service increases rapidly, there are multiple ways for administrators to ensure its stable performance easily.

• Advanced cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is another critical issue for SaaS business owners. 31% of respondents to the State of SaaSOps 2024 survey by BetterCloud say that securing SaaS applications is their top concern. Cybersecurity risks can also increase when a SaaS business evolves and its product becomes more complex.

If the architecture is designed properly, microservices can be more secure than monolithic architecture due to their modularity. For instance, developers can isolate microservices from one another to minimize the potential attack surface. So, if a service is in any way compromised, malefactors cannot access other parts of a SaaS product.

• Improved technological flexibility

In addition, a microservices architecture can provide a SaaS vendor with enhanced technological flexibility. Since each microservice can be written in a different programming language, a company can use the most efficient combination of technologies and add new microservices to its product written in any language or technology, regardless of the technology used across existing services.

Three Tips to Implement Microservices in Your SaaS Project Smoothly

Development and maintenance of microservices software can in some aspects differ compared to those of apps with monolithic architectures, so companies should approach the implementation properly. These recommendations can help streamline microservices adoption.

Adopting Microservices Gradually

If a business plans to migrate an already existing SaaS app to microservices, it should be done gradually. For example, its IT team can start by migrating to microservices less critical app components or those with fewer dependencies. After making sure that migration does not compromise the security and performance of a SaaS product, the company can scale its use of microservices.

Following the Twelve-Factor App Framework

A company that builds a new SaaS product based on the microservices architecture should follow the Twelve-Factor App software development framework, which lists best practices for creating more scalable and reliable web applications.

In particular, the framework prescribes creating apps without hidden dependencies between software components, as they can negatively affect software flexibility and security. So all dependencies that are not specified in a software bill of materials (SBOM) document must be removed.

In addition, the Twelve-Factor App framework mandates scaling a SaaS microservice by adding more microservice instances, instead of allocating more CPU, RAM, or other resources. The reason is that distributing workload across multiple service instances provides better resource utilization and increases scalability.

Allocating a Multi-Faceted IT Team

A business needs an experienced and well-versed team to build a robust SaaS product. An efficient team should include competent microservices architects, developers proficient in different programming languages (since microservices can be written in multiple languages), and DevOps engineers to establish and manage continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines for automated software delivery.

However, sourcing and hiring the necessary talent can take months, which in turn can negatively affect a product’s time-to-market. Instead, SaaS businesses can hire third-party developers for this project. As an option, a business can resort to a software development company and augment its IT resources with this company’s SaaS development specialists or hire a dedicated developer team that will implement a SaaS project end-to-end.

Final Thoughts

Any company or entrepreneur aiming to develop and monetize a SaaS solution faces a critical choice of architecture for its product. The selection of microservices architecture, with its strong focus on scalability, security and flexibility, can be more advantageous in many business scenarios, which is proven by examples of Westech, AiBUY and other SaaS companies.

However, implementing microservices poses multiple challenges that businesses should overcome to leverage all the architecture’s benefits. An experienced third-party SaaS development company can help a business adopt microservices smoothly. It can fulfill the role of a consultant, providing a business with guidance throughout the project, or handle the project’s technological aspects and build a reliable SaaS product end-to-end.