8 ms·

Ask HN: What tech problems would you glady pay $25 a month for a SAAS solution?

25 points by seanpackham 14y ago

alpine 14y ago
Smart monitoring tool that would automatically check: - Front end web site availability - APIs available - Back end processes are running - Database up - Disk space available - Error logs for important issues The database checks would include referencal integrity and sanity checks on volumes to warn of potential issues eg a failed module or abuse by a user. Daily and weekly reports by Email, RSS, Twitter, web tool. SMS for emergencies requiring immediate action. Option to have support from a Sys Admin/DBA automatically trigger to fix minor issues.
- morganpyne 14y ago
  Sounds like you should give New Relic a try so :-) Although unfortunately their pro plan is a little more than $25/month
- seanpackham 14y ago
  Have you tried any of the available solutions and what issues do you have with them?
  - alpine 14y ago
    I haven't tried any possible solutions. Building an inhouse monitor is a possibility, but I would pay for a service if it was only $25 pm. Particularly if it included the option of buying Sys Admin/DBA support, charged hourly as required, with the aim being the effective outsource of day to day monitoring and tech support of a site.
    - seanpackham 14y ago
      I really like your idea to buy sys admin/dba support as a topup when needed. I would love to hear what you think of New Relic. They do have a $24 a month option if you commit to a year. Also what are your thoughts on free solutions like monit or Nagios.
- tgriesser 14y ago
  I recently came across http://amon.cx/ http://amon.cx/ which does a few of the things you mentioned, and it's a one time purchase (with a free basic version) rather than a SaaS. Might be worth taking a look at.
  - dholowiski 14y ago
    Wow thanks, I need that. Can't believe it's only $25.
- callmeed 14y ago
  I'm working on a simple version of this which I plan to open-source soon. You basically cron commands like df and uptime, pipe them to mail and send to app. App uses MailGun to read mail and then create reports. Looks like this: http://cl.ly/image/0Z15301Q3L1u http://cl.ly/image/0Z15301Q3L1u
RileyJames 14y ago
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but it is tech business related. Currently frustrated that highrise does not timestamp tags, or allow tags to be sorted by a timestamp. If you could add that feature as a plugin or via their api I would gladly pay $25 per month. Haven't looked extensively for a solution, but it's certainly a pain point at the moment.
seanpackham 14y ago
I asked this question wanting to know what day to day issues people struggle with, what tasks they repeat a dozen times a day, what 20 process step can be reduced to 3 or even better completely automated. Thank you for the answers so far!
ig1 14y ago
From validation. It's a pain to write validation code and to do it cleanly, give me an ajax service that I can hand the validation off to. I just want to be able to say field x is a number, field y is an address, etc.
- seanpackham 14y ago
  Hmm I think trying to convert such a task into a service will always introduce some language to describe your field and it's constraints and then you might as well write it yourself. Also with such a critical part of your system, getting information from your user, if the service is slow or down you will run into troubles. What specific programming languages and/or frameworks do you require a solution for? Please let me know if I missed the point completely. Thanks for your answer!
  - ig1 14y ago
    Well I was imagining some kind of ajax thing that validated fields on the fly as the user filled them in. Validation is non-trivial for many fields. For example almost no-one implements email validation correctly as per the RFC because it's hard to get right, and most people just use a hacky regex that ends up accepting invalid emails and rejecting valid ones. Or with credit card validation, many places don't validate credit card numbers (i.e doing the validation checksum, checking if the card is a mastercard that it's got the mastercard prefix) before sending them to the card processor site. If the card processing services rejects the card and the user has to re-enter the card details, chance are they won't bother and you've lost yourself a sale. If you validated for obvious mistakes on-the-fly (i.e user sees error immediately) you wouldn't lose as many of those customers. You could also do things like supplementing the user supplied data, say the user supplies an address you could automatically geocode it and put it in a hidden field for the website.
    - codegeek 14y ago
      So you mean client side validation correct? I mean to validate form submission that needs server side information, you would still need to build something on your own.
bhousel 14y ago
$25/month is kind of an ambitious price point for small teams or individuals. That's like implying that your service would be more valuable than Basecamp or Github.
- seanpackham 14y ago
  Surely it depends on the problem being solved though? If I was making a new project management or source code hosting service I would have to think twice about charging the same or more than my competitors alternatively I need to compete on something other than price. Also if a you need a solution to problem X how can the price point be compared to an established company solving problem Y? I'm curious, are you a developer?
  - bhousel 14y ago
    >if a you need a solution to problem X how can the price point be compared to an established company solving problem Y? If problem X and problem Y both cost $25/month to solve, they should be roughly equal pain-wise. By starting at price point of $25/month, and working your way backwards to find problems, you should expect to be tackling Github- or Basecamp-sized problems. >I'm curious, are you a developer? Yes, I'm a developer/consultant.
    - ohashi 14y ago
      I think that's non-sense. Just because X and Y cost the same to solve doesn't mean they are equal pain-wise. It doesn't take into account any of relevant factors like market size. I've seen a lot of services that are trivial in comparison charge a lot more because it's a much smaller market and/or the value of a very specific tool is worth far more for people in that niche.
      - bhousel 14y ago
        If X and Y cost the same but do not solve the same amount of pain, one of them is underpriced.
sharemywin 14y ago
social network api where user can login via different networks and import contacts/friends/following. Must be able to have different types of users. and add extra fields like hobbies etc. on sign up form. Must have a javascript widgets I can drop on a screen and cusomtze look and feel or api I can call with backend. Tracking of user. User can share/post message to friends followers etc. mobile sdk also.
pdenya 14y ago
Document to Document conversion API. eg: docx => pdf should be secure, auto detect formats, etc.
- bdunbar 14y ago
  There are a lot of guys out there that do this - are they lacking in some way that could be improved?
TimJRobinson 14y ago
Good automatic accounting that can handle multiple accounts and multiple currencies. In fact I would pay $100 a month for this.
- seanpackham 14y ago
  By automatic do you mean it should hook into your accounts and automatically categorize various items as expenses and provide an income statement and balance sheet every month?
  - TimJRobinson 14y ago
    Yep, as automatic as possible. It could try and auto categorize items and allow the user to fine tune the categorization. But basically doing what an accountant normally does automatically.
stewie2 14y ago
full featured photoshop alternative. full featured 3d max alternative.
AznHisoka 14y ago
I'd want a SaaS that when given a URL of an article or piece of content I just wrote... gives me a bunch of related Twitter followers, potential LinkedIn Groups, bloggers, etc where I can pitch my content to. Content marketing tool, so to speak. Hard problem, but hey, that's why I'd pay a lot for it.

25 points by seanpackham 14y ago

Smart monitoring tool that would automatically check: - Front end web site availability - APIs available - Back end processes are running - Database up - Disk space available - Error logs for important issues The database checks would include referencal integrity and sanity checks on volumes to warn of potential issues eg a failed module or abuse by a user. Daily and weekly reports by Email, RSS, Twitter, web tool. SMS for emergencies requiring immediate action. Option to have support from a Sys Admin/DBA automatically trigger to fix minor issues.

morganpyne 14y ago
Sounds like you should give New Relic a try so :-) Although unfortunately their pro plan is a little more than $25/month
seanpackham 14y ago
Have you tried any of the available solutions and what issues do you have with them?
- alpine 14y ago
  I haven't tried any possible solutions. Building an inhouse monitor is a possibility, but I would pay for a service if it was only $25 pm. Particularly if it included the option of buying Sys Admin/DBA support, charged hourly as required, with the aim being the effective outsource of day to day monitoring and tech support of a site.
  - seanpackham 14y ago
    I really like your idea to buy sys admin/dba support as a topup when needed. I would love to hear what you think of New Relic. They do have a $24 a month option if you commit to a year. Also what are your thoughts on free solutions like monit or Nagios.
tgriesser 14y ago
I recently came across http://amon.cx/ http://amon.cx/ which does a few of the things you mentioned, and it's a one time purchase (with a free basic version) rather than a SaaS. Might be worth taking a look at.
- dholowiski 14y ago
  Wow thanks, I need that. Can't believe it's only $25.
callmeed 14y ago
I'm working on a simple version of this which I plan to open-source soon. You basically cron commands like df and uptime, pipe them to mail and send to app. App uses MailGun to read mail and then create reports. Looks like this: http://cl.ly/image/0Z15301Q3L1u http://cl.ly/image/0Z15301Q3L1u

RileyJames 14y ago

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but it is tech business related. Currently frustrated that highrise does not timestamp tags, or allow tags to be sorted by a timestamp. If you could add that feature as a plugin or via their api I would gladly pay $25 per month. Haven't looked extensively for a solution, but it's certainly a pain point at the moment.

seanpackham 14y ago

I asked this question wanting to know what day to day issues people struggle with, what tasks they repeat a dozen times a day, what 20 process step can be reduced to 3 or even better completely automated. Thank you for the answers so far!

ig1 14y ago

From validation. It's a pain to write validation code and to do it cleanly, give me an ajax service that I can hand the validation off to. I just want to be able to say field x is a number, field y is an address, etc.

seanpackham 14y ago
Hmm I think trying to convert such a task into a service will always introduce some language to describe your field and it's constraints and then you might as well write it yourself. Also with such a critical part of your system, getting information from your user, if the service is slow or down you will run into troubles. What specific programming languages and/or frameworks do you require a solution for? Please let me know if I missed the point completely. Thanks for your answer!
- ig1 14y ago
  Well I was imagining some kind of ajax thing that validated fields on the fly as the user filled them in. Validation is non-trivial for many fields. For example almost no-one implements email validation correctly as per the RFC because it's hard to get right, and most people just use a hacky regex that ends up accepting invalid emails and rejecting valid ones. Or with credit card validation, many places don't validate credit card numbers (i.e doing the validation checksum, checking if the card is a mastercard that it's got the mastercard prefix) before sending them to the card processor site. If the card processing services rejects the card and the user has to re-enter the card details, chance are they won't bother and you've lost yourself a sale. If you validated for obvious mistakes on-the-fly (i.e user sees error immediately) you wouldn't lose as many of those customers. You could also do things like supplementing the user supplied data, say the user supplies an address you could automatically geocode it and put it in a hidden field for the website.
  - codegeek 14y ago
    So you mean client side validation correct? I mean to validate form submission that needs server side information, you would still need to build something on your own.

bhousel 14y ago

$25/month is kind of an ambitious price point for small teams or individuals. That's like implying that your service would be more valuable than Basecamp or Github.

seanpackham 14y ago
Surely it depends on the problem being solved though? If I was making a new project management or source code hosting service I would have to think twice about charging the same or more than my competitors alternatively I need to compete on something other than price. Also if a you need a solution to problem X how can the price point be compared to an established company solving problem Y? I'm curious, are you a developer?
- bhousel 14y ago
  >if a you need a solution to problem X how can the price point be compared to an established company solving problem Y? If problem X and problem Y both cost $25/month to solve, they should be roughly equal pain-wise. By starting at price point of $25/month, and working your way backwards to find problems, you should expect to be tackling Github- or Basecamp-sized problems. >I'm curious, are you a developer? Yes, I'm a developer/consultant.
  - ohashi 14y ago
    I think that's non-sense. Just because X and Y cost the same to solve doesn't mean they are equal pain-wise. It doesn't take into account any of relevant factors like market size. I've seen a lot of services that are trivial in comparison charge a lot more because it's a much smaller market and/or the value of a very specific tool is worth far more for people in that niche.
    - bhousel 14y ago
      If X and Y cost the same but do not solve the same amount of pain, one of them is underpriced.

sharemywin 14y ago

social network api where user can login via different networks and import contacts/friends/following. Must be able to have different types of users. and add extra fields like hobbies etc. on sign up form. Must have a javascript widgets I can drop on a screen and cusomtze look and feel or api I can call with backend. Tracking of user. User can share/post message to friends followers etc. mobile sdk also.

pdenya 14y ago

Document to Document conversion API. eg: docx => pdf should be secure, auto detect formats, etc.

bdunbar 14y ago
There are a lot of guys out there that do this - are they lacking in some way that could be improved?

TimJRobinson 14y ago

Good automatic accounting that can handle multiple accounts and multiple currencies. In fact I would pay $100 a month for this.

seanpackham 14y ago
By automatic do you mean it should hook into your accounts and automatically categorize various items as expenses and provide an income statement and balance sheet every month?
- TimJRobinson 14y ago
  Yep, as automatic as possible. It could try and auto categorize items and allow the user to fine tune the categorization. But basically doing what an accountant normally does automatically.

stewie2 14y ago

full featured photoshop alternative. full featured 3d max alternative.

AznHisoka 14y ago

I'd want a SaaS that when given a URL of an article or piece of content I just wrote... gives me a bunch of related Twitter followers, potential LinkedIn Groups, bloggers, etc where I can pitch my content to. Content marketing tool, so to speak. Hard problem, but hey, that's why I'd pay a lot for it.