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High cost per-seat SaaS will die. SaaS itself won't because it will always be easier to use existing software vs vibe code your own. The reason people are star

by kypro 2mo ago

High cost per-seat SaaS will die. SaaS itself won't because it will always be easier to use existing software vs vibe code your own. The reason people are starting to roll their own is because with AI they can, and many SaaS products are still priced as if code is expensive. I suspect in the future SaaS products may need to move to advertisement models rather than charging per seat. I also suspect successful SaaS products of the future will be much smaller and much more niche projects, with much smaller teams maintaining them. This will take many many years to play out however. A large company using Salesforce today is going to find it extremely difficult to switch even if they want to.

sandcat_ 2mo ago
I sorta expect the opposite. Anyone can build some small, niche SaaS themselves now. It's the giant, hulking behemoths (Salesforce, as one example) that can't be vibe-coded away easily. I suspect we'll see far more consolidation, and SaaS will also shift towards focusing far more on the enterprise. And so cost per seat will in fact increase, is my guess. But we'll see.
- kypro 2mo ago
  You might be right. I guess I'd question if people are using Salesforce because it's actually the best tool for their business at the moment. Historically I think the main reason large generic software platforms tended to win was because they catered for the largest share of market. And as a strategy this made sense when the market couldn't create decent competitor products tailored for every business niche because of the software cost. Now that's not really a limitation anymore I think we're starting to see businesses shift towards software which is more tailored towards their specific business requirements, and away from these large generic platforms and products (like Salesforce). That said, there probably is some complexity threshold. If a company needs a lot of the advanced functionality of Salesforce then perhaps there's less competition. I can see how a Salesforce has more of a software moat than some SaaS products.

by kypro 2mo ago

sandcat_ 2mo ago

I sorta expect the opposite. Anyone can build some small, niche SaaS themselves now. It's the giant, hulking behemoths (Salesforce, as one example) that can't be vibe-coded away easily. I suspect we'll see far more consolidation, and SaaS will also shift towards focusing far more on the enterprise. And so cost per seat will in fact increase, is my guess. But we'll see.

kypro 2mo ago
You might be right. I guess I'd question if people are using Salesforce because it's actually the best tool for their business at the moment. Historically I think the main reason large generic software platforms tended to win was because they catered for the largest share of market. And as a strategy this made sense when the market couldn't create decent competitor products tailored for every business niche because of the software cost. Now that's not really a limitation anymore I think we're starting to see businesses shift towards software which is more tailored towards their specific business requirements, and away from these large generic platforms and products (like Salesforce). That said, there probably is some complexity threshold. If a company needs a lot of the advanced functionality of Salesforce then perhaps there's less competition. I can see how a Salesforce has more of a software moat than some SaaS products.