IMO, SaaS is good for the developer (of the SaaS), and for the (very) small business customer. Downloadable is better for the slightly larger business, or a bu

IMO, SaaS is good for the developer (of the SaaS), and for the (very) small business customer. Downloadable is better for the slightly larger business, or a business that has more technical know-how than software budget. It follows that since you are the developer, and since your are starting out, you should favor the method of deployment which favors -you- and then expand on that as needed/requested. To me that means start out SaaS, and expand your offering as required. I disagree with the poster who says that the customers who want downloadable will be high-maintenance. There may be some, but really the customers who want downloadable are simply more risk-adverse. We install in-house only currently (not my decision, but policy nevertheless), and beyond one installation case, I don't know that we've logged any additional support over 5 years, across multiple applications. It is just more work for the developer up front to ensure that your installation process supports all possible configurations you will be installing to.