With the digital transformation advancing at the speed of light, more businesses are turning to online solutions and Software as a Service (SaaS). According to the most recent Statista study on SaaS organizations in 2023, there are roughly 17,000 SaaS enterprises in the United States and 25,000 globally (and counting!).

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery strategy that allows customers and businesses to communicate via web-enabled devices such as laptops, smartphones, and other Internet-enabled devices, making cloud data access and storage incredibly simple.

• Also can be referred to as web-based software, on-demand software, and hosted software
• Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the three primary tiers of cloud computing—the other tiers are platform as service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
• Benefits of SaaS include increased efficiency, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and scalability 
• SaaS companies are typically either a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) organization
• The most common types of SaaS solutions are Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Content Management System (CMS), Project Management Software, Sales, Marketing, eCommerce 

SaaS software is one of the fastest growing sectors today, with revenues increasing from $31.5 billion in 2015 to an expected $171.9 billion in 2022—a fivefold increase in seven years!

The United States now has the most SaaS companies in the world, with over 17,000, followed by the United Kingdom, which has the second-largest market with 2,000 SaaS providers. At this rate and by a significant margin, it is predicted that the United States will remain the world’s largest SaaS market even through 2025, while other market leaders such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia will continue to experience exponential growth as the race to create the next big SaaS app continues!

Below are some examples you might want to consider as alternatives to SaaS if need be.

Encompass Digital Mortgage Solution

Encompass is Ellie Mae’s all-in-one integrated solution that covers the loan lifecycle and provides one system of record so you can close compliant loans.

LendingPad

Loan Origination System is a full-featured, 100% cloud-based, forward-thinking enterprise LOS. It is designed for all of your daily origination needs including borrower engagement (Point-of-Sale), team interactions, processing, document management and connectivity to your favorite service providers. It has been time-tested by thousands of satisfied brokers and lenders in startups as well as larger operations and is constantly evolving to offer you the latest technology you need to succeed.

Finflux

Finflux is SaaS based banking platform that offers all banking needs at one place, needs like loan origination, loan management, collection module, financial accounting, marketplace integration, app-based lending, alternative data-based credit scoring, reporting and analytics and many more. At present, they are serving about 4+ million borrowers with an active loan portfolio of $3.2billion.

Alkami Platform

Alkami Technology, Inc. is a cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for financial institutions in the United States that help clients digitally transform through retail and business banking, digital account opening and loan origination, multi-payment fraud prevention, and data analytics and engagement solutions.

Calyx

Calyx has features, forms, and reporst that you need to manage your business with state ang fedral government forms, integration with lenders, vendors, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, marketing tools, and more.

What are Some Examples of SaaS?

1. ClickUp

ClickUp is one of the leading SaaS tools and the highest-rated project management software in the market today. Companies of all sizes, from solopreneurs to enterprise teams, use this cloud-based platform to bring all of their work into one centralized hub.

Read Also: How Hard is SaaS Sales?

This all-in-one workplace productivity platform offers hundreds of fully-customizable features to cater to any project and workflow preferences and integrates with over 1,000 SaaS applications. The ability to customize every part of the platform is what makes ClickUp a perfect SaaS example.

Key features

• Fully customizable platform
• 15+ customizable views
• Management automation workflows
• Collaborative Docs and Whiteboards
• Dashboards with real-time reporting
• Goal tracking
• Customizable templates 
• Free plan and affordable pricing plans
• Available on mobile and most-used operating systems
• Integration capabilities

Another imperative feature of this SaaS model is its ability to consolidate your apps, organize and automate complex workflows, manage projects easily, and so much more, replacing traditional software with a more modern solution for project management.

The benefits of using ClickUp go beyond increasing work efficiency and creating consistent and scalable processes—among many other pros, ClickUp also offers 24/7 customer support to help you get the most out of the platform.

2. HubSpot 

HubSpot is a leading cloud-based sales, marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) suite. Its ability to function as a one-stop shop for all your business needs makes Hubspot a great SaaS company.

Key features

• Automated CRM database and workflows
• Marketing reporting and metrics
• CRM with in-depth insights into contacts
• Email analytics
• Dashboards

With more than 113,925 customers (and counting) located across 120+ countries, HubSpot remains one of the top SaaS providers because it offers hubs for marketing, sales, service, CMS, and operations all in one place. 

These hubs help streamline business operations, maximize sales, nurture leads, improve operations, and deliver the best customer experience.

3. Salesforce

Salesforce is a leading SaaS tool specializing in customer relationship management (CRM). It’s built to help businesses connect with current and prospective customers, close more deals, and deliver top customer service. 

Key features

• Process automation
• Account and contact management 
• Lead management
• Reports and dashboards 
• Pipeline and forecast management

This SaaS application is one of the top performers for CRM platforms and attracts businesses worldwide because of its cloud computing capabilities. In fact, the latest findings show that over 150,000 businesses use Salesforce to unite their departments and nurture customer relationships.

Teams such as sales, marketing, and support, can use the Salesforce CRM to easily keep track of their leads, get a deeper insight into their consumer market, and stay connected with them throughout their customer journey.

4. Donorbox

Donorbox is a cloud-based nonprofit fundraising software built to supercharge your fundraising efforts.

Key features

• App integration
• Campaign management
• Payment processing
• Contribution tracking
• Gift matching management
• CRM

This SaaS application has increased donations by upwards of 400%, helped raise $1+ billion in donations, and has become the leading online fundraising choice for over 50,000 organizations such as Make A Wish, The Boys and Girls Club, and many more across 96 countries!

With this SaaS tool, donors and volunteers can easily and securely connect with nonprofit organizations and individuals, connecting more people worldwide.

Nonprofits can use this app to easily create, launch, and manage online fundraising campaigns and securely receive online donations via PayPal or Stripe—instantly, making it a worry-free and wholesome experience for the donors and an effective way for nonprofits to create a higher impact in their community.

5. Slack

Slack is one of the leading companies and a cloud-based workplace communication tool that transforms how organizations communicate by centralizing team communication and allowing quick information sharing—making it one of the top SaaS products and a game-changer in today’s collaborative workspace.  

This channel-based messaging platform is used by millions of businesses to align their teams, unify their systems, and grow their business.

Key features

• App integrations
• Public and private channels 
• Built-in voice and video conferencing
• @mentions 
• File sharing 
• Mobile access
• Real-time notifications
• Emoji reactions
• Secure, enterprise-grade environment
• Integration with project management tools

With Slack as the main communication hub at work, teams can communicate with each other instantly, create and join channels that pertain to their role, receive team or company-wide updates, send files via chat, and more. 

You can upload and add custom emojis to your keyboard, making online conversations fun and more interactive, and integrate Slack with ClickUp to supercharge your team collaboration and workflow even further (that alone makes this one of the top SaaS apps in my opinion). 

6. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management platform built to help small businesses build their brand, engage customers on social media, and grow an audience organically. 

Using Buffer’s suite of products, its users can improve their social media marketing strategy through three easy steps: Analyze, Publish, and Engage—analyze results, plan and schedule your content, and engage with your audience.

Key features

• Content management
• Multi-account management
• Multi-channel campaigns
• Reporting, statistics, analytics
• Social media monitoring
• ROI tracking
• Post scheduling

This SaaS application has been making waves across many different industries for over 10 years, serving over 140,000+ users, including Shopify, Intercom, and many others spanning 15 countries.

7. Hypercontext

Hypercontext is an employee engagement software built to help managers conduct more productive one-on-one and team meetings. This SaaS platform made it to our top SaaS examples list because, well, for one, we’re all for creating efficient systems and processes! 

Its mission is to help managers turn meetings into high-leverage, effective, productive opportunities and juggle team activities while coaching good management habits. 

According to a recent survey on the state of high-performing teams in tech, only 16% of managers strongly agree that their companies have provided them with the right tools and resources to manage people.

With this tool, managers, and teams can create shared meeting agendas, take meeting notes, gather feedback, and assign action items to follow up on—all in one place, making meetings more purposeful and action-driven, and keeping everyone on-topic and goal-oriented.  

Key features

• Action item tracking
• Activity dashboard
• Agenda management
• Goal management
• Discussions and forums
• Access controls and permissions
• File sharing

8. DocuSign

DocuSign is a cloud-based digital signature software that replaces the traditional approach of signing paper documents by enabling organizations to turn every business agreement entirely digital to capture e-signatures, speeding up the process tenfold.

This SaaS example has transformed how people prepare, sign, act on, and manage agreements. Its eSignature feature enables both parties involved in the process to sign practically from any device, any time, anywhere—accelerating the business process and simplifying people’s lives.

Key features

• Extensive file type support
• PDF form conversion
• Standard and custom tags and fields
• Cloud storage integration
• PowerForms
• Comments
• Drawing

DocuSign is one of the most secure and reliable SaaS applications in the market, which is why it’s trusted by more than a billion users in over 180 countries, including some of the most security-conscious Fortune 500 companies. 

9. OpenPhone

OpenPhone is a business phone systems software that offers a phone app that lets users get a business phone number without a second phone or a second SIM card—replacing your office phone with an app.

Key features

• Call routing
• Voice recognition
• Call center management
• Call logging and recording
• Embed OpenPhone into ClickUp and integrate with other work tools

This SaaS application has powerful calling, messaging, and lightweight CRM features and allows its users to use a dedicated business phone number to receive texts and messages in the app, no matter where they are in the world—making it an efficient solution to managing all your work-related phone communications.

How does it work? The OpenPhone app uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to route the calls and texts through the internet connection—meaning all calls and texts happen through an internet-enabled device.

Using the app helps separate professional and personal communications, stay in touch with their customers easier, and enables you to personalize your number to reflect your own brand.

OpenPhone currently serves over 10 million calls and messages monthly and is on its way to building deeper integrations with the other productivity tools that its customers already use.

10. Pumble by COING

The team communication software, Pumble, lets your team discuss topics in threads, collaborate via channels, and message teammates.

Like Slack and Microsoft Teams, this SaaS app enhances team communication by offering a chat feature with voice and video calls. 

Key features

• Channels and threads
• Direct messages and notifications
• Video chat and conference calls
• File sharing knowledge and organization
• Fully searchable history
• Search function for files and information
• Connect with other apps

11. Culture Amp

Culture Amp is an all-in-one employee engagement software that helps HR professionals and people leaders improve their employee experience and build a competitive advantage by putting culture first—no matter what.

Key features

• 360-degree feedback
  Anonymous feedback
• Compensation management
• Customizable templates
• Goal setting and tracking
• Individual development plans
• Skills assessment
• Reports and analytics
• And more

This app brings the unique power of modern psychology, an on-demand platform, and collective intelligence together and offers features for performance reviews, goal tracking, continuous development, and more, making this an excellent SaaS example!

With over 6,000 companies, from startups to Fortune 500s, Culture Amp has been recognized as one of the world’s top private cloud companies by Forbes and one of the most innovative workplace companies by Fast Company. 

Companies rave about this SaaS tool because of its ability to power performance management, employee engagement, and the development to develop high-performing teams. 

12. Tableau

Tableau is one of the leading cloud-based analytics platforms in the world. It allows people of all skill levels to work and transform data into actionable insights that are easy to understand, leading to daily smarter, more impactful, data-driven business decisions. 

From individuals and non-profits to government agencies and the Fortune 500, organizations from all over the world use this data visualization tool and self-service analytics platform to get deeper insights faster than ever before, creating data culture companies.

Key features

• Behavioral analytics
• Activity dashboard
• Ad hoc reporting
• Customer journey mapping
• ROI tracking
• Performance metrics
• Predictive analytics
• Modeling and simulation
• And more

When organizations embrace a data culture, they are empowered to make informed decisions every day with data, making full use of their data. Use this SaaS business to enhance your relationship with data and start using it to your advantage.