What programming skills do I need to build an SaaS application?

You must know many programming languages such as Php, Java, etc. I would suggest hiring a developer it will be easier.

WF is not much of a discussion place for SaaS. I suggest you join these groups on FB, be open about your newbie-ness in there, and ask good questions:

-SaaS Growth Hacks (run by Aaron Krall)

-SaaS Founders and Execs (run by Peter Loving.)


I have been working with SaaS and VARs (Value-Added Resellers) since 2010. The biggest mistake I see SaaS founders make is having a brainwave, then producing a solution in isolation.

They then go forth into the world and try to find buyers for this thing they made that nobody said they wanted. I have an entire website and business unit set up for helping founders in this situation who have some resources left to work with.

Instead, find out from your target market what problems they admit to having and will pay for--BEFORE you invest the money, time, and energy in developing the solution. You can certainly sell something you haven't made yet: it's done all the time and those buyers are called founding customers or beta testers. They get a discount but also a huge say in how the SaaS is because they're providing input.

I host a podcast about the unexpected challenges of scaling, and SaaS topics come up every so often. I've interviewed several SaaS founders who have reached $500K+ ARR so they can share the struggles they had. And I can tell you the sales problems SaaS founders had a decade ago are the SAME ISSUES they struggle with today--it's as if they haven't learned anything.

The barrier to entry is relatively low for SaaS. In one way that's a bad thing, because it means almost any idiot can get into it. But the success rate is pretty low, too: that's a good thing, because it means with just a little more focus, effort, connection with your marketplace you can achieve a much better than average result.

On the server side- PHP, Python and Ruby.
On the client side- HTML, CSS and Javascript

Well, programming will not be enough. You'll need also customers, otherwise your idea will just die unborn. To build any kind of SaaS you'll need some back end and front end.
For back end you may use one of those:
1. java
2. C#
3. PHP
4. Python
5. nodejs
5. C++
6. etc.

For front end you may use:
1. HTMLx + cssX . It can be HTML5 + CSS3 or any other combination, but recommended will be HTML5 + CSS3 + some form of Javascript.
2. Windows forms or QT forms ( in case of Linux )
3. Xamarin for mobile devices
4. IONIC
5. React native
6. etc.
Javascript can have following forms:
1. Pure JS
2. AngularX (2, 4, 5, 6, 8)
3. AngularJS ( old form )
4. Ember
5. Meteor
6. Polymer
7. etc. Huge set of alternatives

but again, before investing much time and money into SaaS product make sure that you have customers before. I've seen plenty of people which lost pill of money on development and went nowhere.