How I Plan to Build a Micro-SaaS Company
1. Why I’m betting on micro-SaaS
Over the past year, I’ve been watching the software space evolve rapidly. With AI tools like GPT-4, Copilot, and powerful open-source models, it’s now possible to build and ship high-quality software in a fraction of the time and cost it used to take.
At the same time, SaaS pricing is going up. According to Vertice’s SaaS Inflation Index, average software prices rose 12.3% year-over-year in 2024. That’s right: the same software now costs more to use—even though it’s cheaper to build.
Meanwhile, compute costs are rising fast, especially in AI. IBM estimates that infrastructure costs for AI workloads will increase by up to 89% between 2023 and 2025, driven by demand for GPUs and cloud inference capacity. (Source).
Put simply: it’s never been cheaper to create software, but it’s not necessarily cheaper to run or license it.
So I asked myself: what kind of SaaS model actually makes sense in this environment?
2. My plan: many small, beautiful, and affordable tools
Here’s the strategy I’m going all in on:
- I’ll build and maintain a portfolio of micro-SaaS apps, each focused on solving a narrow, well-defined problem.
- These apps will share a common foundation—the same codebase, design system, and core backend features like auth, billing, and data storage.
- That said, I’ll allow flexibility per app: different styles, flows, or UX adaptations depending on the specific audience. A flashcard generator for students shouldn’t look like a B2B PDF summarizer—and that’s okay.
- I’ll focus heavily on great UX and simplicity. In a world of feature-overloaded SaaS, usability is a superpower.
- I’ll price these tools very low, or even base them on usage alone, and monetize with bundles, pay-per-action, or small one-time payments.
3. Pricing: accessible by design
I have a core thesis:
If development costs continue to drop thanks to AI, then SaaS pricing will eventually follow.
And if that’s where things are heading, I’d rather be the first to reach the bottom—in the best possible way.
Why not be the one who offers well-designed, useful tools at prices so low they’re hard to ignore?
Instead of €49/month, I’m thinking:
- €4/month for unlimited access
- Or even €5/year flat
- Or a usage-based model where a single API call costs €0.01 or less
Let’s say you build an app where a user uploads a PDF, and it generates flashcards or summaries using AI:
- A summary might cost me €0.003 to process.
- Ten flashcards? Maybe €0.01 in API costs.
- Charge the user €0.05 for it—and they’ll barely feel it.
The point is: I want price to be a non-issue. I want people to try my apps without thinking twice.
4. My go-to-market approach
This isn’t about launching and forgetting.
I plan to:
- Ship fast, with real usable tools—not fake MVPs
- Watch how people use each app, and listen to feedback
- Improve the product week by week, not based on vanity KPIs but on real behavior
This means refining flows, simplifying things further, and adjusting pricing and features based on actual usage—not assumptions.
It’s more like farming than gambling. You plant, observe, and grow what works.
5. What I’m building behind the scenes
| Component | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Backend core | Shared API, authentication, billing, database | One stack to manage all apps—saves huge amounts of time |
| Frontend system | Tailwind + Radix UI + design tokens | Clean, accessible, and reusable styling across products |
| AI integration | Uses open-source LLMs with fallback to APIs like OpenAI | Keeps inference cheap while allowing flexibility |
| Deployment | Docker + autoscaled Kubernetes (or similar) | Idle apps = zero cost; scales only when needed |
| Support system | AI triage for bug reports + minimal human intervention | Focuses human support where it matters most |
Once it’s all in place, I can launch a new app in days, not months.
6. Challenges I expect—and how I’ll deal with them
| Challenge | How I’m preparing |
|---|---|
| Feature cloning | I focus on UX, polish, and speed—not just functionality. |
| Compute cost spikes | My stack supports switching between open-source and cloud models on the fly. |
| Support burden | AI-first support with limited settings = fewer tickets overall. |
| Market consolidation | A portfolio gives me flexibility—I can sell individual apps or the whole studio. |
| Marketing | This will likely be the hardest part for me. But I believe AI will help here too—SEO, content, even ads. Who knows, maybe I’ll turn that process into its own SaaS one day too. |
7. Final thoughts
This is the SaaS model I believe in.
Small bets. Fast shipping. Beautiful design. Ridiculously low pricing.
I’m not building the next Salesforce. I’m building tools for people like me—students, indie hackers, solopreneurs, and small teams who want things that just work.
This is my micro-SaaS future:
Build fast. Stay lean. Keep prices low. Delight people with simplicity.
And maybe, just maybe, turn the future of SaaS upside down.
Let’s see where it leads.