Hire a Web Developer for Your SaaS Startup
Who Has Built and Run SaaS Himself
Most developers you'll talk to can build what you describe. Far fewer have had to keep a product alive afterwards — paying the hosting bill, answering the support email, and fixing the billing bug at 11pm. I've been doing that for my own products since 2014.
On This Page
1. Built and Run, Not Just Delivered
Most "hire a developer" advice is written by agencies and marketplaces whose job ends at handover. For a SaaS product, handover is where the real work starts: signups that fail silently, a subscription that renews twice, a migration that has to run on a live database with paying customers on it.
I build and operate my own products — IcePets, Flour Power, and MoveMyRecipes among them — on infrastructure I run myself. That changes the advice you get. When I suggest cutting a feature from your MVP, it's because I've watched features like it go unused. When I insist on backups that actually restore before launch, it's because I've written up every way mine have failed.
The difference in one sentence:
Not "I can build what you ask for" — "I've built and run products like the one you're asking for, and I'll tell you what I'd do differently."
2. How Founders Work With Me
Early-stage founders rarely need the same thing twice. These are the four shapes the work usually takes:
MVP scoping
A 60-minute working session where we separate what your first version needs from what it doesn't. You leave with a shortlist of features, the risky unknowns named out loud, and a realistic sense of build size — whether or not you hire me to build it.
Building the MVP
Milestone-based phases with something working at the end of each one, not a single reveal at the end. Accounts, billing, and the one core workflow first; everything else earns its place after real users touch it.
Fractional technical lead
For non-technical founders who already have developers — or are about to hire them. I review architecture and pull requests, sanity-check estimates, and translate between what the business needs and what the team is building. The business–developer liaison service covers this in more detail.
Post-launch iteration
The months after launch decide whether a SaaS product survives. A monthly retainer keeps someone on hand for the fixes, the features customers actually ask for, and the infrastructure work nobody sees until it breaks. Some founders need this; some just need a clean handover with documentation. Both are fine.
3. Products I Operate
Live products you can sign up for and use today — the best evidence of how I'd build yours.
IcePets.com
A virtual pet community with 42K+ registered users, running since 2014. I built and operate the full stack — quests, an in-game economy, trading, forums, real-time chat — and lead a remote team of artists and moderators.
What it proves: Over a decade of keeping one product secure, fast, and shipping on a limited budget.
FlourPower.app
A family recipe app on web, iOS, and Android with AI enrichment that pulls timers, ingredients, tools, and substitutions out of every imported recipe. Free and premium tiers, shared family accounts, roles and permissions.
What it proves: One codebase across three platforms, with free and premium tiers and multi-user households.
MoveMyRecipes.com
A converter that gets recipes out of proprietary apps like Paprika, CopyMeThat, and MasterCook into open formats. Its parser library also powers Flour Power's imports.
What it proves: Sharing one core engine across two products instead of building it twice.
4. What It Costs
Ranges, not quotes — a real number comes from scoping. These are typical for experienced developers in Canada and the US:
MVP scoping session
60 minutes. Feature shortlist, risks, and a realistic build size.
$100 USD
MVP build
Fixed price per milestone for a defined scope.
Typical range: $5,000–$50,000+
Fractional lead / post-launch retainer
Reserved hours each month for reviews, fixes, and features.
Typical range: $1,500–$8,000/month
Hourly / time & materials
For open-ended work where scope is still moving.
Typical range: $100–$200/hr
What moves a SaaS build toward the top of the range:
- • Multi-tenant accounts — teams, organizations, or households sharing data
- • Roles and permissions beyond "user" and "admin"
- • Subscription billing with trials, upgrades, proration, and failed-payment handling
- • Native iOS and Android apps alongside the web app (sharing one codebase keeps this down)
- • Integrations with third-party systems that weren't designed to be integrated with
5. What to Ask Any SaaS Developer
The general questions to ask before hiring still apply. For a SaaS build, add these:
"Have you run a product in production yourself?"
Why it matters: Building a product and operating one are different skills. Someone who has only ever handed projects over won't have felt the cost of their own shortcuts.
"Whose accounts will the hosting, domain, and Stripe live in?"
Why it matters: Yours. If the answer is "mine, for convenience", you'll be negotiating for your own business later.
"What happens when a payment fails?"
Why it matters: Billing edge cases — failed renewals, refunds, plan changes mid-cycle — are where SaaS products quietly lose money. A good answer is specific.
"What would you cut from my MVP?"
Why it matters: If the answer is "nothing", they're pricing your wish list, not your first version.
"What's the plan for the first month after launch?"
Why it matters: Launch day is the start of support, fixes, and backups — not the end of the project. Make sure that's accounted for, whoever does it.
6. Frequently Asked Questions
Should a SaaS startup hire a freelancer or an agency?
Before product-market fit, usually a senior freelancer. You need someone who can make product decisions alongside you, change direction quickly, and keep costs proportionate to what you've learned so far. Agencies make more sense once the product is proven and the work splits cleanly into parallel streams.
How long does it take to build a SaaS MVP?
It depends almost entirely on scope, which is why the first step is a scoping session rather than a quote. I aim to get something real in front of users within the first 2–4 weeks and grow it from there, rather than disappearing for months and returning with a big reveal.
How much does it cost to build a SaaS MVP?
Project-based builds from experienced developers in Canada and the US typically range from $5,000 to $50,000+. A narrow MVP sits at the lower end; multi-tenant accounts, roles and permissions, subscription billing, and native mobile apps push it toward the top. Ongoing retainers typically run $1,500–$8,000 per month.
Who owns the code and the infrastructure?
You do, from day one. The repository, hosting, domain, and third-party accounts such as Stripe and email should all be in your name, with your developer given access rather than the other way around.
Can you work alongside my existing developer or team?
Yes. Some founders bring me in for scoping and architecture, a specific feature, or as a fractional technical lead who reviews work and translates between the business and the developers already on the project.
What technology do you build SaaS products with?
Mostly Laravel and PHP on the backend, Vue.js on the frontend, and Ionic when the product needs iOS and Android apps. It's a deliberately boring, well-supported stack with a large hiring pool, so you're never locked into me.
Scope your MVP before you hire anyone
Book a 60-minute scoping session. Bring the idea, the feature list, or the quote someone else gave you — you'll leave knowing what your first version actually needs.
Scoping session: $100 USD · Founder in the Toronto area? The GTA web developer page covers in-person options.