5 growth trends for SaaS marketplace app developers

The growth of SaaS marketplace apps has boomed in the last few years as businesses look for more efficient ways to manage operations – with a particular focus on riding the waves of economic turbulence.

It’s therefore more important than ever for developers to keep up-to-date on new trends to offer the best app experience.

This blog walks you through six key development trends and emerging best practices you need to know in 2023.

Or if you’re ready to start building your app, you can get started now.

What are SaaS marketplace apps?

SaaS marketplace apps are specialized apps designed to meet the needs of SaaS end customers by offering frictionless integrated solutions. They also offer partners ways to connect and build relationships to create strong SaaS ecosystems.

The end result? Marketplace apps give customers more choices and flexibility, each with its unique focus and offering.

B2B buyers are increasingly turning to app marketplaces–like monday appsmarketplace–to create integrations that streamline the workflows of all stakeholders. 

In turn, app marketplaces–like monday apps marketplace–provide a platform for developers to showcase their app to potential customers. What’s interesting about marketplaces is that many of them have open APIs and are bringing all compatible software together.

Looking to build an app? Whether you’re a product company, system integrator, or developer, we want to hear from you. Start building now or keep reading to discover more trends.

A look back at SaaS marketplace app trends in 2022

Before we look ahead to 2023, let’s look at what shaped the SaaS marketplace industry last year. There were several trends last year that mirror what we expect to see in 2023:

App usage

Organizations are using more applications than ever. With tens of thousands of apps to choose from, the average business is using 155 apps. This increase in app usage also creates many marketing opportunities for SaaS marketplace apps, as they are a way to build brand equity, and get discovered.

Tech stack changes

The rise in easy-to-use and convenient cloud-based tech has put a much greater emphasis on the user experience with app developers focusing on improving interfaces and navigation to drive adoption. Likewise, there has been a key focus on improving the onboarding experience to drive adoption. And the rise in adoption of microservices architecture is providing more flexibility and scalability in the development and deployment of SaaS apps.

New players

These developments sparked a rise in startups that focused on new tech like blockchain, quantum computing, and Artificial Intelligence. While they increased competitive threat, they also opened the doors to opportunity – providing a way to improve the build and deployment of existing SaaS apps.

Data security breaches

Lastly, data security was a key concern in 2022, thanks to multiple high-profile data breaches and cybersecurity attacks. This had a knock-on effect on customer trust, as well as having financial implications. That’s why we’re seeing investment in 2023 into measures like encryption and two-factor authentication, as well as having clear communications in place for processing and using data.

Looking ahead to 2023, we can now see how these trends are already starting to evolve.

5 growth trends and best practices for SaaS marketplace app developers

In the rest of this article, we’ll look at the top growth trends and best practices for SaaS marketplace app developers for this year, and beyond–starting with the user experience (UX).

UX at the heart of your app

The development trends of 2023 will be all about providing better experiences; a better developer experience, a better partner experience, and a better customer experience.

Here are just a handful of ways to make user experience a top priority:

• Better developer experiences: Through APIs that seamlessly integrate, provide training and encourage communication and collaboration with other developers so they can share ideas.
• Better partner experiences: Through marketing support to help reach new customers, clear reporting to show performance and flexible pricing and commission options so partners can earn more revenue from their apps.
• Better customer experiences: Making sure apps are easy-to-use and intuitive, secure, actually solve their needs and pain points. And, providing support to help with any issues and to simply get the most from their apps.

In short, developing a SaaS app that gives users a great experience boils down to knowing what your audience wants; keeping it simple and functional without losing its efficiency and speed; and making it customizable while keeping it original.

Plus, rather than designing an app that can do everything, it’s best to focus on one thing at a time, and then upgrade from there. This way, you won’t get lost adding features that other apps do – for free.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

While some form of automation is now a standard SaaS industry fixture, forward-thinking marketplace apps are starting to take advantage of more sophisticated capabilities, such as AI.

AI saw some significant developments in 2022 and is now set to become a real game-changer. We expect this to grow in importance over the coming years.

Examples of sophisticated AI capabilities include:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP automatically processes human speech patterns and voice control. This kind of functionality improves customization, customer service, and better addresses client needs.
• Machine learning: Predictive analytics from machine learning can be applied across several areas including product development, financial predictions, and much more.
• Neural Networks: Process data in a way that is inspired by the human brain. For example, Bitskout’s app,uses AI to give you the extra brain you need to oversee and automate data extraction.

In summary, we will see significant growth in AI-focused marketplace apps as well as the introduction of AI into existing marketplace apps as a way to improve functionality.

Privacy and security as a priority

As we mentioned earlier, last year saw multiple data breaches and cybersecurity attacks, which need to be addressed in 2023. The trouble is, marketplace apps are often connected by employees without the awareness of IT teams, and often grant permission to view corporate data, which could leave an organization exposed.

All of this makes investing in security a key priority for SaaS marketplace apps that want to thrive and protect their reputation.

Let’s take our SaaS marketplace as an example. To protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of user data, we use a number of security measures, like:

• Data encryption: All data stored is encrypted both in transit and at rest, using industry-standard encryption algorithms.
• Access controls: Like role-based access controls, allowing administrators to control what users can do and see, and multi-factor authentication, which means users need to provide multiple forms of identification before logging in.
• Infrastructure security: Regular security audits and testing is done to identify and address potential vulnerabilities. Plus, the SaaS marketplace is hosted on secure, scalable cloud infrastructure, providing an extra layer of protection against security threats.
• Data backup and recovery: Regular user data-back ups are run to ensure that it can be recovered in the event of a disaster. Plus, disaster recovery protocols are in place to make sure critical data can be quickly recovered.

Finally, to comply with regulatory standards, like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR, we regularly undergo independent audits. Plus, we work closely with customers to ensure that they are in compliance with their own security and privacy requirements.

Hyperconnected APIs 

As more and more organizations move to new architectures, the number of APIs they need to interact with is growing exponentially. This leads to hyperconnected APIs, with each API interacting with dozens or even hundreds of other APIs.

Essentially, this drives a greater need for interoperability between different APIs, apps, and SaaS solutions.

While this is already starting to happen, we expect to see APIs and machine learning working together even more closely.

Additionally, as we’ve seen with ChatGPT, APIs are being designed to work with NLP instead of just an exchange of data. As more and more people come to expect conversational interfaces, there will be a growing demand for APIs that can understand and respond to speech.

While these are in their early stages, they have the potential to really revolutionize the way apps interact with customers.

As an interesting side note, when building your app, the APIs that the platform itself provides are also crucial, as a developer you can build and interact with more building blocks and components, which makes the solutions you develop more advanced, with a higher potential to address a wider range of pain points or use cases. Win-win.

Expanding into new marketplaces

Finally, choosing the right marketplaces can help companies grow business models and discover new opportunities.

Over the year ahead, we expect to see more apps focused on a very specific niche or vertical.

Here are just a few ways leading marketplace apps are making it easy for business to diversify and compete:

• Multi-language support: Buyers will be looking for tech that’s available in multiple languages so they can expand into a wider, global market.
• Customizable platform: Apps need to be highly customizable so businesses can tailor functionality to meet specific needs. So things like adding custom fields and integrations. Some marketplace apps even have dedicated teams and communities to help build customized functionality.
• Integrations: Integration with other apps is key so businesses can plug in their existing tools–keeping with the theme of speed and convenience.
• API delivery: We’ve already touched on this. Essentially, a lot of businesses will look for this because it allows developers to build custom integrations and extensions for the platform, so they can extend the functionality to meet the specific needs of their markets.

That’s why we offer a best-in-class developer experience, designed for scale, reliability, and continued innovation. All with a built-in global audience. And, it’s both affordable and customizable.

Grow your app with monday.com marketplace

Over the years ahead, the tools and technologies that SaaS marketplace app developers have at their disposal will continue to push the SaaS industry forward.

We hope these trends and best practices give you some food for thought.

To stand out from the crowd, you not only need to be aware of them, but also decide on the tech and best practices most suitable to you.

The good news is, you don’t have to go it alone. As a developer, you can leverage our platform’s powerful capabilities to build innovative apps for monday.com customers.

Or, if you still have unanswered questions, you can take a look at the most commonly asked questions below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is SaaS marketplace app development?

SaaS app development is the process of planning, designing, and building SaaS marketplace apps. Some SaaS marketplaces provide developers with everything they need to build an app on their platform.

What is a SaaS app marketplace example?

A good example of a SaaS app marketplace is monday.com’s app marketplace. Here you can build apps on the monday.com marketplace to reach over 150,000 customers in hundreds of industries.

How to develop a SaaS application

It’s easy to build an app on monday.com. Everything starts with understanding your audience and using an app framework (more on this below).

Leverage best practice developer tools on monday.com

Thinking of planning your app with monday.com? It’s easy to get started.

The monday.com apps framework helps you to easily and efficiently plan, build, and launch your app.

From our experience bringing apps from design to market, we have identified four distinct phases when building a monday integration app:

• App definition: identify the gaps your integration app will address and how it will bring value to both your own software’s users as well as monday.com users
• Technical scoping: research and familiarize yourself with the apps framework components you will need to leverage in your app
• Building: build and deploy your app
• Review: submit your app for review before its listed in our marketplace

Find out more or get started now.