Thanks!
Just this afternoon I was listening to your podcast and I heard your talking about taking or not the self hosted route.
My product stores passwords, which is a very sensitive information. So, if I were to buy it I’d want to be in complete control of it. If someone else hosts your data, you lose this control. So, this was clear to me in the beginning. Also, my target customers (web designers, developers, IT professionals) have no problem installing PHP web apps. This is also very important. I still think it’s a good idea, even more so after the PRISM affair and related stories.
It’s true that it makes the sales cycle a little longer (and sometimes it breaks it), but it’s the price you pay. To alleviate this there are several solutions (which I do not offer yet):
- Host the app on your own servers or have a partner do it (like Helpspot).
- Provide installation services.
- Have the app update itself (this is the route I’m going to take - having to manually update the app is also a big hurdle for current customers).
I receive several requests regarding this, but my audience is fairly technical so it’s mainly a matter of sorting out incompatibilities or installing missing components.
Sometimes the decision of going Saas or self hosted is difficult. In understand your concerns in your case (Uberdeck). Maybe you should offer a self hosted version highly priced (like Github does) and see how it goes.
