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Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

djangoforge.dev

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Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#31

Post by jyunderwood »

$1000/yr is steep for starting a project from scratch with it. You need to really be sure about needing it and about it paying for itself.

The Rails equivalent (https://jumpstartrails.com/) is $249/year and the Laravel equivalent (https://spark.laravel.com/) is $99/project.

Those seem geared in features and price at hobbyist wanting to monetize a side project. This looks like it would be just as helpful for hobbyists using Django, but it’s not priced right for them.

Maybe it’s more for people who are about to start a second revenue project.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#34

Post by tthun »

davegaeddert wrote: post #12
ketzu wrote: post #10

The descriptions seem a little bit scarce for me. Like others I also wonder who's the intended audience. For 1k/year/repository I need to be quite serious with a project, but that project needs to be basically non existent (otherwise I would probably have the basis already) while also being somewhat serious. Formulating it a bit provocative: In what way is it more than an expensive cookiecutter repository? (Especiall…

> Like others I also wonder who's the intended audience. Me too — trying to figure that out! > but that project needs to be basically non existent while also being somewhat serious Super interesting point. I've helped integrate it into some existing projects and it is not fun. > In what way is it more than an expensive cookiecutter repository? I don't disagree with this. A couple differences in my mind are support (t…

tailwind ui had a Goldilocks pricing imho .. you could always offer discounts case by case if prospect can fill out a form.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#35

Post by senko »

There is absolutely a market for this kind of product. If it saves someone a few days of work, the ROI is clear.

However, in my experience (have a similar product geared towards API backends: https://apibakery.com), many developers will stop at "boilerplate", think "cookiecutter", and balk away.

The most vocal complaints for me were:

- it's just boilerplate, therefore how dare you charge

- I can do that in an hour (all devs are optimists :)

- why should I pay a recurring fee for a one-off use (valid, and made me rethink my pricing strategy)

Ultimately, I suspect your users will mainly be founders who just want to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible. If you haven't already, engage with communities such as IndieHackers and r/SaaS.

Good luck!

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#36

Post by tony »

I think this makes sense. Ideas:

- Showcase your reciprocal contributions you make back to django community packages (e.g. Jazzband packages).

- Release a permissively licensed django package (with no catches) under your GH's org and brand name and have it take off. (e.g. django-forge-admin)

- The holy grail would be contributions to django itself. Example: Adding more CSS variables in django admin to font-size and font-family. Add rem, %, calc, flex, etc.

- Early startups funding: $5,000 for MVPs up into 6 figures. Your price point could be a bit higher. Email early founders and see what their reaction is. Use that feedback to tailor a business-friendly license to address the concerns of people with decision making powers. Commenters opinions matter, but they're not necessarily your clientele.

- Strike custom deals to make the sale.

- Add on custom development hours and add a clause to incorporate the work back into your product for reuse.

- Expect to be reaching out to founders often, using cold email introductions, both for advice, but also to show you're flexible. Be willing to hop on a zoom, demo it, etc.

- Find early startups to use your framework for testimonials and social proofing.

- I've personally set these up before many times in django at previous places. It takes weeks of effort to bootstrap, especially if you factor in billing. No it's not 8 hours. It's weeks of effort.

My only doubt is, I think you may ultimately make more money striking big deals to do development work. What's more efficient, a $100-$150k deal with one customer or being on the hook for 100 customers?

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#37

Post by ryanchants »

jyunderwood wrote: post #31

$1000/yr is steep for starting a project from scratch with it. You need to really be sure about needing it and about it paying for itself. The Rails equivalent ( https://jumpstartrails.com/ ) is $249/year and the Laravel equivalent ( https://spark.laravel.com/ ) is $99/project. Those seem geared in features and price at hobbyist wanting to monetize a side project. This looks like it would be just as helpful for hobby…

For Django there is also SaaS Pegasus(https://www.saaspegasus.com/) which has a pricing structure more in-line with Jumpstart Rails.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#38

Post by davegaeddert »

ericbarnes wrote: post #32

* Forge the Laravel server management SaaS * Forge the Django SaaS framework I'm sure other things use the name "Forge" but just seems odd you'd purposefully use the same one. Could also make your SEO rather difficult.

I have some regrets on this. I sort of landed on the name and then learned about Laravel Forge. But went with it anyway.

Re: Forge – A Django SaaS Framework

#39

Post by czue »

reducesuffering wrote: post #33

I'm interested and have purchased SaaSPegasus.com before. I like to compare the base setups between Django SaaS deployments for learnings. But SaaSPegasus is $299, imo $1,000 is far too much, and I wouldn't purchase it.

Thanks for the support and let me know if you have any suggestions on how to make Pegasus better! :)
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