Simon Willison’s Weblog

What is “Software-as-a-Service”?

23rd September 2013

My answer to What is “Software-as-a-Service”? on Quora

Software which is hosted for you by the providing company, so you don’t need to install and manage it on your own servers.

It’s commonly paid for on a subscription basis, usually monthly or annually.

Posted 23rd September 2013 at 1:45 pm · Follow me on Mastodon, Bluesky, Twitter or subscribe to my newsletter

More recent articles

Adding TILs, releases, museums, tools and research to my blog - 20th February 2026
Two new Showboat tools: Chartroom and datasette-showboat - 17th February 2026
Deep Blue - 15th February 2026

This is What is “Software-as-a-Service”? by Simon Willison, posted on 23rd September 2013.

quora 1005 saas 17

Next: When is a good day to hold a conference?

Previous: Why doesn't Quora open-source its search interface?

Monthly briefing

Sponsor me for $10/month and get a curated email digest of the month's most important LLM developments.

Pay me to send you less!

Sponsor & subscribe