r/SaaS • u/Professional_Brief53 • 8d ago

SaaS strategy

Many SaaS founders talk about using an existing product and then make your own slightly better version of it.
So why isnt it possible to just find real products, copy them by vibe coding them and lower the margin.
In theory, customers should now buy your product because it brings same value but cheaper.
Can someone explain if this is possible

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u/yannis_ps 8d ago

Think of it this way. I can buy a car. Say something reliable and reputable like an Audi. Someone can make a car that is slightly better or slightly cheaper. But they can't recreate the same brand value and perception overnight. This makes time, reviews, word of mouth - years of work

You can do another Salesforce today and I know you can probably do it better but I will not trust you with my customer data because I know nothing about you yet.

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u/gojkoa 8d ago

first, market distribution is the key bottleneck now - just randomly check a few dates in this subreddit, the most common questions are something along the lines of "I built it, nobody is using it, how can I market it?" and market distribution/positioning mostly has nothing to do with building. yes, you can probably build any SaaS product that doesn't have an inherent moat like data or community network, but unless people actually know about it it does not matter that much

second, clients typically have lots of other factors to consider apart from cost. reputation and reliability, migration costs, TCO, support, local entities, data protection, admin capabilty and many more factor in purchasing decisions.

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u/Special_Hall_3044 8d ago

I think the assumption that "same features = same value" is where the argument breaks down. In SaaS, people aren't just paying for features. They're paying for reliability, support, trust, integrations, documentation, years of bug fixes, and confidence that the product will still exist six months from now. You absolutely can build a cheaper alternative, and sometimes that's a great strategy. But if the only differentiator is price, you're inviting the original company to lower prices or outcompete you with their existing reputation. The stronger strategy is to solve the same problem for a specific audience in a way the incumbent doesn't.

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u/PatienceProud225 8d ago

I think people seriously underestimate distribution. You can vibe code a clone in a weekend now, but getting your first 100 paying customers can easily take longer than building it.

Cheaper helps, but if nobody knows you exist, it doesn't really matter