What are the best SaaS applications out there? The truth is, you can’t really say out of all of them that just one SaaS application is the best, because there are so many fields in which SaaS solutions are being prepared and offered, and something designed for one purpose is not the best at something it’s not designed to do. With that in mind, it’s best to just look at a cross section of SaaS fields of application, and see what the best are in several categories.
So, the best SaaS applications can only be the best in their field of application, meaning that a list of bests could go on forever. Well, I don’t have forever because this is the day of the week they feed writers, and I’m going to get that steak before someone else today! So, I’m going to show you five of the best SaaS applications going around, in five specific purposes.
There is no meaning to the order of these, just the order I felt like mentioning them.
#1 – Moodle
Moodle is a learning and education framework designed for online correspondence training, digital classroom environments and more. Many actual schools use this open-source SaaS suite. It can coordinate digital school papers over the internet, coordinate live lectures with virtual classrooms, and handle curricular data, syllabi and grading systems over a discrete VPN system that is secure and low in latency for most people with broadband.
Moodle is very powerful, but it is a backbone framework not an interface. Being open-source, support and bugfixes may be slower than corporate, retail software. Other than that, it’s a pretty dynamite framework for digital learning, if you don’t mind the elbow grease needed to polish it.
#2 – LivePerson
LivePerson is a hybrid business intelligence and customer relations and communications management suite. It is divided into a multitude of smaller feature components, such as keyword analysis and ROI evaluation for SEO and search engine centrism, communication facilities for live chats between agents and customers, and much more.
With a powerful logistics frame and flexibility of feature modules, this is a very scalable solution for small and mid sized businesses who can afford to lump BI and customer relations together as one scalable solution.
It lacks the functionality of dedicated CRM software, though.
#3 – Salesforce
Salesforce is a dedicated – hey I guess there is a little more order to this list after all – CRM software suite. This is a programmable system with templating, mass configuration and tiered account levels with differing accesses.
This takes the place of older CRM systems like Platypus, with a cloud centrism and programmable, customized system that allows for differing scales, book types and record keeping functions.
Salesforce is powerful, but it lacks the communications capacities of something like LivePerson … but it makes up for it in power and versatility for CRM.
#4 – Hubspot
Hubspot is a marketing tracker and logistics suite for internet marketing solutions. Hubspot integrates with Google, Appnexus, Yahoo, Microsoft and other major marketing venues to track statistics on keywords, user outreach, effectiveness of demographics and excellent metering of ROI for various marketing models.
Hubspot is powerful, and supports multiple platforms including a plethora of mobile devices. Be warned that Hubspot’s tracking API may slow your system down if it analyzes in too high a data resolution.
#5 – WalkMe
WalkMe is a tutorial creation system intended for authoring onboard interfaces and teaching structures for website frontends. WalkMe has a point and click interface and a really slick GUI for its built structures that allows content-aware control over a website for hands-on learning.
Recently many are discovering that it works as a general frontend for self-service too, as it can learn patterns and keep users from making fatal mistakes, as well as detecting and reporting bugs or customer issues before the customer even does.
WalkMe is very powerful, but their editor require Firefox for the moment. A small price to pay for this powerful system, though.
These are some of the best SaaS applications out there, at least in their fields. As always, take the initiative to keep doing reading on the topic, as these are only a few fields and I hear the feeding bell now. Better go get that steak before that big mean real estate writer claims it again!