Top 11 SaaS Companies That Outsourced Software Development

In the realm of software development, the significance of outsourcing has become increasingly prominent. The sector has witnessed a remarkable shift with the IT services segment forming the backbone of the global outsourcing market. In 2023, IT services represented a substantial portion of the overall contract values ​​in the outsourcing sphere, amounting to $66.5 billion of the $92.5 billion generated by global outsourcing firms. This trend underscores the strategic pivot of companies towards leveraging external expertise to bolster their technology capabilities​.

This post will go through a few of the greatest SaaS organizations outsourcing software development to third parties. It also shows how SaaS software development often relies on external teams at different growth stages.

What Is Software Development Outsourcing?

Software development outsourcing occurs when a company contracts an external provider to deliver software development services instead of completing the work in-house. This practice, originating in the 1970s, has gained prominence as businesses seek to reduce operational costs. The decision to outsource is strategic, especially when the cost of procuring goods or services externally is significantly lower than in-house production. However, companies have realised that factors beyond cost also play a crucial role in the outsourcing decision-making process. The decision also depends on business analysis, project scope, and the business goals behind the product. In early stage products, that often starts with product discovery before delivery scope is fixed.

Advantages of Outsourcing Software Development

Outsourcing offers a plethora of benefits, each contributing to the operational efficiency and strategic growth of a business. Here is a list of the top advantages of outsourcing:

Access to Technical Expertise With the Right Development Partner

Companies often find that while their core staff excels in certain domains, they may still lack specialized expertise in software engineering and delivery. Outsourcing allows businesses to tap into the wealth of knowledge possessed by specialists in specific fields, thereby boosting performance.

Faster Delivery in the Software Development Process

One of the most common motivations for small or medium sized businesses firms to outsource work is to complete it faster. If you have a small team, delegating time-consuming tasks to freelancers or outside organizations can help you get things done much faster.

Focus on Core Priorities When You Outsource Software

Another advantage of outsourcing jobs is that it gives teams more time to focus on core business activities.s You will be able to focus your expertise on strengthening and refining the essential procedures that keep your organization running smoothly by passing on supporting processes.

Share Delivery Risk With an Outsourcing Company

Risk assessment is one of the most important factors for any project. That risk is often lower when external specialists take over software testing or other delivery tasks that exceed internal capacity. The same logic applies to software quality assurance when release quality matters as much as speed. You will manage risk by outsourcing a particular process or campaign to experts or specialists.

Reduce Costs With a Software Outsourcing Company

Outsourcing fragmented work is nearly always less expensive than recruiting full-time employees. You will not only save time and money on recruiting but your profit margin will also be increased due to lower overheads.

Work Around the Clock With Software Outsourcing Services

The biggest advantage of outsourcing is digital work to another country is the significant time zone and holiday variances you may experience.

Simpler Project Management With a Dedicated Team

When you work with software development outsourcing companies, you usually get clearer project management workflows that make tasks, deadlines, and payments easier to track. A defined software development process also makes the overall development process easier to review, improve, and scale. Most of this may be automated, allowing you to focus on other vital tasks.

Simpler Work Relationships With One Development Partner

Many small company teams are made up of close friends and family, which is wonderful. When you're close to your coworkers, though, it might lead to problems if work isn't done properly. You can usually reduce work connections to basic, contractual arrangements by outsourcing tasks.

More Targeted Custom Software Development

Another advantage of outsourcing is that it allows you to develop and execute more effective, focused campaigns and initiatives that you otherwise wouldn't be able to handle. This allows your company to take new risks and test alternative exposure approaches.

Peace of Mind With a Reliable Outsourcing Company

Opting to outsource software development company with a trustworthy individual or agency should calm you that jobs will be done correctly and effectively without you needing to worry or raise a finger. What could be better than that?

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Software Development Outsourcing Models

Software development outsourcing services usually follow three delivery models: staff augmentation, dedicated team, and project based engagement. Each model changes control, speed, and software delivery.

Staff augmentation adds external specialists to an existing team. A dedicated team is a vendor run unit assigned to one product. Project based engagement transfers one software development project or a defined software project to the provider.

Examples in this article, such as AdRoll and 15Five, match staff augmentation or a dedicated team because remote engineers expanded an existing product group.

Onshore places the vendor in the same country. Nearshore places the vendor in a nearby time zone. Offshore places the vendor farther away and often uses an offshore development center. Mordor Intelligence reports that offshore held 51.85% of the market in 2025, while nearshore is projected to grow at 13.95% CAGR from 2026 to 2031. These software development outsourcing services stay relevant because buyers balance cost, collaboration, and access to talent.

Nearshore Software Development in Eastern Europe

Nearshore software development works with a provider in a nearby time zone, which improves meeting overlap and response times. Deloitte’s 2025 GBS Survey lists India, the United States, and Poland as the top three GBS locations, which keeps Eastern Europe visible for firms considering a dedicated development center and access to a global talent pool.

What Is SaaS in Custom Software?

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is a software licensing model that gives users access to software solutions delivered through a web platform for a recurring subscription fee. Unlike traditional software installation, SaaS users can access the software through a web browser, offering a more flexible and maintenance-free solution..

Benefits of SaaS for Custom Software and Mobile App Development

Here are the benefits you will get using SaaS for your next project.

Cost-Effective Custom Software Development

For many reasons, using SaaS can save you a lot of money. To begin with, SaaS reduces the user's upfront fees of purchase and installation. SaaS is simply downloaded and essentially maintenance-free from the user's end, eliminating the need to spend big sums of money on physical resources.

Better Time Management in Software Development Outsourcing

Time is a valuable commodity. Fortunately, SaaS can assist firms in reducing both costs and time. Installation of SaaS apps requires only an internet connection and the activation of a login.

Scalability and Accessibility for Custom Software

Another advantage of SaaS is the incredible customization it provides. Businesses that use SaaS can modify their consumption plan without giving early notice because the software is maintained externally by the vendor. Furthermore, because SaaS solutions are web-based, they can be accessed from anywhere in the world. That model supports scalable solutions because cloud computing and system integration can expand with the product instead of being rebuilt for each release. That is also where DevOps consulting supports stable releases and faster deployment.

High Compatibility Across the Software Development Process

Users can connect to the most recent updated version of their SaaS product when using SaaS. Updates, patches, and ongoing support are managed by the SaaS vendor, which eliminates the need to install fixes manually.

SaaS guarantees that the end-user has access to the most recent version of the program at all times. The concept of software as a service involves removing software maintenance and incompatibility issues, resulting in a more streamlined focus and increased productivity for your business.

Amplified Security When Companies Outsource Software

SaaS solutions, in most cases, can keep a company's corporate data safer than traditional software. For example, at Radixweb, we have many data centers located throughout the globe that communicate with the IT infrastructure to serve our SaaS products. If an issue arises in one of our data centers, the other will continue to provide our services.

High Adoption Rates in SaaS and Mobile App Development

Because SaaS solutions are offered through the Internet. They often require significantly less training because employees are already accustomed to working on the Internet, resulting in quick acceptance by the workforce.

Top SaaS Companies That Chose Software Development Outsourcing Companies

Outsourcing brings many advantages to SaaS development. Building a SaaS product introduces many challenges, especially finding the right project resources and technical expertise while meeting budget and time targets. Many successful businesses out there recognize their shortages and turn to development companies. That is especially true when custom software development requires niche knowledge that an internal team cannot add fast enough to a custom software roadmap. This is one of the main reasons teams invest in custom software development instead of hiring every role in house.

This article presents a list of top SaaS companies that outsourcing software development and became successful.

Slack

One of the most popular communication tools many businesses use, including Selleo and some of our key clients, is Slack. Not everybody is aware that the development of this collaboration application launched in 2013 was outsourced.

The four founders of the startup contacted a design company to handle the website, application, and Slack’s logo. That early phase often depends on UI UX design services because product clarity matters before scale. The MVP was later distributed to beta testers and gained 8k users on the final launch day.

As for today, Slack is used by nearly 8 million users per day and is steadily gaining momentum and recognition.

Expensify

Founded in 2008, Expensify is a tool that helps to organize, collect and store expenses, receipts, and other transactions. To shorten their time-to-market, they decided to outsource the development of the entire back-end.

That allowed the Expensify team to focus solely on the front-end and other business operations crucial to a successful release. For teams in that situation, a software development company can accelerate backend work without pulling product leaders away from launch planning.

They are a company with over 130 employees used by 2 million users growing day by day.

Klout

Klout is a ranking tool created for social media. It allows users to rank users based on their social media influence. The founder of Klout recognized the power of outsourcing and went even further with the development, flying over to meet the team and working with them on-site.

After just three months of intensive work, they created a working prototype. Working this way allowed them to save money and time while focusing on a distraction-free environment. Although Klout is a rather extreme example of outsourcing, it is surely one of the more interesting ones.

Groove

Groove - an online customer support platform - is yet another amazing example of what outsourcing can give you. After selling his previous company, its founder, Alex Turnbull, wanted to get back into the game as quickly as possible. Lacking technical knowledge and staff, he decided to outsource the product's entire development. In that model, the vendor becomes a development partner whose track record matters as much as price.

This allowed him to save money that would have been spent on hiring employees, offices, etc.

In 2016, Groove gained a total revenue of $5.2 million and is now employing people worldwide.

AppSumo

This is an example of a company that decided to outsource its initial development and continues to outsource many business areas. AppSumo is a website that distributes and shares deals on subscriptions, software, and online courses.

Noah Kagan - the founder of AppSumo - hired developers to code a PayPal integration into his MVP. This integration allowed him to start selling subscriptions and grow the business.

Over 700k people now use AppSumo, and its value exceeds 2 million.

Splunk

A Data-to-Everything Platform deals with data search and analysis used by enterprises like Airbus or Porshe. They decided to reach out to outsourcing agencies to design and develop the infrastructure and a ready solution. With over 5k employees and 27 offices in various locations worldwide, Splunk is yet another business success story of outsourcing.

Microsoft

Yes, Microsoft is a giant that does not have to be introduced. Employing more than 131k people, Microsoft is said to have as many remote contractors as its direct employees.

In 2010 Microsoft signed an outsourcing deal with a provider in India to manage its internal IT operations. The partner was responsible for managing the IT help desk and servicing applications, devices, and databases in 450 locations in more than 100 countries.

This allowed Microsoft to reduce IT support costs and even scored them an award thanks to the consulting with Accenture. The example shows that even enterprise solutions can rely on an outsourcing company when scale and operational coverage matter more than ownership of every internal task.

DocuSign

This electronic signature service provider has been outsourcing product development, which allowed them to cut costs by half and provided flexibility in the team size. The outsourcing team joined the existing DocuSign and is dealing with adding new features to the service and support and maintenance of the system.

Adroll

Adroll is a marketing platform supporting their clients in attracting, converting, and growing their customer base. It serves over 30k clients worldwide. Adroll decided to outsource the marketing platform development by expanding its existing team with 20 remote full-stack engineers. Technologies like Python, React.js, and Node.js were involved in the project. This is close to a dedicated team model, where an external development team expands delivery capacity inside an existing product environment.

15five

15five is a US-based SaaS company helping its clients to improve employee performance. The solution provides managers with tools for giving feedback, objective tracking, reviews, etc. They are serving clients like LinkedIn, Spotify, or Hubspot.

The Co-founder and CTO of 15five decided to outsource Python development as the resources available on-site was not enough for him. This gave him the freedom to scale and focus on the product itself. It also shows how outsourcing can support an in house team when local hiring cannot keep up with roadmap pressure.

6sense

This Account-Based Orchestration Platform utilizes the power of AI and machine learning to analyze buyers’ behavior helping revenue teams gather information about buyers. Products in this category often depend on artificial intelligence solutions for prediction, automation, and decision support. Products that rely on machine learning often need experienced developers who can ship data-heavy features without slowing the rest of the roadmap. Some teams also add AI Agent development services when workflow automation becomes part of the product. That work usually sits inside broader AI product development, not only model training.

Thanks to that, they can prepare better offers, generate more opportunities and deals in advance, and in the long run, be more competitive.

6sense was looking to hire talented engineers in San Francisco, but in the end, they decided to outsource the development, saving money, time and gaining international experts. That move gave them access to a global talent pool without limiting recruitment to one expensive market.

When to Outsource Software Development vs. Build an In House Team

Deloitte’s 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey says 80% of executives plan to maintain or increase investment in third party outsourcing. Companies outsource software development services when speed, flexible project scope, or external business analysis matter more than building an in house development team from the start.

What Companies That Outsource Software Development Gain From the Right Development Partner

Outsourcing is a strategic business practice where companies hire external providers to perform tasks, offering benefits such as cost reduction, access to expertise, and increased efficiency. The concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) allows users to access software hosted on external servers via the internet, enhancing flexibility and reducing maintenance efforts. SaaS offers numerous advantages including cost-effectiveness, scalability, constant updates, and enhanced security.

Many successful companies, including Slack, Expensify, and Klout, have leveraged outsourcing in their SaaS development to optimise resources, reduce time-to-market, and focus on core business operations. As the trend continues, businesses are increasingly recognising the strategic value of outsourcing and SaaS in achieving operational efficiency and competitive advantage. For many SaaS firms, software outsourcing also supports digital transformation by expanding delivery capacity without rebuilding the whole team structure.

How to Choose a Software Development Outsourcing Company

A short shortlist becomes clearer when outsourcing partners are compared across five criteria.

1. Portfolio and track record
   A strong track record shows relevant work, not only logos. One example is Case Study: Defined Careers, which shows product delivery in practice. Top software outsourcing companies and leading outsourcing companies usually show products from the same domain, such as SaaS platforms, internal tools, or custom software solutions.
2. Tech stack and competencies
   Deep technical expertise matters when a product needs integrations, scalability, or security. Deep industry expertise, specialized expertise, and technology consulting matter when the work includes custom solutions, digital solutions, or broader technology solutions.
3. Communication and time zone
   Reliable outsourcing partners keep overlap hours, response times, and escalation paths clear. A mature service provider also explains how product managers, engineers, and QA work together.
4. Security and compliance
   Software development outsourcing services need clear rules for code access, data handling, and IP ownership. Comprehensive services matter when the vendor works across infrastructure, QA, and delivery, not only coding.
5. Pricing model and delivery scope
   Software development outsourcing services vary by pricing models such as time and material, fixed price, and dedicated team. The best fit depends on risk, roadmap stability, and whether the product needs one module or unique software solutions across several releases. That is also the point where it helps to compare one software outsourcing company against the real product scope.

And if you are looking for software outsourcing company, contact us!