The part of SaaS development I underestimated

When I started building my current project, I expected most of my time to go into the actual product.

Instead, I’ve spent a surprising amount of time on all the surrounding pieces: authentication, email flows, payments, database design, deployment, error handling, SEO, and all the little things that only become obvious once you start putting everything together.

None of it is particularly exciting on its own, but it adds up quickly.

For people who have built and launched SaaS products before: what was the part you underestimated the most before starting?

Not necessarily the hardest part, just the thing that ended up taking much more time than you expected.