I've built two SAS apps that generate $500 a month in recurring revenue, and in this article, I'm pulling back the curtains on both of them. I'll show you real Stripe revenue numbers as well as other important metrics like user numbers, retention, and cost, so you can see how much profit I'm making, not just pure revenue.
The first app I built is called Nexus Research, an AI-powered reading and note-taking tool. It's a chat PDF tool where you upload a PDF and then chat with it to extract any information you want. I copied the idea from existing tools that have proven market demand and made some small tweaks to make it my own. The app allows users to chat with multiple papers at once and take notes while reading.
Nexus Research currently generates around $450 in monthly recurring revenue, and in its year-to-date existence, it has made roughly $2600. I haven't touched the app in 70 days, and it continues to bring in money, making it a passive income stream. The app is built using Next.js and hosted on Vercel, with Stripe as the payment processor.
I grew the app through social media marketing, specifically on Instagram. I used two main video series to attract eyeballs to my account and showcase the product. The first series, "If Colleges Were Honest," went viral and helped grow my account to 4,000 followers. The second series, "Summarizing Interesting Articles," showcased the product organically and attracted higher intent customers.
The pricing for Nexus Research is a simple subscription plan, with weekly, monthly, and yearly options. The weekly plan is the most popular, with most people using it for one or two homework assignments. Although the weekly plan introduces more churn, I'm okay with it because this is just a side hustle for me.
In terms of costs, Nexus Research incurs three major costs: Open AI, Pinecone, and Vercel. The costs are roughly $80 a month, resulting in healthy profit margins of around 80% off of $450 in revenue.
The second app I built is called Perfect Interview AI, an AI-powered mock interviewing tool. The app generates unlimited practice interview questions with the help of AI, based on a job description uploaded by the user. The app then helps users answer the questions and provides feedback to improve their responses.
Perfect Interview AI generates around $500 a month, but unlike Nexus Research, it's largely one-time purchase based. I AB tested it and found that the conversion rate for one-time purchases was much higher than for subscription plans. Each job description upload is one purchase, and users get to upload one custom job description and interview prep with it forever.
I grew Perfect Interview AI through social media, specifically on Instagram and Tik Tok. My co-founder handles the social media marketing, and we've found success through collaboration posts and showcasing the product's features.
The costs associated with Perfect Interview AI are Open AI, Planet Scale, and Vercel. The costs are roughly $60 to $70 a month, resulting in profits of around 400 to $430.
In conclusion, I've built two SAS apps that generate $500 a month in recurring revenue. I've shown you how I grew the apps, the revenue they generate, and the costs associated with them. I hope this article has given you some insights and ideas for your own SAS apps.