Examples of SaaS with Pure API/Minimal UI/UX?

Question

Hey HN!I really like creating tools (you can find some of them on my website in the profile), but I really hate doing UI/UX.Are there any examples of, relatively, successful SaaS products that have minimal UI/UX?Share your stories.

ezekg · Accepted Answer

I doubt many of these exist. And if they do, they're probably small. I tried to go "API-only" for my SaaS. But I was met with abysmal onboarding conversion rates. And I tried to stick it out, too, improving documentation and DX where needed. Ultimately, I didn't get my first paying customer until I built a basic admin UI for the API. Even though a large percentage of my customers don't actually use the UI in their integrations or day-to-day, that initial friction of no UI when learning the ropes was killer.

simantel · Answer

Just off the top of my head: Cloudflare, Twilio, Segment, SendGrid, dbt, Mongo, Vercel, Mapbox.All of these have some UI, but the core product is an API or infrastructure as a service.

rozenmd · Answer

Even APIs have UI/UX concerns to consider.Think about error messages, docs, landing pages, etc.

Examples of SaaS with Pure API/Minimal UI/UX?

Hey HN!
I really like creating tools (you can find some of them on my website in the profile), but I really hate doing UI/UX.
Are there any examples of, relatively, successful SaaS products that have minimal UI/UX?
Share your stories.

Just off the top of my head: Cloudflare, Twilio, Segment, SendGrid, dbt, Mongo, Vercel, Mapbox.
All of these have some UI, but the core product is an API or infrastructure as a service.

Even APIs have UI/UX concerns to consider.
Think about error messages, docs, landing pages, etc.