Two Codebases, One Brand, and a Border Nobody Drew
The marketing site and the product are separate things built by separate people on separate release cycles, and the pages between them — pricing, documentation, signup, login, the changelog — land on whichever side happened to move first. Eighteen months later nobody can say where a given page lives, who deploys it, or why changing a price takes an engineering ticket.
No credit card required · 30-minute call · No obligation to sign up
Six pages that belong to neither side
Each of these has a marketing reason to live on the site and a technical reason to live in the product. Whichever way it goes, it should be a decision rather than an accident of who built it first.
- PricingMarketing owns the words · billing owns the truth
- DocumentationWritten by engineers · found by buyers
- SignupThe last marketing page and the first product screen
- LoginEveryone links to it · nobody owns it
- The changelogProof of life for buyers, chore for the team
- StatusMust survive the thing it reports on
The last row is the one with only one correct answer. A status page that runs on the same infrastructure as the product goes down exactly when it is needed, which is a design fault rather than bad luck. Everything else on this list is a genuine trade-off; that one is not.
Put each page where the person who edits it works
The most useful rule we have found is not architectural. Ask who changes a page most often, and put it where that person can change it without asking anyone. Pricing copy is edited by marketing far more often than billing logic changes, so the page belongs on the site with the numbers pulled in rather than typed. Documentation is edited by engineers as they ship, so it belongs beside the code, surfaced under the same domain. Follow that rule and most of the disputed pages sort themselves out.
What remains is the seam itself, and it has to be deliberate. One domain, one set of session rules, one navigation that does not visibly change halfway through, and a login link that works from every marketing page including the ones nobody remembers. Handled badly this shows up as the small indignities buyers notice: a signup flow with different typography, a docs site with its own search that finds nothing, a footer that appears on eleven of thirteen pages.
Then there is the demonstration problem, which is specific to selling software. The product is the argument, and the marketing site has to make it without the visitor logging in. Screenshots age badly and are usually taken with test data that undermines the point. Video is heavy and skipped. An interactive demo is the honest answer and it is real work — it needs deciding early, because it changes what the build is rather than decorating it.
Finally, keep the trial signup boring. It is the one flow where an unusual design choice costs money directly, and it is the flow most often used to showcase the new design system. The interesting version belongs somewhere else.
- ✓Put the page where its editor sits — Pricing with marketing, docs beside the code. Most disputes resolve themselves.
- ✓One domain, one session, one nav — The seam is where buyers notice small indignities first.
- ✓Never type a price twice — Marketing owns the words, billing owns the number. Pull it in.
- ✓Status must outlive the product — A status page on the product’s infrastructure fails exactly when needed.
- ✓Decide the demo early — Screenshots age, video gets skipped. An interactive demo changes the build.
Ask who edits the page most often, and put it where that person can change it without asking anyone.
What a SaaS marketing build has to settle
Six things, and the first one is a border rather than a feature.
Draw the Border
Page by page, decided by who edits it most often and how fast they need to. Written down, so the answer survives the people who agreed it.
Pricing That Reads From Billing
Marketing owns the words and the layout, billing owns the numbers, and nobody types a price twice. The alternative is two versions of the truth and a customer holding the wrong one.
Docs That Buyers Can Find
Beside the code where engineers will actually maintain them, surfaced under the same domain with search that works. Documentation is a sales asset read by people who have not bought yet.
A Boring Signup Flow
The one place where an inventive design choice costs money directly, and the place it is most often tried. Conventional, fast, and testable end to end.
A Demo That Is Not a Screenshot
Interactive where the product justifies it, decided at the start because it changes the shape of the build. Screenshots age badly and usually contain test data that argues against you.
Status, Independently Hosted
On infrastructure that has nothing to do with the product, because a status page that goes down with the thing it reports on has failed at its only job.
What clients say
Real clients, quoted in their own words — published with their permission.
“Ghalib’s clear guidance has helped improve our website’s SEO performance.”
“It was a pleasure working with Ghalib and his team.”
“We’re very thankful to Ghalib and his team for building a fully-functioning website for our business.”
More of them, in full, on our reviews page.
— Our Proprietary Methodology —
The Visibility Framework™, applied in SaaS
The method doesn’t change by market. What it’s pointed at does.
Audit & Discovery
What the current site earns, where it leaks, what your competitors do better, and what the new one must achieve. Ends in a written scope and a fixed price — not an estimate that grows.
Structure & Design
Sitemap, wireframes and user journeys agreed before decoration, then a design system applied consistently. You approve the shape before we make it beautiful.
Build & Test
Front end, back end, CMS and integrations, on a staging site you can see from day one. Tested on real devices, real screen readers and real slow connections.
Launch & Improve
Redirects verified, analytics connected, handover recorded — then we look at what real visitors actually do and fix what the design assumed wrongly.
Honest, No-Nonsense Commitment
The price we quote after discovery is the price you pay — if we underestimated the work, that is our problem, not a change request. And on any rebuild, if organic traffic drops because of something we did at migration, we fix it at our cost, however long it takes.
Website Development pricing for SaaS, in USD
Quoted for the marketing site and the seam, not for the product. Where an interactive demo is part of it, that is priced separately and decided early, because it changes what is being built rather than adding to it.
Marketing Site
The site, with the border drawn properly.
- Page-by-page ownership map, written down
- Pricing that reads from billing
- One domain, one session, one navigation
Site & Docs
The usual one. Marketing plus documentation.
- Everything in Marketing Site
- Docs maintained beside the code, surfaced on-domain
- Signup flow built boring and tested end to end
- Optional: bundle in SEO or Social Media
Full Front Door
Site, docs, demo and status.
- Interactive demo, scoped at the start
- Independently hosted status page
- Changelog your team will actually keep
- Optional: combine all 4 services for full-funnel growth
Every plan is scoped around your market — get a free audit and we’ll recommend what fits, priced in USD.
What you’re actually committing to
Most agencies keep this in a contract you only see after the sales call. We would rather you knew now, because it is the question everyone asks second — right after the price.
- A fixed price, agreed before we startQuoted after discovery, not estimated on a call. If the work takes longer than we thought, that is our risk — the price does not move unless you change the scope.
- 50% to begin, 50% at launchNo large upfront payment held for months, and nothing owed until the site is live and you have seen it working.
- You own everythingDomain, hosting, code repository, design files and content — all in your name from day one, and still yours if we never work together again.
- No proprietary lock-inStandard, widely-used technology only. Any competent developer can take the site over, and nothing stops working because you stopped paying us.
- Two rounds of revisions per stageIncluded at wireframe and design stage, where changes are cheap. Beyond that, or after sign-off, changes are quoted before any work starts.
- 30 days of support after launchBugs and small tweaks included as standard. A care plan afterwards is optional, never automatic, and cancellable with 30 days’ notice.
These are the terms as they appear in the agreement itself — nothing here is softened for the website. The full wording lives in our terms and conditions, and you get the agreement to read before anything is signed or invoiced.
SaaS Website Development questions, answered
Related Website Development pages
Same service, different angle — by market, by discipline and by platform.
Want the border drawn on purpose?
Free 30-minute audit · No obligation · Response within 24 hours
Get in touch with Ghalib Ashrafi HQ
Ghalib Ashrafi takes on work for brands in six markets — the UK, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Pakistan. Every enquiry gets a reply within 24 hours.