By Mehdi HassanWhat does a micro-SaaS website need?
A micro-SaaS website needs to do three things: tell the right person in seconds that the product solves their problem, show what it costs and let them start without talking to anyone. Everything else is optional at launch, and most of it is a distraction from shipping the product and finding users.
Micro-SaaS and indie SaaS products are usually built by one person or a tiny team, sold self-serve, and aimed at a narrow niche. That's an advantage on the website: a narrow audience lets you write a far sharper headline than a venture-backed company selling to everyone. The broader principles are in our SaaS website design guide; this article is the minimum viable version for bootstrappers.
Which pages does an indie SaaS website need at launch?
An indie SaaS website needs five things at launch, and three of them can live on the same page. Build these first and add nothing else until users ask for it.
Page or section | Job | Can it share a page? |
|---|---|---|
Landing page | Explain who it's for, what it does and why it's better than the workaround | It is the homepage |
Pricing | Show plans, limits and the free trial or free plan | Yes, as a section on the landing page |
Sign-up and login | Start the trial with the fewest fields possible | Separate, usually handled by the app |
Help or docs | Answer setup questions so you don't answer them by email | Can start as an FAQ section |
Privacy policy and terms | Legal basics, plus a contact address | Separate pages, linked in the footer |
Pages you can skip at launch: an About page (a line in the footer about who built it is enough), a blog (unless content is your main channel), a careers page, separate feature pages and integrations directories. Those make sense later. When you do get to integrations, our guide to the SaaS integrations page shows how to build them as a CMS system.
What should a small SaaS landing page say?
A small SaaS landing page should say who it's for, what job it does and what it replaces, in that order, above the fold. Niche products win by being obviously right for one kind of user, so the copy should feel slightly too specific rather than broad.
Write the headline for one user
"Invoice reminders for freelance designers" beats "Get paid faster". Our nine landing page headline formulas help if you're stuck.
Name the workaround you replace
Most micro-SaaS buyers currently use a spreadsheet, a script or a bigger tool they half use. Say that, and say why yours is better.
Show the product
One or two cropped screenshots or a short loop of the main workflow, directly under the headline.
List three outcomes, not ten features
Each with a short heading and one sentence. Features belong in docs.
Add proof you actually have
A few real user quotes, a count of users if it's honest, or a founder note explaining why you built it.
End with pricing and one button
Plans, what the trial includes and a single call to action repeated at the bottom.
Should a bootstrapped SaaS website show pricing?
Yes. A bootstrapped SaaS website should always show pricing, because self-serve buyers expect it and a hidden price reads as expensive or unfinished. Show the plans, the limits in plain units and what happens when the trial ends.
- Two or three plans at most. One plan plus a free trial is fine for a micro-SaaS.
- Monthly and annual, if you offer both, with the annual saving shown as an amount, not just a percentage.
- Limits in the user's units: projects, clients, messages. Avoid internal terms like "credits" unless you explain them.
- A short billing FAQ: cancellation, refunds and whether the trial needs a card.
For deeper plan-table patterns, the SaaS landing page examples we've torn down show how different teams lay out pricing on a single page.
What's the best stack for a solo founder SaaS website?
The best stack for a solo founder SaaS website is the one you can edit in ten minutes without breaking anything. For most founders that's a visual builder such as Framer or Webflow, or a simple template in the same framework as the app if you're a developer who'd rather stay in code.
Pros
- Visual builders let you change copy and layout yourself, the same day you learn something.
- Hosting, SSL and forms are handled for you.
- Templates get you to a clean, credible page quickly.
Cons
- Templates look like templates, which matters more as you move upmarket.
- Builder plans add a monthly cost, so check the current plan page.
- Keeping the marketing site in a separate tool from the app means two places to update.
Whatever you choose, keep the site fast, set up basic analytics and track sign-ups as an event from day one. You'll want that data before you decide whether to invest in custom design.
When should a micro-SaaS pay for custom design?
A micro-SaaS should pay for custom design when the website, not the product, is the bottleneck: people arrive, but the page doesn't convince them, or the product has moved upmarket and the template no longer matches the price. Before that point, your time is usually better spent on the product and on talking to users.
Good signals that it's time: steady traffic with a weak sign-up rate, users saying "I didn't realize it could do that", or a price increase that the current site doesn't justify. If you want a professional pass without committing to a full project, a short, fixed engagement is the safest step. Our guide on what a one-week build can realistically ship sets honest expectations, and the SaaS website cost guide shows what bigger projects typically run.
For example, suppose a solo founder rebuilds their landing page in a week
For example, suppose a solo founder runs a scheduling tool for tattoo studios on a generic template, with the headline "Booking made simple". In a focused week, the work is: rewrite the hero for tattoo artists specifically, replace stock images with product screenshots, add a pricing section with real prices, and add three real artist quotes the founder already has in support emails.
This is a hypothetical example to show the scope, not a client result. The point is that the biggest gains for a micro-SaaS are usually copy and clarity, which fit in a short engagement.
And if the honest answer is that you don't need help yet, that's fine too. Ship the five pages, watch what users ask, and come back when the site is what's holding you back. Our landing page teardown is a useful self-review in the meantime.
