Developer Glossary
SaaS MVP
A Minimum Viable Product for a Software-as-a-Service business — the smallest version of your product that real users can pay for.
Multi-Tenant SaaS
Multi-tenant SaaS is a software architecture where one application serves many customers (tenants), with each customer's data fully isolated from others.
Row-Level Security
Row-Level Security is a Postgres feature that restricts which rows a user can read or write, enforced at the database level rather than in application code.
iCal Sync
iCal sync is bidirectional calendar synchronization using the iCalendar protocol — connecting booking platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Google Calendar to your own system.
SaaS MVP Cost
A SaaS MVP typically costs €15,000–€60,000+ depending on scope, team structure, and definition of 'done'.
Full-Stack Developer
A full-stack developer builds both the frontend (what users see) and the backend (server, database, APIs) — the entire vertical slice of a software product.
Time to Market
Time to market is the time between deciding to build and the moment real paying customers can use it. For a SaaS MVP, it's the most important metric you're not optimizing for.
Flutter Developer
A Flutter developer builds cross-platform mobile apps using Google's Flutter framework — one codebase that runs on iOS, Android, and web.
Webflow Developer
A Webflow developer builds websites using Webflow's visual design tool and CMS — producing production-ready sites without writing traditional server-side code.
SaaS Development Cost
SaaS development costs range from €15,000 for a focused MVP to €300,000+ for an enterprise platform, depending on scope, team structure, and feature complexity.
MVP Timeline
A focused MVP with a senior developer takes 6–12 weeks. An agency takes 4–6 months for the same scope.
API Integration
An API integration connects two software systems so they can exchange data — your app calls another service's API to read or write data without building that functionality from scratch.
White-Label SaaS
White-label SaaS is software built by one company and rebranded by another — the end customer sees the reseller's brand, not the original builder's.
Custom Software Development
Custom software development is building software designed specifically for your business requirements — not adapting off-the-shelf tools to fit a workflow they weren't designed for.
Supabase
Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative built on Postgres — it provides a database, authentication, storage, real-time subscriptions, and Edge Functions from one platform.
Stripe Integration
A Stripe integration connects your app to Stripe's payments infrastructure — enabling you to accept cards, manage subscriptions, and handle payouts without building payment processing from scratch.
B2B SaaS
B2B SaaS (Business-to-Business Software as a Service) is subscription software sold to companies, not consumers — typically with team accounts, role-based access, and per-seat or usage-based pricing.
Webhook
A webhook is an HTTP callback that an external service sends to your server when something happens — a payment succeeds, a form is submitted, a subscription changes.
TypeScript
TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript — it adds static type checking so bugs are caught at build time, not in production.
Serverless
Serverless is a cloud execution model where your code runs in stateless functions that scale automatically — you pay per execution, not per server-hour.
Mobile App Development Cost
A production mobile app costs €15,000–€80,000+ depending on platform (iOS/Android/both), feature complexity, and whether you use cross-platform frameworks like Flutter.
Web App Development Cost
A production web app costs €10,000–€80,000 depending on feature scope, authentication requirements, and whether it includes real-time or multi-tenant functionality.
Firebase
Firebase is Google's Backend-as-a-Service platform — providing a real-time NoSQL database (Firestore), authentication, cloud storage, hosting, and serverless functions from one platform.
Outsourcing Software Development
Outsourcing software development means hiring an external developer, team, or agency to build your product rather than hiring in-house — typically for cost, speed, or specialized skills.
SaaS
SaaS (Software as a Service) is software delivered over the internet on a subscription basis — you pay monthly or annually instead of buying a license and installing software.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
An MVP is the smallest version of a product with enough features for early adopters to use and pay for — it validates a business hypothesis with minimal time and money spent.
Row-Level Security (RLS)
Row-Level Security is a Postgres feature that restricts which database rows a user can read or write — enforced at the database level, not in application code.
Webhook
A webhook is an HTTP POST request that an external service sends to your server when an event occurs — payments, form submissions, status changes — without you having to poll.
CI/CD
CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment — automated pipelines that test, build, and ship code changes to production without manual steps.
API-First Development
API-first development means designing and building the API before the user interface — treating the API as the core product that web, mobile, and third-party clients consume.
Serverless
Serverless is a cloud model where your backend code runs as on-demand functions — you don't provision or manage servers, and you pay per invocation rather than per idle server-hour.
Edge Computing
Edge computing runs code in data centers geographically close to the end user — reducing latency by processing requests at the 'edge' of the network rather than in a central server.
Design System
A design system is a shared library of reusable UI components, design tokens, and guidelines that ensures visual consistency across a product — eliminating per-page decision-making.
White-Label Software
White-label software is a product built by one company and resold by another under their own brand — the end customer sees only the reseller's branding, not the original developer's.
Monorepo
A monorepo is a single code repository that contains multiple projects — web app, mobile app, shared libraries, backend services — managed together with shared tooling.
Technical Debt
Technical debt is the accumulated cost of shortcuts taken during development — every 'we'll fix it later' decision that slows down future changes and increases bug risk.
Microservices
Microservices is an architecture where a large application is split into small, independently deployable services — each responsible for one domain and communicating over APIs.
CRUD App
A CRUD app is any software that primarily Creates, Reads, Updates, and Deletes data — the four fundamental database operations that underpin most business applications.
B2B SaaS
B2B SaaS (Business-to-Business Software as a Service) is subscription software sold to companies — not consumers — typically featuring team accounts, role-based access, and usage-based or per-seat pricing.
B2C SaaS
B2C SaaS (Business-to-Consumer Software as a Service) is subscription software sold to individual users — with viral growth, self-serve onboarding, and lower price points than B2B.
Headless CMS
A headless CMS manages and stores content without dictating how it's displayed — it delivers content via API to any frontend: web, mobile, digital signage, or voice interfaces.
Jamstack
Jamstack is a web architecture based on pre-rendered static files served from a CDN, with dynamic functionality added via JavaScript and APIs — delivering fast, secure, and scalable sites.
Real-Time App
A real-time app delivers updates to users instantly as data changes — without requiring them to refresh the page. Chat, live dashboards, collaborative editing, and multiplayer games are real-time apps.
iCal Sync
iCal sync is calendar data exchange using the iCalendar (.ics) protocol — connecting booking platforms, scheduling tools, and calendar apps so availability stays consistent across systems.
Stripe Webhook
A Stripe webhook is an HTTP callback Stripe sends to your server when a payment event occurs — subscription created, invoice paid, payment failed — enabling your app to react to billing events in real time.
Supabase
Supabase is an open-source Firebase alternative built on PostgreSQL — providing a full backend platform with database, authentication, storage, real-time subscriptions, and serverless functions.
Firebase
Firebase is Google's Backend-as-a-Service platform — providing a real-time NoSQL database (Firestore), authentication, file storage, hosting, and serverless Cloud Functions.
Flutter
Flutter is Google's open-source UI framework for building natively compiled apps for iOS, Android, web, and desktop from a single Dart codebase.
Next.js
Next.js is a React framework for building web applications — combining server-side rendering, static site generation, API routes, and edge middleware in one production-ready package.
TypeScript
TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript — it adds a static type system that catches bugs at compile time, improves IDE tooling, and makes large codebases maintainable.
Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework — instead of writing custom CSS classes, you compose styles directly in your HTML using small, single-purpose utility classes.
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL (Postgres) is an open-source relational database — the most feature-rich SQL database available, used by startups and large enterprises alike for production data storage.
REST API
A REST API is a standardized way for software systems to communicate over HTTP — using verbs (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and URLs to read and write resources.
GraphQL
GraphQL is a query language for APIs that lets clients request exactly the data they need — no over-fetching, no under-fetching, and a strongly typed schema as the contract.
Docker
Docker is a containerization platform that packages an application and all its dependencies into a portable container — ensuring it runs identically on every machine and in every environment.
Product-Market Fit
Product-market fit (PMF) is the state where your product satisfies a strong market demand — users actively want it, retain, and recommend it without you having to push.
Churn Rate
Churn rate is the percentage of customers (or revenue) that cancels in a given period — the single most important health metric for a subscription SaaS business.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) is the normalized monthly subscription revenue from all active customers — the core financial metric for any SaaS business.
Technical Founder
A technical founder is a startup co-founder who leads product development — writing code, making architectural decisions, and managing the engineering process alongside business responsibilities.
Agency vs. Freelancer
An agency offers a team with PM and QA layers at higher cost and slower iteration. A senior freelancer offers direct access to the builder, faster cycles, and lower cost — with less capacity for large scope.