A New Way to Build SaaS Sites: Hello World

You are reading the very first article written on Spinal Builder. That might not seem like much, but to me writing this is a big moment. Spinal Builder has been months in the making (as a part-time project—for now). It's the successor of my other SaaS, Spinal. Spinal Builder goes where Spinal never could go: building actual pages and even complete (marketing) sites.

Over the past 10+ years I've built various SaaS businesses. All started with just me building the product, designing the UI and crafting and growing the marketing site. In those 10 years I used WordPress and every static site generator (SSG) under the sun. WordPress is still around (but currently in a weird position!), but many SSG's are either abandoned or simply don't exist anymore.

And I like those static sites a lot. They load fast and are versatile. But they are difficult to tweak for non-developers. They allow me to use tools I know and love, like HTML and CSS. But they need another tool/platform to make updates. WordPress solves it somewhat. It does great on the collaborating and updating part, but building pages for it is an unpleasant exercise.

Then there are web builders. They limit you where you host your site (at their own servers). And box you in to what you can build. Spiritually, Spinal Builder, is like those web builders. But without those limitations. I think this can be done better.

I have these goals in mind for Spinal Builder:

• As flexible as a SSG;
• Easy to craft quality/SEO content like WordPress;
• Host wherever you want (e.g., Netlify, S3 Cloudflare Pages);
• Great collaboration features;
• Provides SEO guidance (think many WP plugins);
• Outputs static HTML;
• Built specifically for Software/SaaS teams.

Those are some lofty goals! But most of the foundational work for those are in place already today in Spinal Builder, but still need some serious work to make them loveable.

The beginnings will be truly humble. Yet again. Spinal Builder does what is says on the tin today. All in a super clean package. But the road ahead for my vision is long! Just to name a few things: team collaboration, scheduling content, SEO help, AI assistant, different views for your collections, template/component marketplace and so on.

Spinal Builder will focus on a team of one for now. With that their will be also only one plan: Solo. At just $99 a year (and 50% discount for the first years for early adopters) you can build your site for your next business in a new way (and once you've grown, you can choose a different plan).

If you are interested in a new way to build SaaS sites, leave your email below and I will personally invite you (first come, first serve—with a backlog of early adopters already on the list).