Benefits of Having a Public API for B2B SaaS Product

Having a public API can be a great asset for businesses, allowing customers to build missing features and customize the product to their exact needs, while offering you the opportunity to test and learn from feature hypotheses. Additionally, we'll see how you can leverage your public API to offer no-code solutions to your customers and use iPaaS to build and launch new native integrations.

Increased Product Scope

Allow customers to build missing features

If you work with enterprise customers, or clients with a high level of technical knowledge, having a public API can be a great benefit. Customers can use the API to build features that may not currently exist, allowing them to tailor your product to their exact needs. This makes them more satisfied with their experience and more likely to retain as a customer. It also provides a great value-added to your product that other companies may not be offering, giving you a competitive edge.

Feature testing and learning opportunities

Developed either by the customer or concept-proofed by your team, you can learn a great deal from API-developed features, which can be seen as a kind of new feature MVP. By leveraging the power of your public API, you can create innovative features that won't impact your core product and provide a great way to test and validate new features with your users.

Transform your Product into a Platform

The dream of all SaaS businesses is to build a thriving developer community around their product, which would in turn reduce the costs associated with integration building and maintenance. Having a clear public API, with targeted use cases to help developers understand how to enhance your product functionality is the mandatory first step.

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However, it is important to remember that to fully realize the dream of a robust and active developer community, more than simply publishing the documentation of the API is necessary. You will need to provide support for developers, such as tutorials, forums, or even a dedicated Slack group.

Build the Foundation for NoCode Integrations

Offer access to NoCode platform

For less tech-savvy customers, the use of no-code platforms can bring the same advantages as directly using your public API to enhance the functionnal scope of your product. With platforms such as Zapier or Make, your customers can easily automate their workflows and connect your product with tools you still don't integrate natively.

Leverage iPaaS to build integrations effortlessly

A public API can also allow you to use Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) to build your native integration. Integrated properly, those platform simply connects to your existing API – and thousand of others – to help you build with a visual interface the logic of your native integration.

You can then offer a white-labeled native integration to your customer as you woud if you had developped it yourself.

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For both iPaaS and other NoCode platforms, make sure to consider adding webhook subscription and OAuth support to your public API, as it is almost a minimal requirement.

Having a public API can be a great way to extend the scope of your product. It provides customers with the ability to build features that may not exist yet, offers learning opportunities for your team, and even offers the potential to turn your product into a platform. With the help of no-code services and iPaaS, you can leverage the power of your public API to build white-labeled integrations for your customers.

Get in touch if you need help to :

Identify the use case to add to your public API to achieve your business goals
Structure your public API to meet business standards and maximize its potential
Create the foundation for a partner's developer experience