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    * [ Applications Comparison Table ](/applications/what-is-saas/comparison-saas/)

**SaaS—Overview**

  * What is SaaS (Software as a Service)? 
  * History of SaaS 
  * SaaS benefits 
  * Cloud vs. SaaS—What's the difference? 
  * SaaS capabilities 
  * SaaS advantages 
  * The future of SaaS 

#  What is SaaS (Software as a Service)?

Software as a service (SaaS) is a cloud-based software delivery model in which
the cloud provider develops and maintains cloud application software, provides
automatic software updates, and makes software available to its customers via
the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. The public cloud provider manages all
the hardware and traditional software, including middleware, application
software, and security. So SaaS customers can dramatically lower costs;
deploy, scale, and upgrade business solutions more quickly than maintaining
on-premises systems and software; and predict total cost of ownership with
greater accuracy.

In the early 2000s, the first generation of SaaS solutions was siloed,
inflexible, and designed to solve a single business problem. Since then, SaaS
has evolved dramatically. Today, modern cloud applications can span—and
connect—everything from financials, human resources, procurement, and supply-
chain processes to commerce, marketing, sales, and service solutions. Other
benefits of a modern, complete SaaS solution include:

[ Industry leading SaaS provider ](/applications/ "Explore Oracle Cloud
Applications")

##  History of SaaS

In the 1960s, mainframe computers were connected to dumb terminals that shared
the mainframe’s software—a software delivery system known as time-sharing. As
the cost of computers began to fall in the 1980s, many businesses created
their own local version of time-sharing, which was called a local-area network
(LAN). However, the business (not the technology provider) was responsible for
supplying and managing the hardware and network.

With the advent of the internet in the 1990s, providers began hosting softwar