Saasy - SaaS for Rails
I’ve been working on an open source SaaS solution for Rails over Christmas called Saasy (pronouced “sarrsy” - using a posh voice).
Saasy provides:
- Subscription management
- Recurring billing
- Credit card management
- User authentication and SSO
- Mailers for invoices etc
Saasy follows a componentised design. The idea is that you build your custom site, and then the generic authentication, account management and credit card management is split into a separate Rails app (Saasy) - a reusable component.
None of the credit card information is stored locally - but rather at a payment gateway. This greatly simplifies PCI DSS (formally known as CISP) compliance. However, you still have control over when the card is charged - rather than using some of the gateway specific subscription systems - which means you don’t have to worry about gateway callbacks.
Sassy also deals with authentication (both OpenID and credential based) - your main app can forward users to the Saasy SSO, and then they’ll get redirected back once they’ve been authenticated. This means you don’t have to bother generating and customizing authentication code - and also means you can use the same code for authenticating multiple sites (DRY).
Checkout the README on github for a full list of all the features and installation info.


leondu 6 Jan 2009 1:12 pm
I hope you had released this a little earlier!
Nice job man, thanks!
Nathan 7 Jan 2009 3:18 pm
This sounds really useful, I have a project in the pipeline that could really benefit from this.
Liam Monahan 12 Jan 2009 11:52 pm
This seems like a great alternative to shelling out $250 for the SaaS Rails Kit. I will definitely be using this. I would love to contribute to this project soon.
linoj 29 Jan 2009 5:56 pm
got tests?
Jonathan Nelson 1 Mar 2009 11:57 pm
thank you! this is fantastic news.
Michael 26 May 2009 5:41 pm
I am implementing saasy, and in my companion app, I keep getting the error “NoMethodError: undefined method ‘helper_method’ for Object:Class”
alex 26 May 2009 7:35 pm
Michael:
That would be because you’re using an old version of Rails.
Michael 26 May 2009 8:19 pm
My rails version is 2.3.2. I think that’s updated enough for this app.
Michael 26 May 2009 8:25 pm
Ok, I guess that is correct. I am running the new version, but didn’t realize that application.rb has now changed to application_controller.rb.
Thanks.