The Death of “All-in-One” SaaS

AT
Alex Turnbull
CEO & Founder, Helply and Groove
3 min read |

I’ve been building software for nearly two decades.

I’ve watched companies go from five tools to fifty. From lean and fast to bloated and confused. From solving real problems to managing tools about tools.

Somewhere along the way, we lost the plot.

We started buying “platforms.” Suites. Bundles. All-in-ones that promised everything and delivered nothing well.

They said we’d move faster. Save money. Stay organized.

What actually happened?

  1. Slower onboarding.
  2. Higher costs.
  3. More dependencies.
  4. Teams overwhelmed by settings instead of focused on outcomes.

And then what do you get for your loyalty? A price increase for all these new features…that you aren’t even using. 🤦

All-in-Ones Are a Lie

The all-in-one promise sounds great.

One tool. One login. One bill. Seamless everything.

But here’s what actually happens:

  • You get a bloated UI filled with features you’ll never use.
  • You wait six months for basic updates while the team chases roadmap requests from Fortune 500s.
  • You pay for tools you didn’t ask for just to access the one you need.
  • And when you finally outgrow it? Good luck switching. Your data’s stuck. Your workflows are tied up. And your team’s been trained on someone else’s priorities.

All-in-one software doesn’t exist to serve you.

It exists to serve them—the vendors.

It’s a sales strategy. A bundling tactic. A way to inflate ACV and land “transformational” deals.

Bloated Software Isn’t Built for Us

The move to enterprise solutions is inevitable for venture backed SaaS.

Enterprise software wins awards. It lands seven-figure deals. It powers teams with hundreds of agents, departments, and workflows.

And it’s needed when you’ve raised millions and you’re burning cash like a mad man.

In the end, this type of software was never built for you:

  • Pricing models that punish growth.
  • Layers of features you’ll never use.
  • Sales reps who won’t talk to you unless your team’s over 100 people.
  • Support that sends you to a help center built on the same broken stack they sell.

The tool works, just not for your size, your team, your goals.

And when you finally need something fixed?

You’re ticket number 42,378…

The New Rulebook

This is what we believe.

  • No lock-in
  • No software bloat
  • No all-in-one bundles
  • No forced migrations
  • No enterprise theatrics
  • No AI hype without results
  • No features that don’t pull weight
  • No dashboards built for VCs
  • No BS

We build tools that do one job extremely well. We build for SaaS teams who want profit, not noise. We build for founders who want control.

This isn’t a suite.

It’s a system.

Modular. Sharp. Built for speed and scale.

Instead of bundling everything into one monolith, we’re building sharp, connected tools. Each one solves a specific problem. Each one works on its own. Each one connects with the rest of your stack.

  • Need an AI agent that answers 70% of tier 1 support tickets and is trained on your tickets and macros (but want to stick with your existing help desk)? That’s Helply.
  • Want to create help documentation 30x faster, but don’t want to spend weeks migrating your existing content to a new platform? That’s InstantDocs.
  • Looking for a help desk that doesn’t require a six-month onboarding plan? That’s Groove.

Use one. Use all. Use them with Zendesk, Freshdesk, Notion, Help Scout—whatever you already have.

No lock-in. No platform dependency. Just tools that do what you need and get out of the way.

The future isn’t bundled.

It’s composable.

It’s already here.

And it’s only getting better.

Lets build a sustainable $10M ARR SaaS together