The Human Side of SaaS Reviews

Three years ago, I was sitting in a dimly lit café in Yaba, sipping on an overpriced cappuccino while doomscrolling through yet another list of “Top 10 SaaS Tools for Productivity.”

I had been working on building a review blog—yes, a full Software Reviews & SaaS website, optimized for SEO, backlinks, and affiliate links.

The goal? Turn my obsession with testing SaaS products into money. Easy, right?

The café had this warm orange glow, the sound of soft jazz in the background, and the faint click-clack of keyboards from other tech bros like me.

My screen was split: one tab open on Notion (ironically, the SaaS tool I was reviewing), and another on WordPress where my blog post draft sat waiting.

That’s when my friend Tunde called.

“Guy, abeg, you still dey write about SaaS?”

I laughed. “Yes na. I just tested ClickUp against Trello. Writing a killer comparison article for search ranking.”

He chuckled. “You dey review SaaS tools like it’s Tinder. Swipe left, swipe right.”

I smirked. “True talk. But bro, people dey search these things. ‘Best SaaS for startups,’ ‘Top software reviews,’ ‘Which CRM should I use?’ If I rank, money go dey flow.”

Just then, a girl in a mustard hoodie and round glasses sat across from me. She had that tech-nerd vibe—hair in a messy bun, AirPods in, laptop covered in stickers: GitHub, AWS, Figma. She looked up, caught me staring, and smiled.

“You’re into SaaS too?” she asked.

I blinked. “Wait… what? How did you—?”

She pointed at my screen. “You’re literally writing a blog about SaaS reviews. I can read your H2 headings from here.”

I laughed nervously. “Busted.”

She leaned in. “So, what’s your verdict? ClickUp vs Trello?”

That was the beginning. For the next two hours, we geeked out about software reviews, SEO hacks, and the pain of testing buggy SaaS platforms.

Her name was Ada. She worked as a product manager at a Lagos-based startup building a new SaaS for remote teams.

Our dialogue felt like code compiling smoothly. Easy. Natural.

Days later, we started hanging out. She’d send me beta links to test her company’s software, and I’d send her drafts of my review articles. We became each other’s cheerleaders.

One night, while working late at the same café, Ada leaned close and whispered, “You know… your reviews could actually expose some SaaS companies. Not all of them deserve the hype.”

I shrugged. “True. But my job is to stay honest. If the tool sucks, I say it sucks.”

She looked at me with an unreadable expression, then quickly changed the subject.

A week later, the plot twist hit me like a software crash.

I published a detailed review: “Why AdaSync Might Be the SaaS Disaster Startups Should Avoid.” I didn’t realize Ada’s startup was the very one I was reviewing under its beta name.

That night, she called. Her voice cracked. “So… this is how you support me?”

I froze. “Wait, AdaSync is your company’s product? You never told me the real name.”

Silence. Then she said, “I thought you’d recognize it. You tested it. You trashed it. Publicly.”

My chest tightened. The café we once shared felt far away. The laughter, the banter about SaaS tools—all gone.

“I wasn’t attacking you,” I whispered. “I was just being honest for my readers. That’s what software reviews are meant for. Transparency. SEO only works if there’s trust.”

She hung up.

For days, I felt hollow. Every click on that article felt like a stab in my chest. Traffic was booming, my SaaS blog ranking higher than ever, but I couldn’t celebrate. I had lost Ada.

Then, one evening, I got an email notification. It was from Ada.

Subject: You Were Right.

She wrote:

“Your review exposed flaws we were hiding under buzzwords. The management team had no choice but to rebuild from scratch. You saved the product. Maybe even saved me from pushing out trash software. I’m sorry for being mad. Coffee soon?”

I stared at the screen, half smiling, half crying.

And in that moment, I realized something: SaaS reviews aren’t just about affiliate links or SEO keywords. They’re about honesty, trust, and sometimes, heartbreak that leads to growth.

As I typed my next blog post—“The Human Side of SaaS Reviews”—I felt like I was no longer just writing for ranking. I was writing for truth.