Jason McCreary, the developer behind the Laravel Shift upgrade service, has posted a retrospective of his work on the project and some of the things he's learned along the way. The service just recently topped 1000 applications upgraded.

Less than a year ago I created Laravel Shift. While not my first product, it is my first software as a service (SaaS). If you’re not familiar with Laravel Shift or interested in the backstory check out the Q&A on Laravel News or listen to the interview on Full Stack Radio.

In this post, I want to focus more on reaching the milestone of 1,000 Laravel applications upgraded. This may not sound like many, however for my first SaaS product it marks the achievement of my stretch goal. So allow me to share the most important decision, biggest challenge, and what the future holds for Laravel Shift.

He starts with a section talking about the difference between a "project" and a "product" targeted at developers who, usually, have more than one project going at a time. He talks about his decision to move Shift to a "product" and some of the hurdles he hit because of being "a developer, not a marketer". He finishes the post looking ahead to things coming with the service and the announcement of "human services" being offered to get a live person involved in the upgrade of your Laravel application.