Updated: | Originally published: | By Hayley Brown
Embedded iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) is gaining recognition because SaaS companies need faster, more scalable ways to offer integrations inside their products. As demand for native integrations, automation, and digital transformation grows, both the iPaaS and embedded iPaaS markets are expanding quickly.
In simple terms:
- iPaaS helps businesses connect their own apps, data, and workflows.
- Embedded iPaaS helps SaaS companies offer those integrations directly to their customers inside their own product.
This matters because SaaS buyers increasingly expect integrations to be built in, easy to activate, and fast to deploy. For vendors, embedded iPaaS reduces development effort, shortens time to market, and improves customer retention.
iPaaS or Embedded iPaaS
iPaaS is a cloud-based integration platform that helps a business connect its own applications, data, and processes. It gives teams prebuilt tools to create and manage integrations without building everything from scratch.
Gartner defines iPaaS as “a suite of cloud services enabling development, execution and governance of integration flows.”
Embedded iPaaS is different because it is built for SaaS companies that want to offer integrations to their own customers inside their product. Instead of using the platform only for internal operations, the SaaS vendor embeds integration capabilities directly into the customer experience.
The difference in simple terms
- iPaaS: used by a business to solve its own internal integration needs
- Embedded iPaaS: used by a SaaS company to deliver integrations as part of its product
Example
A finance SaaS platform may use an embedded iPaaS to let customers connect QuickBooks, Salesforce, and HubSpot from within the app. The customer gets a native integration experience, while the SaaS company avoids building each connector from scratch.
iPaaS Market Growth
The iPaaS market has seen rapid growth and generated $3.47 billion in revenue during 2020 growing by 38.7%. The market is expected to grow further and exceed $9 billion in revenue by 2025. According to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service 2021.
It cannot be ignored that the pandemic had an impact on the growth of the iPaaS market. For instance, the technological and IT market shifted as millions were sent to work from home, customer demand changed, and supply was disrupted. As well as organisations realise their need to step up their digital transformation efforts to help weather the pandemic’s impact.
Source Market Research Future,
The Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) market size is expected to Reach Approximately USD 2 billion by 2023
An increase in the use of different applications across an organisation has created a priority to connect them. This in turn helps improve an organisation’s efficiency, enhancing its scalability and reducing expensive IT costs. The increased iPaaS adoption can also be attributed, according to ReportLinker, to “exponentially increasing cloud real-time monitoring services, the need for business agility, faster deployment, and scalability.” As key factors in driving the growth of the iPaaS market.
Where does Embedded iPaaS sit within the market?
Embedded iPaaS is a specialised segment within the broader iPaaS market. While the wider iPaaS category includes internal business integration, embedded iPaaS focuses on helping software companies deliver integrations to their own customers as a product feature.
It sits at the intersection of:
- Customer-facing product experience
- Application integration
- API management
- Workflow automation
| Service Types | Cloud Service Orchestration Data Transformation API Management Data Integration Real-Time Monitoring and Integrations Business to Business (B2B) Cloud Integration Application Integration Training and Consulting Support and Maintenance |
| Deployment Types | Public Cloud Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud |
| Organisation Types | SME Large Enterprise |
| Vertical Type | Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) Healthcare Manufacturing Education Media & Entertainment IT & Telecommunication Government |
Source Market Research Future, Integration Platform as a Service Market
That is why embedded iPaaS is especially relevant for SaaS vendors, platform companies, and B2B software teams that want to make integrations part of their commercial offering.
There are several key players in the Embedded iPaaS market who are paving the way in the industry. Each caters to a slightly different segment within the market whether that is eCommerce, marketing or ERP. Many of the leading providers have the ability to tackle any and all verticals within their powerful toolkits.
Helping key SaaS organisations become more agile in their processes and achieve a key pillar in their digital transformation efforts.
Embedded iPaaS Features
There are common features that embedded iPaaS platforms exhibit theses include:
- Embedding Options
- Cyclr’s embedding options come in the form of an Embedded Marketplace, LAUNCH, Data on Demand, and Service Led Deployment.
- Cloud Architecture
- Shared Hosting, Private Cloud
- Custom and Built-In Connectors
- Cyclr has over 400 ready-made connectors in its library and users can build their own custom connectors for extra functionality.
- Drag and Drop Workflow Builder
- Many embedded iPaaS providers have drag-and-drop workflow builders where low code tools are used to quickly build integrations.
- Data Visualisation and Business Intelligence
- A dashboard where users can view accounts, integration usage and performance.
- Unified Proxy API
- Enabling extra customisation to integrations and bespoke UI for your integration deployment.
Who is using embedded iPaaS?
iPaaS is mainly used by internal IT and operations teams. Embedded iPaaS is mainly used by SaaS vendors, system integrators, and enterprise software companies.
Typical users of iPaaS
- IT teams
- Operations teams
- Enterprise architects
- Digital transformation teams
They use iPaaS to connect internal systems, automate workflows, and move data between business applications.
Typical users of embedded iPaaS
- SaaS product teams
- Platform companies
- System integrators
- Commercial or implementation teams
They use embedded iPaaS to offer integrations, self-serve automation, and connected workflows directly to end users inside a product.
What are the main use cases for embedded iPaaS?
The main use cases for embedded iPaaS are customer-facing integrations, workflow automation, reusable integration templates, and cross-system data syncing. It helps SaaS companies deliver integrations faster without sending users to third-party tools.
Common use cases
- Native in-app integrations
- Let customers connect tools such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, or QuickBooks from inside your SaaS product.
- This keeps the integration experience inside your platform.
- Self-serve integration marketplaces
- Give users a white-labelled portal where they can browse, activate, and manage integrations on their own.
- This reduces support load and improves product adoption.
- Reusable integration templates
- Build a connector or workflow once, then reuse it across many customers or use cases.
- This is especially useful for system integrators and SaaS implementation teams.
- Real-time data synchronisation
- Move data between systems as events happen, so users always work with up-to-date information.
- Example: syncing customer records between a CRM and support platform.
- Workflow automation across apps
- Trigger actions in one app based on events in another.
- Example: when a deal closes in Salesforce, automatically create an onboarding workflow in a project management tool.
Real-world example
A HR SaaS company could use embedded iPaaS to let customers connect the platform to Microsoft Teams, payroll software, and an applicant tracking system. Instead of building each integration separately, the company can launch and manage those integrations through one embedded platform.
What are the benefits of embedded iPaaS?
The main benefits of embedded iPaaS are faster time to market, lower development effort, better customer retention, and a more seamless integration experience. It allows SaaS companies to make integrations part of their product without building every connector and workflow from scratch.
| Enhance customer experience with native integrations | Using an embedded iPaaS allows your commercial or product teams to upskill employees to use low-code tools. Letting your development team focus on your core product offering. |
| Retain control of your customer relationships | Don’t rely on third-party applications to resolve integrations. This breaks the continuity of your relationship with your customer and risks exposure to a competitor. |
| Increased speed in time to market | Adding connectivity in days not months allows you to add transformative technology to your product. Enabling you to be responsive to the needs of your customers. |
| Integration delivery options | Commercial Teams can use a drag-and-drop, no-code integration builder to create template integrations. Then simply click to publish in your application. Allowing your users to search and deploy integrations in seconds. Development Teams can create custom integrations with a single API to deliver an advanced user experience behind your own SaaS UI. Using the API to act as a proxy can access all of your external application data. Allowing you to perform more advanced data processing. |
| Saves substantial development time and cost | Using an embedded iPaaS allows your commercial or product teams to upskill employees to use low code tools. Letting your development team focus on your core product offering. |
What opportunities does an embedded iPaaS provide?
Embedded iPaaS creates opportunities to scale integration delivery, reduce pressure on engineering teams, and let non-developers contribute to integration deployment. For many SaaS companies, it turns integrations from a technical bottleneck into a product growth lever.
Key opportunities
- Upskill product and commercial teams so they can manage simpler integration tasks
- Reduce developer backlog by shifting repeatable integration work into reusable templates
- Launch integrations faster without waiting for long engineering cycles
- Improve customer experience by keeping integrations inside your own product
Example
If a SaaS vendor regularly gets requests for CRM, support, and billing integrations, an embedded iPaaS can help the team launch those faster using reusable components instead of building each one from scratch.
Conclusion
Embedded iPaaS is gaining recognition because it helps SaaS companies deliver integrations faster, more efficiently, and as a native part of their product experience. As businesses rely on more applications, demand for seamless connectivity, automation, and real-time data sharing continues to grow. That demand is increasing the importance of both iPaaS and embedded iPaaS across the software market.
While traditional iPaaS is typically used to solve internal integration challenges, embedded iPaaS is designed to help SaaS vendors offer integrations directly to their customers. This makes it especially valuable for software companies that want to improve customer experience, reduce development overhead, and bring new integration capabilities to market more quickly.
For teams evaluating how to scale integrations, embedded iPaaS offers a practical way to balance speed, flexibility, and user experience. Instead of treating integrations as one-off development projects, SaaS companies can turn them into a repeatable and scalable capability within the product itself.
