Guide
The 3 Types of SaaS Integration: Placement, Capability, Handoff
Short answer: every integration between two SaaS products is one of three types. A placement exchanges attention (a listing or a link), a capability exchanges function (their feature running inside your product), and a handoff exchanges identity (a user moving from one product to the other with their account carried across). Rank them by one question — if your partner rips it out tomorrow, what breaks? — and capability and handoff come out on top, with placement a distant third.
Why another way to classify SaaS integrations?
Most lists of "types of SaaS integrations" sort by how the thing is built: native, API-based, webhook, iPaaS, embedded, unified API. That is the right taxonomy for an engineer choosing tools. It says nothing about the question a founder is actually asking when a partner proposes an integration: what are we each giving the other, and what happens when one of us leaves?
The same feature can be built natively or through an integration platform; the commercial reality doesn't change. So this post sorts integrations by what crosses between the two companies. There are only three things that can.
The three types at a glance
| What's exchanged | Naturally priced in | Feels like | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Placement | Attention | Impressions or clicks | An affiliate link |
| Capability | Function | Invocations and outcomes | One product |
| Handoff | Identity | Revenue share on the user who moves across | A warm transfer |
1. Placement: what is a placement integration?
A placement puts the partner in front of your users: an entry on your integrations page, a card in your dashboard, a line in an onboarding email, a "works with" badge. Nothing of the partner's product runs inside yours. Your user sees a name, and if they're interested they leave to find out more.
When it's right: as the first rung. A placement takes hours, tells you whether your users care at all, and costs nothing to remove. It is the cheapest test of a partnership.
Its limit: it changes nobody's product. Your user can't buy anything new from you; they have just been shown somewhere else to go. A partnership that never gets past placements is advertising with extra meetings, and it will be valued — and dropped — like advertising.
2. Capability: what is a capability integration?
A capability puts the partner's function inside your product. A scheduling tool that shows real-time availability from a booking marketplace. An invoicing app that runs a compliance check from a specialist provider before the invoice is sent. Your user never leaves; from their side, it is one product that got better.
When it's right: when the partner holds something your own coding agent can't rebuild — a network of people on the other side, data or privileged access, rights such as a regulatory licence, or a real expert's judgment written into the rules. If their feature is ordinary application logic, you'd be paying a permanent share for a weekend's work, and you should either build it or keep the partnership to a cross-sell.
Why it matters most: this is the type that raises what each existing user is worth. Your users can now buy something inside your product that they couldn't before — more revenue per user, not more reach. We'd go further: a partnership isn't really an integration partnership until at least one capability ships.
3. Handoff: what is a handoff integration?
A handoff moves a user from one product to the other at the moment they need it, carrying their identity and context across: shared sign-in, the account created automatically, the record they were working on already there. A bookkeeping tool whose growing customers graduate into a full accounting platform without re-entering a year of data. A lead-finding tool whose qualified leads open directly as deals in a CRM.
When it's right: when your products are consecutive steps in one customer's workflow and you can name exactly what passes between them — the artefact, record or decision. Same customer isn't enough; there has to be a handoff to carry.
What it builds: once the handoff runs inside both products, the pair holds a record of the whole job that no single-product competitor can see, and becomes the default next step. Even two products with nothing hard to copy individually can become hard to replace together this way.
If your partner rips it out, what breaks?
This is the question that ranks the three types, and it is the one founders worry about most: what if they copy us, or simply walk away? You can't stop someone copying a feature — the idea leaks when you pitch it, not when you integrate. What you can choose is how much of the value sits in something that can't be taken with the code.
| Type | What breaks if they rip it out and keep the code | Exposure |
|---|---|---|
| Placement | Nothing. The link disappears and no one's product changes. | Highest |
| Capability | The call stops answering. A feature their customers use stops working. | Low |
| Handoff | New accounts stop being provisioned; the flow their users relied on ends. | Low |
Read the ranking carefully, because it is the same order as the value. The type that gives the partner the least (placement) is also the one they can drop or copy at no cost. The types that change the product are the ones where the code alone is useless without the other side still answering. That is a second, independent reason never to build a partnership around placements alone.
One caution: "the call stops answering" is only true if your side of the capability is actually serving something — a network, data, a licence, expertise. If what you expose is ordinary logic, the partner can rebuild it and the capability is no safer than a placement. Our post on how to choose an integration partner covers that test.
Who supports the customer in each type?
- Placement: nobody needs to; keep the link working.
- Handoff: the support boundary is the session boundary. The user is yours until the handoff, theirs after it. Simple.
- Capability: whoever's interface the customer is looking at owns tier-1, because that's who they'll email. The provider owns tier-2 and should commit to a response time in writing. The bigger risk is versioning: a provider shipping a breaking change breaks every host at once, so agree a notice period before anyone builds. We list the full set in 7 common SaaS integration problems.
What data crosses in each type?
Less than people fear. A placement carries none. A capability carries a call and its answer. A handoff carries a consented identity — the user agreeing to move. In none of the three does either company hand over a customer database, which is also why a well-scoped integration doesn't need a six-week legal review before it can ship.
Which type of integration should you build first?
Climb in order, and let results decide each step:
- Start with a placement to test whether your users care. Hours, not weeks, and nothing to unwind.
- Move to a handoff — shared sign-in and automatic account setup — if the placement shows interest and you can name what passes between the products. Days.
- Embed the capability once the numbers justify a deeper build. Weeks, and worth it only when the partner holds something you can't rebuild.
Agree with your partner, before you start, what result at each rung earns the next. And remember the placement is the on-ramp, never the destination.
The takeaway
When a partner proposes an integration, ask two questions before you ask how it will be built: which of the three is it? and if either of us walks away, what breaks? If the honest answer is "placement" and "nothing", you're discussing a promotion, not a partnership — fine to do, but price your time accordingly.
On Ordana, the members build whichever type they agree on themselves, with their own coding agent; the platform handles the match, the plan, the agreement and the revenue share.
Related reading:
- How to Choose an Integration Partner for Your SaaS — the checklist for picking between candidates.
- 7 Common SaaS Integration Problems (and How to Fix Each) — what goes wrong after launch, by type.
- The Three Moats That Decide Whether a SaaS Is Worth Integrating With — when a capability is worth paying a share for.
- Cross-sell integration partnerships — the commercial side of the capability type.