A new app store offering Canadian small to mid-sized businesses more than 1,300 cloud-based apps has just come online, according to its creator.
San Matero, Calif.-based SaaS Markets has launched Appclick Canada today. It’s a curated group of software as a service (SaaS) applications that offers several subscription-based applications that are accessed via the Web.
Categories on the store include Admin and Office Tools, Finance and Accounting, Sales, Security, and more. A comparison feature allows users to put multiple apps that do the same task side-by-side to juxtapose features and pricing. Most apps run in the $15 to $20 per month price range.
Taking an Apple App Store approach to cloud-based business software isn’t new. As the idea of paying a rental fee for software delivered over the Web grows more popular and less businesses are interested in buying boxes off shelves and installing software to their PC, storefronts that offer a wide variety of apps could become popular.
Bell Canada launched a Business Apps Store in Feburary 2011. Working with San Francisco-based AppDirect, it also offers a stable of Web-based apps that all come with free trial periods.
Appclick also offers a demo center to show apps that are available to trial. A section dubbed App University is full of video tutorials on how to use the apps.