SaaS Statistics Updated November 2026

Human Written & Fact Checked · Updated

203 SaaS Statistics for 2026

Software as a service is now the default way businesses buy software. IDC forecasts global public cloud spending to pass $1 trillion in 2026 and expects SaaS to take more than half of it. In the EU, 96.44% of the enterprises that pay for cloud computing bought at least one SaaS product in 2025.

The companies that sell it are large and still growing. Salesforce reported $41.5 billion of revenue for fiscal 2026, and Microsoft said its Copilot add-on for Microsoft 365 reached over 30 million paid seats. Smaller private companies are growing more slowly than they were: the median in SaaS Capital's survey reported 22% growth for 2025.

This page collects 203 figures on the SaaS market, company results, adoption, spend, growth, retention, churn, pricing, funding, AI, security and jobs. Each one names who produced it, who was counted and when, because vendors and surveys that sound alike often measure different things.

Headline figures

How big is the SaaS market?

There is no single agreed figure, because every forecaster draws the boundary of the market differently. The firmest open statement is IDC's: SaaS is the biggest slice of public cloud spending and takes more than half of it.

  1. 1 Amazon 26%
  2. 2 Microsoft 19%
  3. 3 Google 16%
Worldwide share of cloud infrastructure services in Q3 2026, Synergy Research Group's estimate. This is the infrastructure layer that SaaS runs on, not the SaaS market itself. (Synergy Research Group (Q3 2026 cloud market), Oct 2026)
  • IDC expects global public cloud spending to grow over 21% in 2026 and to double by 2029. Its definition covers SaaS, platform and infrastructure services together. (IDC (public cloud spending forecast), Mar 2026)
  • Platform as a service is the fastest-growing public cloud category in IDC's forecast, expanding over 37% in 2026. (IDC (public cloud spending forecast), Mar 2026)
  • IDC forecasts US spending on public cloud services of $647 billion in 2026. The figure covers all public cloud services, not SaaS alone. (IDC (public cloud spending forecast), Mar 2026)
  • IDC forecasts global ICT spending by enterprises and smaller businesses to reach $4 trillion in 2026, with software the largest technology group at more than 33% of the total. (IDC (ICT spending forecast), Feb 2026)
  • In a separate tracker, IDC expected worldwide IT spending on hardware, software and IT services to rise 14% in 2025 to $4.25 trillion, with software spending also up 14%. (IDC (Worldwide Black Book), Dec 2025)
  • The same IDC tracker forecast a further 10% rise in worldwide IT spending in 2026. (IDC (Worldwide Black Book), Dec 2025)
  • Synergy Research Group put worldwide revenues from cloud infrastructure services, SaaS, social media and search combined at $497 billion in Q2 2026, up 27% from a year earlier. It does not split out SaaS. (Synergy Research Group (cloud and digital services forecast), Oct 2026)
  • Synergy forecasts that the same four markets together will exceed $5 trillion a year in 2031. (Synergy Research Group (cloud and digital services forecast), Oct 2026)

These are forecasts and estimates from two research firms, each with its own definitions. IDC's ICT guide and its Black Book cover different scopes and should not be combined. None of the figures is a count of SaaS revenue on its own.

How fast is the cloud infrastructure under SaaS growing?

  • Enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure services worldwide was $167.7 billion in Q3 2026, up 55% year over year, with trailing 12-month revenues of $558 billion. The measure covers infrastructure, platform and hosted private cloud services and leaves SaaS out. (Synergy Research Group (Q3 2026 cloud market), Oct 2026)
  • The US accounts for 44% of the world market for cloud infrastructure services in Synergy's estimate for Q3 2026. (Synergy Research Group (Q3 2026 cloud market), Oct 2026)
  • 73% of organisations in Flexera's 2026 global survey of more than 750 cloud decision-makers run hybrid cloud environments; 83% run active enterprise workloads on AWS and 79% on Azure. (Flexera (2026 State of the Cloud), Mar 2026)

How much revenue do the big SaaS companies report?

The biggest report tens of billions of dollars a year and most are still growing at double-digit rates. Each company below uses its own fiscal calendar and its own names for its measures, so the figures are listed one by one and never added together.

  1. 1 Agentforce Service $9,818m
  2. 2 Agentforce Sales $9,028m
  3. 3 Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack and Other $8,882m
  4. 4 Agentforce Integration and Agentforce Analytics $6,232m
  5. 5 Agentforce Marketing and Agentforce Commerce $5,428m
Salesforce subscription and support revenues by service offering, fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, in $ million as printed in the company's results. The five lines add up to the $39,388 million total. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Salesforce's subscription and support revenues were $39,388 million in its fiscal year ended 31 January 2026. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Microsoft reported revenue of $331.8 billion for its fiscal year ended 30 June 2026, up 18%. (Microsoft (fiscal 2026 results), Jul 2026)
  • Microsoft Cloud revenue, the company's own grouping of its cloud products, was $59.3 billion in the quarter ended June 2026, up 27%. (Microsoft (fiscal 2026 results), Jul 2026)
  • Microsoft said Azure revenue surpassed $100 billion in fiscal 2026. Azure is cloud infrastructure, not SaaS. (Microsoft (fiscal 2026 results), Jul 2026)
  • Adobe reported revenue of $23.77 billion for its fiscal year ended 28 November 2025, up 11%, of which subscription revenue was $22,904 million. (Adobe (fiscal 2025 results), Dec 2025)
  • Intuit reported total revenue of $21.4 billion for its fiscal year ended 31 July 2026, up 14%. (Intuit (fiscal 2026 results), Aug 2026)
  • Intuit's Online Ecosystem revenue rose 19% to $9.9 billion in fiscal 2026, and QuickBooks Online Accounting revenue rose 23%. (Intuit (fiscal 2026 results), Aug 2026)
  • ServiceNow reported subscription revenues of $12,883 million for calendar 2025, up 21%, and total revenues of $13,278 million, also up 21%. (ServiceNow (2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Workday reported total revenues of $9.552 billion for its fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, up 13.1%, of which subscription revenues were $8.833 billion, up 14.5%. (Workday (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Atlassian reported total revenue of $6,572 million for its fiscal year ended 30 June 2026, up 26% from $5,215 million. (Atlassian (fiscal 2026 results), Aug 2026)
  • Atlassian's cloud revenue was $1,213 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, up 31% year over year. (Atlassian (fiscal 2026 results), Aug 2026)
  • Zoom reported total revenue of $4,868.8 million for its fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, up 4.4%; Enterprise revenue was $2,934.1 million, up 6.5%. (Zoom (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Zoom's total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 was $1,247.0 million, up 5.3% year over year. (Zoom (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Snowflake reported product revenue of $4,472.3 million for its fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, up 29%. (Snowflake (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Datadog reported revenue of $3.43 billion for calendar 2025, an increase of 28% year over year. (Datadog (2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • HubSpot reported total revenue of $3.13 billion for calendar 2025, up 19% as reported, of which subscription revenue was $3.06 billion. (HubSpot (2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • Shopify reported 30% revenue growth and a 17% free cash flow margin for calendar 2025; fourth-quarter revenue was up 31%. (Shopify (2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • SAP's cloud revenue rose 23% in fiscal 2025 (26% at constant currencies), Cloud ERP Suite revenue rose 28% and total revenue rose 8%. (SAP (2025 results), Jan 2026)

Fiscal years end in different months, so these are not like-for-like periods. Microsoft's total covers all of its businesses and Microsoft Cloud mixes SaaS with infrastructure. Intuit's total includes its consumer tax and credit products, and most of Shopify's revenue comes from merchant services such as payments.

How much revenue is already under contract?

  • Salesforce's remaining performance obligation was $72.4 billion at 31 January 2026, up 14% year over year. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Salesforce's current remaining performance obligation, the part due within 12 months, was $35.1 billion, up 16%. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Microsoft's commercial remaining performance obligation increased 84% to $678 billion at 30 June 2026. (Microsoft (fiscal 2026 results), Jul 2026)
  • ServiceNow's current remaining performance obligations were $12.85 billion at 31 December 2025, up 25%, and its total remaining performance obligations were $28.2 billion, up 26.5%. (ServiceNow (2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Workday's total subscription revenue backlog was $28.101 billion at 31 January 2026, up 12.2% year over year. (Workday (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Total Adobe annualized recurring revenue was $25.20 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. (Adobe (fiscal 2025 results), Dec 2025)
  • Adobe's remaining performance obligations were $22.52 billion at the end of fiscal 2025. (Adobe (fiscal 2025 results), Dec 2025)
  • Atlassian reported subscription ARR of $6,606 million, up 23%, and remaining performance obligations of $4,817 million, up 44%, at 30 June 2026. (Atlassian (fiscal 2026 results), Aug 2026)
  • Snowflake's remaining performance obligations were $9.77 billion at 31 January 2026, up 42% year over year. (Snowflake (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • SAP's total cloud backlog rose 22% in fiscal 2025 (30% at constant currencies) and its current cloud backlog rose 16% (25% at constant currencies). (SAP (2025 results), Jan 2026)

Remaining performance obligation, backlog and ARR are each company's own measure of revenue under contract or recurring revenue. Definitions differ from one company to the next.

How many large customers do SaaS vendors have?

  • ServiceNow ended 2025 with 603 customers with more than $5 million in annual contract value, about 20% more than a year earlier. (ServiceNow (2025 results), Jan 2026)
  • Snowflake had 733 customers with trailing 12-month product revenue greater than $1 million at 31 January 2026, up 27% year over year. (Snowflake (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Datadog had about 4,310 customers with ARR of $100,000 or more at 31 December 2025. (Datadog (2025 results), Feb 2026)
  • Zoom had 4,468 customers contributing more than $100,000 in trailing 12 months revenue at the end of its fiscal 2026. (Zoom (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • HubSpot grew its customers to 288,706 at 31 December 2025, up 16% from a year earlier. (HubSpot (2025 results), Feb 2026)

Each company sets its own threshold for a large customer, so the counts cannot be compared.

How many businesses pay for cloud software?

About half of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees, and nearly all of those buy software as a service. Size is the dividing line: large enterprises are far more likely to pay for cloud services than small ones.

  1. 1 Large (250+ employees) 84.67%
  2. 2 Medium (50-249) 66.78%
  3. 3 Small (10-49) 49.3%
Share of EU enterprises using paid cloud computing services in 2025, by number of employees. Enterprises with fewer than 10 employees are outside the survey. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • The share of EU enterprises with 10 or more employees using paid cloud computing services rose 7.42 percentage points between 2023 and 2025. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • Among large EU enterprises the share buying cloud services rose 6.9 percentage points from 2023 to 2025; among medium-sized enterprises it was 59.09% in 2023, and among small enterprises it rose 7.48 percentage points. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • At least 70% of enterprises with 10 or more employees used paid cloud computing services in 2025 in Finland (79.21%), Italy (75.6%), Malta (74.87%), Ireland (73.04%) and Sweden (72%). (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • Fewer than 25% of enterprises with 10 or more employees used paid cloud computing services in 2025 in Romania (24.94%), Greece (24.33%) and Bulgaria (17.83%). (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • 82.92% of EU enterprises in the information and communication sector used paid cloud computing services in 2025, which Eurostat reports as the highest proportion of any sector. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • Professional, scientific and technical enterprises in the EU stood at 67.39% in 2025, while almost all other sectors ranged from 39.52% to 62.11%. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)

Eurostat surveys enterprises with 10 or more employees and self-employed persons in the EU. The SaaS share is a share of enterprises that buy cloud services, not of all enterprises.

How important is cloud technology to US businesses?

  • 59.0% of US employer businesses using cloud-based technology said it was "very important" to their processes or methods (2023 Annual Business Survey). (US Census Bureau (Annual Business Survey), Sep 2025)
  • 51.8% of US businesses that adopted cloud-based technology between 2020 and 2022 named improving the quality or reliability of processes or methods as a motivation. (US Census Bureau (Annual Business Survey), Sep 2025)

Cloud-based technology in the Census Bureau survey is broader than SaaS, and the shares are of businesses that reported on the technology, not of all US businesses.

What software do businesses buy as a cloud service?

E-mail, office software and file storage come first. Business applications such as ERP and CRM are bought as a cloud service by fewer than a third of the EU enterprises that use cloud at all.

  1. 1 E-mail 85.15%
  2. 2 Office software 71.69%
  3. 3 File storage 71.53%
  4. 4 Security software 65.49%
  5. 5 Finance and accounting software 58.16%
  6. 6 Database hosting 45.52%
  7. 7 ERP 30.12%
  8. 8 Computing power 28.18%
  9. 9 CRM 27.91%
Share of cloud-using EU enterprises that bought each type of cloud service in 2025. The base is enterprises with 10 or more employees that pay for cloud computing, not all enterprises. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • 77.25% of EU enterprises that use paid cloud computing bought at least one infrastructure-as-a-service product in 2025, and 26.08% used a computing platform for application development. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • 40.89% of all EU enterprises with 10 or more employees bought at least one sophisticated cloud service in 2025, which Eurostat classes as highly dependent on cloud. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • The shares of enterprises highly dependent on cloud services in 2025 were highest in Finland (65.90%), Denmark (64.98%), the Netherlands (62%) and Italy (61.90%), in Eurostat's wording. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • Among EU enterprises using paid cloud computing in 2025, 77.53% were highly dependent on cloud, 10.79% bought intermediate-level services and 10.55% relied only on basic services. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)
  • Among cloud-using EU enterprises, the share buying sophisticated services in 2025 was 88.86% in information and communication and 69.13% in accommodation and food service, the two ends of Eurostat's sector list. (Eurostat (cloud computing use by enterprises), Jan 2026)

Eurostat counts an enterprise as a SaaS buyer if it buys at least one of e-mail, office software, finance or accounting software, ERP, CRM or security software as a cloud service.

How many SaaS apps does a company use?

It depends on who is counting and what they count. Four vendors publish a figure from their own customers, and each one counts something different, so no single number is right.

  1. 1 Under 100 448median 392
  2. 2 100-499 679median 615
  3. 3 500-1,499 1,189median 1,157
  4. 4 1,500-3,999 1,250median 1,335
  5. 5 4,000+ 2,191median 2,323
Average SaaS apps per organisation by number of employees in Torii's discovery data for 2025, with the median underneath. Torii counts every app it detects, approved or not. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)
  • Okta customers had an average of 101 apps per company connected to Okta's platform in the 2025 edition of its Businesses at Work report. (Okta (Businesses at Work 2025), Mar 2025)
  • Organisations in Zylo's customer data hold an average of 305 applications and a median of 240 (2026 edition). (Zylo (2026 SaaS Management Index), 2026)
  • The average number of SaaS apps per organisation rose 11% year over year in BetterCloud's 2026 survey of 525 IT and security professionals, after two years of consolidation. (BetterCloud (2026 State of SaaS), Jul 2026)
  • Mid-market organisations in BetterCloud's 2026 survey saw their average number of apps rise 41% in a year, from 116 to 164. (BetterCloud (2026 State of SaaS), Jul 2026)
  • The average organisation in Torii's discovery data for 2025 runs 831 SaaS apps and the median runs 682, with shadow IT included. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)
  • 15.5% of apps in Torii's discovery data are formally sanctioned tools and 17.1% are blocked. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)
  • Only 56% of the apps in use carry IT approval, according to BetterCloud's 2026 survey respondents. (BetterCloud (2026 State of SaaS), Jul 2026)
  • An average of 2.5% of licence seats were assigned to offboarded users in Torii's customer data, roughly 1 in 40. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)

These four figures are not comparable and are not combined here. Okta counts apps connected to its identity platform, Zylo counts apps in the portfolios its customers manage, BetterCloud reports what survey respondents said, and Torii counts every app its discovery finds, shadow IT included. Each describes that vendor's own customers.

How much do companies spend on SaaS?

Thousands of dollars per employee a year among customers of SaaS procurement and management vendors, and the bill is rising. Price increases and AI features are doing more to push it up than new apps are.

16.4% Jun 2026 12.9% Jul 2026 12.7% Aug 2026 14.3% Sep 2026
View data table
Year-over-year SaaS price inflation in Vertice's index by month in 2026, measured on the contracts Vertice processes for its customers worldwide. Vertice calls June a record high; the September figure is preliminary.
PeriodValue
Jun 202616.4%
Jul 202612.9%
Aug 202612.7%
Sep 202614.3%
Year-over-year SaaS price inflation in Vertice's index by month in 2026, measured on the contracts Vertice processes for its customers worldwide. Vertice calls June a record high; the September figure is preliminary. (Vertice (SaaS Inflation Index), Oct 2026)
  • The median organisation in Zylo's customer data spends $20.6 million a year on SaaS (2026 edition). (Zylo (2026 SaaS Management Index), 2026)
  • Vertice's Q3 2026 figure for SaaS spend per employee was up 1.4% from $9,324 in Q2 and up from $9,200 in Q1 2026. (Vertice (SaaS spend per employee), Oct 2026)
  • Spend on AI-native applications rose 108% in a year across Zylo's customer data and 393% among large enterprises. (Zylo (2026 SaaS Management Index), 2026)
  • 78% of IT leaders in Zylo's survey reported unexpected charges tied to AI features or consumption-based pricing in the past year, and 61% cut projects because of unplanned SaaS cost increases. (Zylo (2026 SaaS Management Index), 2026)

Zylo and Vertice sell SaaS management and procurement software, and their figures describe their own customers, which are mostly larger organisations. They are not averages for all companies.

How much cloud spend is wasted?

  • Respondents to Flexera's 2026 global survey estimated that 29% of their cloud spend was wasted, an increase for the first time in five years according to Flexera. (Flexera (2026 State of the Cloud), Mar 2026)
  • 85% of respondents in Flexera's 2026 survey named managing cloud spend as a top problem, and 63% have set up a FinOps team. (Flexera (2026 State of the Cloud), Mar 2026)
  • 76% of large enterprises in Flexera's 2026 survey spend over $5 million a month on cloud services. (Flexera (2026 State of the Cloud), Mar 2026)

Flexera surveyed more than 750 cloud decision-makers worldwide. Its waste figure is the respondents' own estimate and covers public cloud spending in general, not SaaS licences.

How fast are SaaS companies growing?

More slowly than a year ago in every private-company dataset on this page. The slowdown shows up in SaaS Capital's survey and, separately, in ChartMogul's billing data, where median growth has fallen in most quarters since late 2022.

41% Q4 2022 35% Q1 2023 30% Q2 2023 26% Q3 2023 23% Q4 2023 24% Q1 2024 23% Q2 2024 23% Q3 2024 21% Q4 2024 21% Q1 2025 19% Q2 2025 19% Q3 2025 19% Q4 2025 16% Q1 2026 14% Q2 2026 12% Q3 2026
View data table
Median year-over-year recurring revenue growth of private SaaS companies that bill through ChartMogul, by quarter, worldwide. The figures come from a live benchmark table that ChartMogul may restate.
PeriodValue
Q4 202241%
Q1 202335%
Q2 202330%
Q3 202326%
Q4 202323%
Q1 202424%
Q2 202423%
Q3 202423%
Q4 202421%
Q1 202521%
Q2 202519%
Q3 202519%
Q4 202519%
Q1 202616%
Q2 202614%
Q3 202612%
Median year-over-year recurring revenue growth of private SaaS companies that bill through ChartMogul, by quarter, worldwide. The figures come from a live benchmark table that ChartMogul may restate. (ChartMogul (growth benchmark table), Nov 2026)
  • The 2025 median in SaaS Capital's survey of private B2B SaaS companies was down from 25% in 2024, and 7.3% of companies reported flat or negative growth. (SaaS Capital (2026 growth benchmarks), 2026)
  • Bootstrapped private SaaS companies reported median growth of 20% in 2025, against 23% in 2024; equity-backed companies reported 25%, unchanged. (SaaS Capital (2026 growth benchmarks), 2026)
  • Private SaaS companies with net revenue retention in the 100% to 110% range grew 5 percentage points faster than those in the 90% to 100% range in SaaS Capital's survey. (SaaS Capital (2026 growth benchmarks), 2026)
  • Private B2B SaaS companies in Benchmarkit's 2025 benchmark survey had a median growth rate of 26% in 2024; top-quartile growth fell from 60% in 2023 to 50% in 2024. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • Among more than 700 private software companies on ChartMogul that grew at least 20% in 2024, the median grew 65% in 2024 and 28% in 2025, a median growth endurance of 43%. (ChartMogul (Growth Decay Report), Apr 2026)
  • 18% of the companies in ChartMogul's growth decay study maintained or improved their growth rate from 2024 to 2025. (ChartMogul (Growth Decay Report), Apr 2026)
  • One in ten software startups reaches $10 million of ARR within 10 years of first charging for the product, and one in fifty reaches $25 million, across 6,525 software companies on ChartMogul. (ChartMogul (Odds of Making It), Oct 2025)
  • 3.3% of software startups on ChartMogul reach $1 million of ARR in under a year, 13.4% in under three years and 25.1% within five years. (ChartMogul (Odds of Making It), Oct 2025)
  • SaaS companies with more than $50 million of ARR generate roughly 60% of new ARR from existing customers, in High Alpha's 2025 survey of 800+ SaaS companies, 69% of them in the US. (High Alpha (2025 SaaS Benchmarks), 2025)
  • Expansion ARR made up 40% of net new ARR at the median company, and 44% in the low-growth group, in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey of B2B SaaS and AI-native companies (calendar 2025). (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)

SaaS Capital and Benchmarkit run separate surveys of private B2B companies that choose to take part. ChartMogul reports billing data from its own customers, which are mostly small subscription businesses. The growth rates are not comparable across the three.

What net revenue retention do SaaS companies report?

It depends on the sample. Small companies in ChartMogul's billing data sit well below 100%, while surveys of larger private B2B companies report medians close to it. None of these is a single industry benchmark.

  1. 1 Above $250 a month 85%
  2. 2 $50-$249 a month 61%
  3. 3 Under $50 a month 32%
Net revenue retention of AI-native products on ChartMogul in 2025, by monthly price. ChartMogul has few AI-native companies in its data, so each group is small. (ChartMogul (SaaS Retention Report), Dec 2025)
  • The upper quartile of B2B SaaS companies in ChartMogul's 2025 data had net revenue retention of 97%; the median for B2C SaaS was 49%. (ChartMogul (SaaS Retention Report), Dec 2025)
  • AI-native companies in ChartMogul's 2025 data had median net revenue retention of 48% and median gross revenue retention of 40%. (ChartMogul (SaaS Retention Report), Dec 2025)
  • Gross revenue retention for AI-native products on ChartMogul was 70% for those priced above $250 a month, 45% at $50-$249 and 23% under $50. (ChartMogul (SaaS Retention Report), Dec 2025)
  • Private B2B SaaS companies with annual contract values of $25,000 to $50,000 had median net revenue retention of 102% in SaaS Capital's 2025 survey, with a top quartile of 111% and a bottom quartile of 97%. (SaaS Capital (2025 retention benchmarks), Sep 2025)
  • Net revenue retention was 108% at usage-priced companies and 98% at seat-priced companies in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey of B2B SaaS and AI-native companies (calendar 2025). (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • Net revenue retention was 101% in 2024 among private B2B SaaS companies in Benchmarkit's 2025 benchmark survey. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • Median gross revenue retention fell from 88% to 84%, and the 75th percentile from 95% to 91%, between calendar 2024 and 2025 in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey. (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • Snowflake reported a net revenue retention rate of 125% at 31 January 2026, on its own definition. (Snowflake (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Zoom reported a trailing 12-month net dollar expansion rate for Enterprise customers of 98% for the quarter ended 31 January 2026. (Zoom (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)

The medians differ because the samples differ. ChartMogul measures billing data from mostly small companies, B2B and B2C. SaaS Capital and Benchmarkit survey private B2B companies that choose to take part, and the SaaS Capital figure here is for one contract-size band. Company figures use each company's own definition.

What is the churn rate for SaaS subscriptions?

A few per cent of subscribers in Recurly's billing data, with SaaS below the figure for all industries. Failed payments, which Recurly counts as involuntary churn, make up a sizeable part of it.

  1. 1 SaaS 3.22%
  2. 2 Business and professional services 3.44%
  3. 3 Travel, hospitality and entertainment 3.91%
  4. 4 Digital media and entertainment 4.14%
  5. 5 Ecommerce 4.25%
  6. 6 Education 4.99%
Median total churn rate by industry among businesses that bill through Recurly, July 2026 benchmark. The rates count subscribers lost, not revenue lost. (Recurly (churn rate benchmarks), Jul 2026)
  • SaaS businesses on Recurly had median voluntary churn of 2.16% and involuntary churn of 1.06% in its July 2026 benchmark. (Recurly (churn rate benchmarks), Jul 2026)
  • Across all industries on Recurly, median churn was 3.60%, of which 2.34% was voluntary and 1.25% involuntary. (Recurly (churn rate benchmarks), Jul 2026)
  • By average revenue per customer, total churn on Recurly was 4.29% at $10-$25 a month, 3.84% at $25-$50, 3.15% at $50-$100, 2.87% at $100-$250 and 3.07% above $250. (Recurly (churn rate benchmarks), Jul 2026)
  • Involuntary churn on Recurly fell with price: 1.30% at $10-$25 a month, 1.11% at $25-$50, 0.74% at $50-$100, 0.46% at $100-$250 and 0.18% above $250. (Recurly (churn rate benchmarks), Jul 2026)
  • Zoom reported online average monthly churn of 2.9% for the quarter ended 31 January 2026, compared with 2.8% a year earlier. (Zoom (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)

Recurly's figures describe its own customers, and its page labels them median annual churn rates. The price bands cover all subscription industries, not SaaS alone. Zoom's figure is monthly, uses the company's own definition and covers its self-serve online customers.

What do SaaS companies spend their revenue on?

Building and selling the product take most of it. In SaaS Capital's survey the median private company puts more than a fifth of its recurring revenue into research and development alone, and equity-backed companies spend slightly more than they bring in.

  1. 1 Research and development 22%
  2. 2 Selling costs 15%
  3. 3 General and administrative 15%
  4. 4 Customer support and success 9%
  5. 5 Marketing 8%
  6. 6 Hosting 5%
  7. 7 Professional services cost of goods sold 5%
  8. 8 DevOps 4%
  9. 9 Other cost of goods sold 3%
Median spending by private B2B SaaS companies as a share of annual recurring revenue, SaaS Capital's 2026 survey. Each bar is a separate median, so the bars are not meant to add up. (SaaS Capital (2026 spending benchmarks), Jun 2026)
  • Total median spend across all departments was 96% of ARR for bootstrapped private SaaS companies and 101% for equity-backed ones in SaaS Capital's 2026 survey. (SaaS Capital (2026 spending benchmarks), Jun 2026)
  • 83% of bootstrapped private SaaS companies were within two percentage points of breakeven or profitable, against 52% of equity-backed companies. (SaaS Capital (2026 spending benchmarks), Jun 2026)
  • Median operating expenses as a share of revenue at private B2B SaaS companies in Benchmarkit's 2025 benchmark survey (2024 data) were 37% for sales and marketing, 34% for R&D and 24% for general and administrative costs. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • Sales and marketing took 47% of revenue at VC-backed companies and 33% at PE-backed companies in the same Benchmarkit survey. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • Median gross margins in Benchmarkit's 2025 benchmark survey (2024 data) were 77% on total revenue, 81% on subscription revenue and 30% on professional services revenue. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • Median software gross margin was 80% in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey of B2B SaaS and AI-native companies (calendar 2025), which it describes as stable through four years. (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • The median private B2B SaaS company in Benchmarkit's 2025 benchmark survey spent $2.00 on sales and marketing to win $1.00 of new-customer ARR in 2024, up 14%; the fourth quartile spent $2.82. (Benchmarkit (2025 benchmarks), 2025)
  • The median Rule of 40 score in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey rose from 15% to 25% between calendar 2024 and 2025, and the top quartile reached 43%. (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • Median ARR per employee was $175K, up 17% year over year, in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey of B2B SaaS and AI-native companies (calendar 2025). (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • R&D fell 8 points to 27% of revenue in Benchmarkit's 2026 benchmark survey (calendar 2025). (Benchmarkit (2026 metrics), 2026)
  • Median revenue per employee at private SaaS companies was $141,125 in SaaS Capital's 2026 survey, up from $129,724 the previous year. (SaaS Capital (revenue per employee), Jul 2026)

SaaS Capital reports spending as a share of ARR and Benchmarkit as a share of revenue, from separate surveys with different participants, so the two sets of shares are not comparable. The same goes for Benchmarkit's ARR per employee and SaaS Capital's revenue per employee. Benchmarkit's pages do not state the number of companies surveyed.

How do SaaS companies price and sell?

Most open with a free trial and small monthly tickets. In ChartMogul's data about half of young companies reached their first $10k of monthly recurring revenue with customers paying $30 to $299 a month, and very few began with large contracts.

  • $30-$299 a month 53%
  • Under $30 a month 34%
  • $300-$2,999 a month 12%
  • $3,000 or more a month 1%
How 1,043 SaaS and AI companies on ChartMogul reached their first $10k of monthly recurring revenue, by what their customers paid per month. The sample includes only companies still operating. (ChartMogul (Startups become what they hunt), Jun 2026)
  • Median annualised gross revenue retention at $10k MRR was 24.6% for companies selling at under $30 a month, 31.6% at $30-$299, 70.5% at $300-$2,999 and 100% at $3,000 or more, among 1,043 ChartMogul customers. (ChartMogul (Startups become what they hunt), Jun 2026)
  • Three or more years after reaching $10k MRR, net revenue retention for the same four price groups on ChartMogul was 56.2%, 76.7%, 87.4% and 93.4%. (ChartMogul (Startups become what they hunt), Jun 2026)
  • ChartMogul customers that started and stayed with customers paying $300-$2,999 a month were growing revenue at an average of 22% year over year, against 2% for those staying under $30 a month, 4% at $30-$299 and 5% at $3,000 or more. (ChartMogul (Startups become what they hunt), Jun 2026)
  • 70% of the companies in the ChartMogul study kept the same target customer three or more years after their first $10k of MRR. (ChartMogul (Startups become what they hunt), Jun 2026)
  • The median free-to-paid conversion rate across 200 B2B software products was 8% in a ChartMogul study carried out in January 2026. (ChartMogul (SaaS Conversion Report), Feb 2026)
  • 57% of the B2B software products in ChartMogul's conversion study use a free trial as the main entry point for new customers, 26% use freemium and 7% a reverse trial. (ChartMogul (SaaS Conversion Report), Feb 2026)
  • A 14-day trial is the most common length in ChartMogul's conversion study, used by 62% of products. (ChartMogul (SaaS Conversion Report), Feb 2026)
  • 20% of free trial products in ChartMogul's study ask for a credit card upfront; those trials convert 30% of users from free to paid, which ChartMogul puts at more than five times the rate of trials without a card. (ChartMogul (SaaS Conversion Report), Feb 2026)
  • 54% of subscription software companies offer 10 or fewer billing plans and 46% offer 11 or more, across 4,279 companies on ChartMogul. (ChartMogul (Plan Mix Report), Feb 2026)
  • The median annual contract value at private B2B SaaS companies was $24,266 in SaaS Capital's 2026 survey, down from $26,265 a year earlier. (SaaS Capital (deal size), Aug 2026)
  • Private B2B SaaS companies with net revenue retention of at least 120% reported a median annual contract value of $61,802 in SaaS Capital's 2026 survey. (SaaS Capital (deal size), Aug 2026)

The ChartMogul retention figures in this section are monthly rates annualised for very young companies, so they should not be set beside the annual retention medians above. A plan in the Plan Mix Report is a billing plan, so monthly and annual versions count separately. A card requirement also cuts the number of people who start a trial.

How much venture capital is going into software companies?

A great deal, and most of it now goes to AI companies. None of the open venture counts isolates SaaS, so the figures below describe the funding climate SaaS companies raise money in.

26x 2023 23x 2024 20x 2025
View data table
Average revenue multiple of the Cloud 100, Bessemer's own list of private cloud companies, by list year. The multiple is each company's valuation at its last funding round divided by its revenue, as Bessemer calculates it.
PeriodValue
202326x
202423x
202520x
Average revenue multiple of the Cloud 100, Bessemer's own list of private cloud companies, by list year. The multiple is each company's valuation at its last funding round divided by its revenue, as Bessemer calculates it. (Bessemer Venture Partners (Cloud 100 Benchmarks 2025), Sep 2025)

Crunchbase and the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor use different databases and definitions, cover all sectors and should not be combined. Crunchbase revises its totals as late rounds are added.

What is the Cloud 100 worth?

The Cloud 100 is Bessemer Venture Partners' own list of 100 private cloud and AI companies worldwide, valued at their last funding round. It is a selection of the most highly valued private companies, not a sample of typical SaaS businesses.

What are SaaS companies worth, and how many are being bought?

Public SaaS valuations fell through 2025 while deal-making rose. In Software Equity Group's index the median company ended the year trading at under five times its trailing revenue.

6.3x 4Q24 6.4x 1Q25 5.3x 2Q25 5.2x 3Q25 4.8x 4Q25
View data table
Median enterprise value to trailing-twelve-month revenue of the SEG SaaS Index, Software Equity Group's own index of more than 100 publicly traded SaaS companies, by quarter.
PeriodValue
4Q246.3x
1Q256.4x
2Q255.3x
3Q255.2x
4Q254.8x
Median enterprise value to trailing-twelve-month revenue of the SEG SaaS Index, Software Equity Group's own index of more than 100 publicly traded SaaS companies, by quarter. (Software Equity Group (2026 Annual SaaS Report), Jan 2026)

The multiples are public-market medians from SEG's own index and categories, not prices paid for private companies. SEG's category deal counts cover North American targets, so they do not add up to its total for the year. The SaaS Capital Index is a separate index of public SaaS companies with its own membership.

How is AI changing SaaS products, pricing and teams?

Nearly every SaaS company now ships some AI, but for most it is an add-on to the existing product. The bigger shift is in pricing, where usage-based and outcome-based charges are spreading, and in how vendors plan their headcount.

  • A complement to the core software 65%
  • A significant piece of the product 26%
  • Entirely AI-based 9%
Role of AI in the product among private B2B SaaS companies that use AI in it, SaaS Capital's 2026 survey. Fewer than one in ten describe the product as entirely AI-based. (SaaS Capital (AI usage survey), Oct 2026)
  • The share of private B2B SaaS companies using at least some AI in their product was up from 76% a year earlier in SaaS Capital's 2026 survey. (SaaS Capital (AI usage survey), Oct 2026)
  • 46% of private SaaS companies whose product is significantly or entirely AI-based operate at a loss, against 37% of those with limited or no AI in their product. (SaaS Capital (AI usage survey), Oct 2026)
  • AI is core to the product at 100% of surveyed SaaS companies founded in 2025, against none of those founded in 2016, in High Alpha's 2025 survey of 800+ SaaS companies. (High Alpha (2025 SaaS Benchmarks), 2025)
  • SaaS companies with AI deeply incorporated in the product report growing twice as fast as those with AI as a supporting feature in High Alpha's 2025 survey. (High Alpha (2025 SaaS Benchmarks), 2025)
  • Fewer than 25% of SaaS companies in High Alpha's 2025 survey use KPIs or dashboards to measure the internal impact of AI, and over one third rely on informal team feedback. (High Alpha (2025 SaaS Benchmarks), 2025)
  • AI products accounted for 32% of revenue in 2025 at software companies building AI products, with respondents projecting 42% in 2026 and roughly 53% by 2027 (ICONIQ survey of about 300 software executives, Q2 2026). (ICONIQ (State of AI 2026), Jul 2026)
  • Gross margins on AI products were 45% in 2025 in ICONIQ's survey, with respondents projecting 53% in 2026 and 59% in 2027. (ICONIQ (State of AI 2026), Jul 2026)
  • 42% of software companies building AI products used consumption-based pricing in Q2 2026, up from 35% six months earlier, and 23% used outcome-based pricing, up from 18%. (ICONIQ (State of AI 2026), Jul 2026)
  • Software companies in ICONIQ's survey blended 1.7 pricing models on average for their AI products. (ICONIQ (State of AI 2026), Jul 2026)
  • Salesforce reported Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue above $2.9 billion at 31 January 2026, up over 200% year over year, including $1.1 billion of Informatica Cloud ARR and $800 million of Agentforce ARR, up 169%. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • Salesforce said it had closed over 29,000 Agentforce deals since launch. (Salesforce (fiscal 2026 results), Feb 2026)
  • 91% of organisations in Okta's executive survey said they already use AI agents, but only 10% reported a well-developed strategy to manage them. (Okta (Businesses at Work 2026), Apr 2026)
  • The number of centrally managed service accounts on Okta's platform grew 650% year over year in the 12 months to 31 October 2025. (Okta (Businesses at Work 2026), Apr 2026)
  • Organisations in BetterCloud's 2026 survey deploy an average of 27 AI-powered SaaS applications, roughly 22% of the portfolio. (BetterCloud (2026 State of SaaS), Jul 2026)
  • New AI-native apps discovered per year in Torii's customer environments grew from 11 in 2020 to 694 in 2025. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)
  • 26 of the top 50 shadow IT apps in Torii's 2025 data were pure-play AI tools. (Torii (SaaS Benchmark 2026), Oct 2026)
  • 81% of respondents in Flexera's 2026 global survey use generative AI, up from 72% a year earlier and 47% in 2024. (Flexera (2026 State of the Cloud), Mar 2026)

These are surveys of people who chose to answer and vendor figures on their own products. The 2026 and 2027 values in ICONIQ's survey are respondents' projections, and Salesforce's ARR growth includes ARR it acquired with Informatica.

How many people work in software?

None of these counts people employed by SaaS companies alone. The BLS figure is one occupation across all industries and its 2025-35 figures are projections. CompTIA's 2026 figure is a forecast, and the Crunchbase tally covers publicly reported layoffs across all tech.

How secure is SaaS?

Most organisations report an incident and most still say they are confident. Permission problems, misconfiguration and tools adopted without the security team account for much of what goes wrong.

  1. 1 Found unsanctioned SaaS and AI tools in use 21%
  2. 2 Caught sensitive data being publicly shared 20%
  3. 3 Data breach by an offboarded user with access 18%
  4. 4 Data leaks from AI tools and chatbots 18%
Share of organisations reporting each SaaS incident in the past 12 months, BetterCloud's 2026 survey of 525 IT and security professionals. Former staff who still had access caused as many reported breaches as AI tools caused leaks. (BetterCloud (2026 State of SaaS), Jul 2026)

All three sources are surveys, and AppOmni and BetterCloud sell SaaS security and management software. An incident is whatever the respondent counted as one, which is broader than a confirmed data breach. AppOmni's sample is mostly large organisations.

Glossary

SaaS
Software as a service: software run by the vendor and used over the internet, usually paid for by subscription.
IaaS and PaaS
Infrastructure as a service (rented computing and storage) and platform as a service (rented tools for building and running applications). Together with SaaS they make up public cloud services.
ARR
Annual recurring revenue: the yearly value of subscriptions in force at a point in time. Each company defines its own version.
MRR
Monthly recurring revenue: the monthly value of subscriptions in force.
NRR
Net revenue retention: recurring revenue from last year's customers a year later, after upgrades, downgrades and cancellations, as a percentage of what they paid before.
GRR
Gross revenue retention: the same measure without upgrades, so it cannot exceed 100%.
ACV
Annual contract value: the yearly value of one customer contract.
RPO
Remaining performance obligation: revenue under contract that has not yet been recognised. The current portion (cRPO) is the part due within 12 months.
CAC ratio
Sales and marketing expense divided by the new ARR it won. A New CAC Ratio counts new-customer ARR only.
Rule of 40
Revenue growth rate plus profit margin, in percentage points. A score of 40 or more is the usual target.
EV/TTM revenue
Enterprise value divided by revenue over the trailing twelve months: a valuation multiple for listed companies.
Churn
The share of subscribers or revenue lost in a period. Involuntary churn comes from failed payments; voluntary churn is a customer choosing to cancel.
Shadow IT
Apps used inside an organisation that were not bought or approved through its IT or procurement process.
SSPM
SaaS Security Posture Management: tools that check SaaS applications for risky settings and permissions.
FinOps
The practice of tracking and controlling cloud spending, often run by a dedicated team.

Methodology and sources

Every figure on this page comes from the producer's own release, report page or regulatory filing, checked in November 2026 and linked beside the number. Company figures are quoted as the company prints them, with its fiscal period and its own name for the measure, and companies are never added together. Vendor datasets (Okta, Zylo, BetterCloud, Torii, Vertice, ChartMogul and Recurly) describe that vendor's customers, and surveys (SaaS Capital, Benchmarkit, High Alpha, ICONIQ, Flexera, AppOmni and the Cloud Security Alliance) describe the people who answered; none is a census of SaaS. Forecasts and projections from IDC, Synergy, CompTIA and the BLS are labelled as such with their date. We leave out figures we could not open at the source, including Gartner's spending forecasts, a PitchBook report on enterprise SaaS venture deals whose file is marked not for redistribution, and numbers that appear only in chart images. The page is reviewed monthly and a figure is replaced when its producer publishes a newer one.