Global SaaS market
$488.5B
2026 · Statista
Reference · SaaS industry
SaaS benchmarks: where private B2B software actually stands
Growth, net revenue retention, gross margin, CAC payback, ARR per employee and revenue multiples — taken from the latest SaaS Capital, OpenView, Bessemer, KeyBanc and Statista editions, split by ARR band, company type and sector, with every chart naming the one source it draws from.
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Where the market stands
Six headline figures, each with its period and its source printed underneath. The comparison line under each one is the nearest published figure worth knowing about, not a previous reading of the same series.
Median private B2B growth
22%
In 2024: 25%
2026 · SaaS Capital
Median net revenue retention
101%
Peak in 2021: 105%
2025 · SaaS Benchmarks Report
Median gross margin all B2B
75%
Pure SaaS: 82%
2026 · SaaS Benchmarks Report
Median CAC payback
18 mo
Top quartile: 12 mo
2026 · OpenView · Bessemer · KeyBanc
Companies launching or planning AI features
92%
Say AI is core: 36%
2026 · High Alpha via Zylo
Growth
Growth falls off a cliff with size, and the gap between an AI-native company and everyone else is the widest split in this dataset.
Median growth by ARR band
SaaS Capital 2026Private B2B software, year over year.
Under $1M
$1–5M
$5–10M
$10–25M
$25–50M
$50–100M
Over $100M
Growth by AI classification
SaaS Capital 2026Median and top quartile, so the spread inside each class is visible.
MedianTop
quartile
AI-native
AI-embedded
Legacy
Growth by funding model
SaaS Capital 2026Median. Ownership predicts growth far more reliably than sector does.
VC-backed
Bootstrapped
PE-owned
Public
Retention and efficiency
Retention tracks deal size, and the efficiency numbers are where a healthy model either holds or leaks. Read the top-quartile column as a target rather than a goal.
Retention by customer size
SaaS Capital 2026Median annual rates. Logo churn is the share of customers lost in a year, not the revenue lost.
| Segment | Net retention | Gross retention | Logo churn |
|---|---|---|---|
| All private B2B | 101% | 88% | 16% |
| SMB (under $25K ACV) | 97% | 82% | 15% |
| Mid-market ($25K–$100K ACV) | 108% | 88% | 10% |
| Enterprise (over $100K ACV) | 118% | 95% | 5% |
Efficiency benchmarks
OpenView · Bessemer · KeyBancMedians, with the top quartile where the sources publish one. Dash means the publisher does not break that figure out.
| Metric | Median | Top quartile | Better |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAC payback | 18 mo | 12 mo | Lower is better |
| LTV to CAC | 3.3x | 5x | Higher is better |
| Burn multiple | 1.5x | 0.8x | Lower is better |
| Rule of 40 | 31 | — | Higher is better |
| New-customer CAC ratio | $2.00 | — | Lower is better |
Margins and spend
Margin is a business-model decision, not a software decision, and revenue per employee rises with ARR for every band in the sample.
Gross margin by business model
SaaS Capital 2026Median. Anything a reseller touches your margin.
All B2B median
Pure SaaS
SaaS plus services
SaaS plus hardware
Managed services
ARR per employee
SaaS Capital 2026Median and top quartile, by ARR band.
MedianTop
quartile
$1–3M
$3–5M
$5–10M
$10–20M
$20–50M
$50–100M
Over $100M
Market and valuation
What the whole market is worth, how far AI adoption has gone, and what buyers actually pay per dollar of revenue — which depends far more on the deal than on the sector.
Global and US SaaS market
StatistaThe 2031 bar is a forecast, not a measurement.
Global SaaS 2026
Global SaaS 2031 forecast
US SaaS 2026
AI adoption among SaaS companies
High Alpha via ZyloShare of companies, and the answers overlap — most are all three.
Launched or planning AI
AI as supporting feature
AI is the core product
Revenue multiples by deal type
SaaS Capital 2026Median EV to revenue. Premium vertical software clears the market median.
Private SaaS M&A
Bootstrapped M&A
Public horizontal SaaS
Premium vertical SaaS
AI-native M&A low end
Revenue multiples by sector
SaaS Capital 2026Median EV to revenue, highest first. The spread is narrower than the deal-type spread.
E-Commerce
Cybersecurity
HRTech
HealthTech
Infrastructure
EdTech
FinTech
MarTech
Sources and method
Every number on this page comes from one of these publishers. Each chart names its own source; this table is the full list, with the edition each figure is taken from.
Where each figure comes from
5 publishers| Source | Edition used | What it supplies |
|---|---|---|
| SaaS Capital | 2026 SaaS Benchmarks Report | Median growth by ARR band, AI classification and funding model; net, gross and logo retention by customer size; gross margin by business model; ARR per employee; EV to revenue multiples by deal type and sector. |
| Statista | 2026 estimate, 2031 forecast | Global SaaS market size, the US share of it, and the 2031 forecast. |
| OpenView · Bessemer · KeyBanc | latest compilations, via SaaS Charts Hub | CAC payback, LTV to CAC, burn multiple, rule of 40 and the new-customer CAC ratio. |
| High Alpha, via Zylo | 2026 | Share of companies launching or planning AI features, and the share where AI is the core product. |
| OpenView Parts | 2025 | Peak net revenue retention of 105%, reached in 2021 — the comparison line on the retention tile. |
These are benchmarks from the latest editions of each source, not live data. Most come from private-company surveys, so every median moves with the sample that year.
Sources disagree on some figures. Each chart uses one source, named in its note, so the numbers inside a chart stay comparable with each other.
Questions
Where do these numbers come from?
Each figure comes from one named source, and the source is printed under the chart it belongs to. The bulk are from the 2026 SaaS Benchmarks Report, a survey of private B2B software companies; market size is from Statista; the efficiency benchmarks are compiled from OpenView, Bessemer and KeyBanc; the AI adoption figures are from High Alpha, reported via Zylo. The Sources and method section lists them all with the edition each figure comes from.
Are these live figures?
No. They are benchmarks from the latest edition of each source, frozen on this page. The underlying data is mostly private-company survey responses, so there is no live feed to update from and the medians move only when a publisher issues a new edition.
Why do sources disagree on the same metric?
Because they sample different populations. A survey weighted toward seed and Series A companies will report lower net revenue retention than one weighted toward enterprise vendors, and a survey of all B2B software will report a lower gross margin than a pure-SaaS sample. Each chart here uses a single source so the numbers inside it stay comparable with each other; compare across charts only when the sample matches.
How do I use these to benchmark my own company?
Find your ARR band and read that row, then check the segment that matches your customer size. For the efficiency table, compare your median against the top quartile rather than against the median: the gap between those two columns is what the best performers in the same sample are already achieving. Retention is the one number to watch over time, because a falling net revenue retention rate drags growth down no matter what sales does.
Do I need an account? Is my data sent anywhere?
There is no account and nothing to enter. The page is static, the figures are already in the markup, and nothing you do here is stored or sent to a server. It keeps working with JavaScript disabled, where the same numbers appear as labelled bars and tables.
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