{"id":87585,"date":"2025-11-28T14:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T13:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/?p=87585"},"modified":"2025-12-04T10:35:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T09:35:56","slug":"saas-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/saas-statistics\/","title":{"rendered":"71+ SaaS Statistics, Trends, and Benchmarks for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Software as a service (SaaS) is growing. Innovation, including AI features, extends functionality and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But how big the SaaS industry really is? And what will it look like a couple of years from now? How many SaaS companies are out there?\u00a0Find out the most recent and important SaaS statistics to help you better understand where SaaS is headed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/span>SaaS Statistics – Our Top Picks<\/span><\/h2>\n
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  1. The global SaaS market was valued at $273.55 billion in 2023.<\/strong> It\u2019s projected to reach 1,228.87 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4%.<\/li>\n
  2. 41% of SaaS companies offer a free plan.<\/strong> 15% of them offer both free plans and free trials of higher-tier accounts. 4% of SaaS companies only have demos and don\u2019t offer free access to their products.<\/li>\n
  3. The average SaaS business loses 18% of its average contract value on discounts.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. 36% of SaaS companies don\u2019t have any in-app guidance.<\/strong> 35% have product tours and 29% do interactive walkthroughs. <\/li>\n
  5. 23% of SaaS applications fall under the productivity and collaboration market segment.<\/strong> Other segments are customer service (16%), marketing (14%), e-commerce (13%), data and analytics (11%), sales (11%), human resources (8%), and finance (5%).<\/li>\n
  6. 56% of SaaS companies plan to progress new AI innovations in 2024.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Industry Growth Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. The global SaaS market was valued at $273.55 billion in 2023.<\/strong> SaaS industry trends project the market to reach 1,228.87 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.4%. SaaS market growth is projected to continue over the next 10 years. The North American SaaS market size was valued at $131.18 billion in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. The top 25% of SaaS businesses with an annual run rate between $1M and $30M grew 62.1% in 2022.<\/strong> This is slower compared to 2021 where growth was at 78.9%. SaaS growth in 2020 was 93.4%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"ARR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3. SaaS businesses with an annual run rate of $1M and less grew 139.1% from March 2022 to March 2023.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"ARR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    4. A SaaS solution with an ARR of $10M to $15M can only stay in business for 7.5 months (median) based on their current cash reserves.<\/strong> Others: $5M to $10M SaaS revenue (8.4 months), $2M to $5M (7 months), $1M to $2M (5.5 months), less than $1M (5 months).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"statistics<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    5. SaaS companies in the United States (47%) are growing faster than European SaaS companies (39%).<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. SaaS companies serving the real estate and construction sector are growing the fastest with a median ARR of 75%.<\/strong> This is followed by SaaS companies serving industrial (55%) and consumer goods and services sectors (52%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. 73% of all SaaS businesses were founded after 2010.<\/strong> 93% of SaaS companies didn\u2019t exist before 2000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Sales and Marketing Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. The average B2B SaaS sales cycle length is 134 days.<\/strong> Sales cycles are longer, it was 107 days in the previous period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. 84% of B2B SaaS leaders said that decreasing the length of sales cycles is a priority for their organizations.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. The median customer acquisition cost (CAC) increased 180% between Jan 2021 and June 2023.<\/strong> This means SaaS companies had to spend more money to close the same number of deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. CAC payback, which is the time it takes to recoup the losses generated by acquiring SaaS customers, increased by 150%.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. 68.6% of SaaS companies increased their average contract value (ACV). <\/strong>23.2% said their ACV stagnated and 8.2% saw their ACV decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. SaaS companies with declining ACV saw an average decrease of 22%.<\/strong> 44% reported a decline between 10% to 30% and only 7% had a decline of over 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. The average SaaS company loses 18% of its ACV on discounts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    8. 42% of SaaS organizations saw a decline in average revenue per unit (ARPU).<\/strong> For companies that saw a decline, the average decline was 52%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9. 81.2% of SaaS companies believe that an inability to offer flexible payment options prevented deals from closing.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    10. SaaS companies have to add 16 days on average to their sales cycles to negotiate payment terms.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    11. 64.4% of SaaS businesses report that the number of stakeholders involved in each deal increases.<\/strong> 44% added that as many as 4 stakeholders are involved in each deal. 59% said the stakeholders are founders or CEOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    12. Only 28% of SaaS companies were able to reach 100% to 114% of their targets.<\/strong> Others were only able to hit less than 54% of their goals (3%), 55% to 69% (12%), 70% to 84% (21%), 85% to 99% (29%). 7% could reach 115% or higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    13. 63% of SaaS companies said they faced significant challenges with their outbound campaigns.<\/strong> 51% struggled with their organic and social campaigns. 49% cited challenges with alliances and partnerships. For 40%, the challenge was paid ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    14. 53% of SaaS companies increased their sales cycles with 10%.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    15. 49% of SaaS companies increased their sales cycle.<\/strong> 32.7% said there was no change and 18.4 said there was a decrease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Onboarding Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. 41% of SaaS companies offer a free plan.<\/strong> 15% of them offer both free plans and free trials of higher-tier accounts. 4% of SaaS companies only have demos and don\u2019t offer free access to their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. 79% of SaaS products have a friction-based signup flow.<\/strong> A friction-based sign-up requires users to enter other details besides their name and email, to confirm their email, or enter a credit card number before they gain access to the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. 54% of SaaS companies use single sign-on (SSO) to remove friction from the signup process.<\/strong> 45% said they don\u2019t. 1% said they use SSO for login but not for signup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. 66% of SaaS products have welcome screens. <\/strong>A welcome screen sets expectations for what\u2019s to come and lets them know how to get the most out of the product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. 76% of martech SaaS companies will have a micro survey form in their welcome flow<\/strong> to reduce their time to value and increase trial-to-paid conversion rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. 36% of SaaS companies don\u2019t have any in-app guidance.<\/strong> 35% have product tours and 29% do interactive walkthroughs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. 56% of SaaS products won\u2019t have any onboarding checklists.<\/strong> 70% don\u2019t have a progress bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS and Artificial Intelligence<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. 76% of SaaS companies are currently using or testing AI in their business and 23% are considering use cases.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. 67% of SaaS businesses now offer AI features in their products.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. 56% of SaaS companies plan to progress new AI innovations in 2024.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. 17% of SaaS businesses are testing deep learning AI.<\/strong> 15% have already introduced it to their products. 6% are now testing casual AI for product use and 8% are testing for operational purposes. For more AI stats, check out our article with surprising ChatGPT statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. 73% of business decision-makers are under pressure to increase their adoption or investments in AI and machine learning.<\/strong> In response, 42% of SaaS vendors are now developing new AI products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. 52% of SaaS companies find the uncertainty of future legal frameworks surrounding AI as their biggest challenge.<\/strong> 37% even see this as a major barrier to adopting AI. Other challenges mentioned include potential new security vulnerabilities (37%) not having enough relevant and reliable data (37%), reputational harm (33%), and transparency with users (30%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Market Size Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. North America leads the SaaS market with a 44% global revenue share. <\/strong>One reason for that is the presence of well-established market players. Its developed IT infrastructure also made deploying cloud-based services in the region easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Salesforce is the largest SaaS company<\/strong> with $31.4 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2023 and over 72K employees. Other top SaaS companies are Google, Microsoft, Adobe Creative Cloud, Intuit, and Stripe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. There are around 30,000 SaaS companies in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"stats<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    4. The artificial intelligence (AI) SaaS market is forecasted to reach $1.547.57 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.66% from 2022 to 2030.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Spending Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. 34% of IT decision-makers say less than 10% of their organizations\u2019 total annual spend for licensed applications is spent on unused or mismanaged SaaS apps.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"total<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    2. IT only controls 27% of SaaS spending.<\/strong> That\u2019s a 35% decrease in control of spending year over year. This is partly due to the increase in end-user spending. More companies are allowing teams and employees to buy the SaaS solutions they need to do their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"percentage<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3. The average organization has 234 SaaS renewals per year.<\/strong> An organization with more than 10,000 employees will renew 341.3 SaaS tools per year on average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. 85% of SaaS vendors plan to invest in improving their security and data privacy credentials.<\/strong> 56% made AI an immediate investment priority. 74% of vendors made integration and APIs their innovation priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. SaaS portfolios increased by 32% between 2021 and 2023 despite tighter budgets and staffing reductions.<\/strong> The average SaaS spend per employee is $9,643.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. Buying cycles have increased by 37% in 2023.<\/strong> Negotiations make up 54% of the buying cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. Multi-year agreements are down by 14% for net new purchases and 28% for renewals in 2023 compared to 2021.<\/strong> This is partly due to CFOs prioritizing optionality and shifting back to 12-month agreements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Adoption Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. An organization uses 130 SaaS software on average.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"number<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    2. A large organization (10,000+ employees) uses an average of 410 apps.<\/strong> Organizations with 200 to 749 employees use 80 apps; 750 to 2,999 use 192 apps; and 3,000 to 9,999 use 152 apps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"challenges<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3. 42% of IT and security experts said managing app configurations consistently was the most crucial challenge to solve.<\/strong> Other challenges mentioned were getting visibility into all user activity (30%), automating SaaSOps tasks (30%), knowing all SaaS platforms in use (27%), onboarding and offboarding users manually (26%), finding unused SaaS app licenses (25%), and finding SaaS apps with duplicate use cases (20%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"percentage<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    5. Organizations with 5,000+ employees have fewer workers expensing SaaS apps (only 8% to 10%).<\/strong> But these organizations also have a lower utilization rate (45% to 49%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. 23% of SaaS providers fall under the productivity and collaboration market segment.<\/strong> Other segments are customer service (16%), marketing (14%), e-commerce (13%), data and analytics (11%), sales (11%), human resources (8%), and finance (5%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Funding Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \"statistics<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    1. The top 25% of bootstrapped SaaS companies reach $1M ARR in 2 years<\/strong>, only 4 months slower than VC-backed SaaS startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. SaaS companies with ARR below $1M are growing at similar rates to larger businesses.<\/strong> Growth for all SaaS companies below $1M ARR has slowed so much that they’re now growing at similar rates to those above $1M ARR. The median ARR growth for bootstrapped SaaS businesses is 14% below $1M ARR and 15% between $1M-$30M ARR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"SaaS<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3. Below $1M ARR SaaS startups retain customers equally across funding models.<\/strong> Bootstrapped companies have a slight edge with a 59% customer retention rate, and VC-backed businesses have a 56% CRR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"statistics<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    4. The top 10% of all SaaS companies with $1M-30M ARR consistently achieve net revenue retention of over 100%.<\/strong> VC-backed companies have 105% NRR, while bootstrapped companies have 103%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. All SaaS companies with $1M-30M ARR rely more on expansion to drive growth.<\/strong> In the last 4 years, the proportion of ARR from new business for bootstrapped companies went from 67% to 55%. For VC-backed companies, it changed from 58% to 54%. Reactivation has been constant for both, between 10-11%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. 43% of SaaS companies self-fund their growth.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. Equity-backed B2B SaaS companies have a slightly higher net revenue retention (103%) compared to bootstrapped companies (100%).<\/strong> There\u2019s no difference in their gross revenue retention (91%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"growth<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    8. SaaS companies that are bootstrapped (44%) have a slightly higher growth rate than venture-backed (43%) ones.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>Churn Statistics in SaaS<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. 85% of SaaS businesses believe that offering customers more flexible payment options could significantly reduce churn.<\/strong> 24.7% of them believed that the lack of payment flexibility directly caused customer churn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Companies with less than $1M ARR have the highest median logo churn at 2.7%.<\/strong> SaaS companies with $5M to $10M ARR have the lowest, 1.7% logo churn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"statistics<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    3. Organizations leave 40% of their SaaS apps wasted, unused, and ripe for optimization.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>SaaS Security Statistics<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. 65% of SaaS apps used in organizations were adopted without the IT department\u2019s knowledge or approval.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. 37% of organizations said securing SaaS apps is their biggest SaaS challenge. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. 42% of IT and security experts say securing user activities in SaaS apps is difficult.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. The top SaaS-related security issue is users adding apps that store sensitive data (43%).<\/strong> Other security concerns include users forwarding work email to personal email (35%), violating security policies (25%), adding unauthorized apps (19%), and sharing sensitive data publicly (19%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. 81% of IT and security professionals believe IT is responsible for protecting sensitive data within cloud SaaS apps.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/span>Customer Relationship Management (CRM) SaaS Stats<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    1. SaaS CRM (Cloud-based CRM) will grow at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.43% between 2022 and 2027.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Experts expect the size of the CRM market to increase by $59 billion between 2022 and 2027. <\/strong>It\u2019s party caused by the SMEs that adopt cloud SaaS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. North America had the largest market share of CRM software in 2022, at 43.6%.<\/strong> This is because several regional enterprises\u2019 increasing adoption of CRM platforms. Here is an overview of CRM platforms in Canada<\/a> that are the most popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. The Asia Pacific CRM market is the fastest-growing at a CAGR of 15.6%.<\/strong> Countries like China and India will drive the demand for CRM platforms<\/a> in the region. Find the best CRM software in Australia<\/a> in our guide including features, pricing, pros, and cons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can find more CRM statistics here<\/a>. If you\u2019re interested in other SaaS niches, check out our collection of email marketing stats<\/a>, marketing automation statistics<\/a>, lead generation stats<\/a>, and website statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We reviewed hundreds of SaaS products at Email Vendor Selection over the years, including big names like Salesforce, Hubspot, and white-label SaaS software<\/a>. Here\u2019s a short selection of our pieces so you can see how these products perform:<\/p>\n\n\n\n