SaaS Benchmarks 2026: Growth, NRR, CAC & Margins

Direct Answer: SaaS Benchmarks at a Glance

A useful SaaS benchmark is a segmented comparison, not one universal target. In Benchmarkit’s private-company survey, the median CY-24 growth rate was 26%, net revenue retention was 101%, gross revenue retention was 88%, gross-margin-adjusted CAC payback was 18 months, and subscription gross margin was 81%. Those figures use different metric-specific samples, so they should not be combined into a fictional “average SaaS company.”

This maintained 2026 edition contains 50 source-backed SaaS benchmark claims across vendor unit economics, retention, product conversion, and organizational software portfolios. Every claim has a stable fragment, source section, evidence type, population, period, and caveat.

Data years covered: 2021 through 2026. Last verified: July 10, 2026. The edition year identifies the maintained page; it does not imply that every underlying observation was collected in 2026.

Use the specialist reports when you need a deeper cut: CAC benchmarks, B2B customer retention, B2B SaaS conversion benchmarks, free-trial conversion benchmarks, and SaaS pricing statistics. This page is the cross-metric retrieval hub, not a replacement for those narrower populations.

Cite This Report

Use the canonical page for context and a claim fragment for one figure. The CSV, JSON, and JSONL files contain the same 50 records as the article tables.

Canonical URL: https://konabayev.com/blog/saas-benchmarks/

Recommended citation: Tugelbay Konabayev, “SaaS Benchmarks 2026: Growth, NRR, CAC & Margins,” Konabayev.com, July 10, 2026, https://konabayev.com/blog/saas-benchmarks/

Machine-readable versions:

Use a claim fragment when citing a specific result, for example https://konabayev.com/blog/saas-benchmarks/#saas-028. The dataset publishes neutral factual paraphrases rather than reproducing source charts or substantial report text.

Ten Most Citable SaaS Benchmarks

The headline figures span growth, retention, acquisition efficiency, gross margin, product conversion, and buyer-side software spend. Keep the stated population attached when quoting them.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-003	Private-SaaS median CY-24 growth: 26%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-014	Median New Name CAC Ratio: $2.00 per $1 of new-customer ARR.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-020	Median gross-margin-adjusted CAC payback: 18 months.	Benchmarkit, page 22
SAAS-024	Median CY-24 GRR: 88%.	Benchmarkit, page 29
SAAS-028	Median CY-24 NRR: 101%.	Benchmarkit, page 34
SAAS-031	Median subscription gross margin: 81%.	Benchmarkit, page 44
SAAS-040	Median growth with at least 100% NRR: 48% year over year.	ChartMogul
SAAS-044	Low-NRR companies had 7% median churn.	ChartMogul
SAAS-048	Median six-month free-to-paid conversion: 8%.	ChartMogul
SAAS-049	Average annual organizational SaaS spend: $55.7M, up 8% year over year.	Zylo

What These Benchmarks Measure and What They Do Not

The four evidence surfaces answer different questions. Benchmarkit describes private SaaS company performance, ChartMogul describes retention telemetry and a separate conversion survey, and Zylo describes the software portfolios that organizations buy and manage.

Do not compare Zylo’s $55.7 million average portfolio spend with a SaaS vendor’s ARR or CAC. Do not compare ChartMogul’s six-month free-to-paid conversion with visitor-to-lead or lead-to-close conversion. Do not turn Benchmarkit’s metric medians into a single company profile because its growth, CAC, retention, gross-margin, and expense charts have different sample sizes.

The Benchmarkit report also contains a chronology conflict that must travel with its numbers: the glossary says the survey was open in February and March 2024, while the report says it requested CY-24 or trailing-twelve-month data. The claims below report the chart labels as published rather than trying to repair that conflict editorially.

SaaS Growth Benchmarks

Private-SaaS growth slowed across the three published comparison years, but financing source and pricing model split the distribution. The same N=149 population produced materially different medians.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-001	CY-22 median growth was 30%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-002	CY-23 median growth was 27%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-004	The CY-22 75th percentile was 75%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-005	The CY-23 75th percentile was 60%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-006	The CY-24 75th percentile was 50%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-007	The CY-24 25th percentile was 11%.	Benchmarkit, page 7
SAAS-008	Bootstrapped-company median growth was 34%.	Benchmarkit, page 8
SAAS-009	Angel-backed median growth was 40%.	Benchmarkit, page 8
SAAS-010	Venture-capital-backed median growth was 30%.	Benchmarkit, page 8
SAAS-011	Private-equity-backed median growth was 13%.	Benchmarkit, page 8
SAAS-012	Usage-based-pricing median growth was 44%.	Benchmarkit, page 11
SAAS-013	Subscription-pricing median growth was 25%.	Benchmarkit, page 11

Pricing model and funding source correlate with company stage, product category, ACV, and capital strategy. These rows describe the survey segments; they do not establish that changing a pricing model or funding source causes a particular growth rate.

CAC and Payback Benchmarks

Expansion ARR was less expensive to acquire than new-customer ARR at the median, but all three CAC distributions were wide. The CAC ratios also use different samples, while payback is gross-margin-adjusted and uses N=148.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-015	Median Blended CAC Ratio: $1.40.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-016	Median Expansion CAC Ratio: $1.00.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-017	New Name CAC Ratio IQR: $1.50-$2.82.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-018	Blended CAC Ratio IQR: $1.17-$1.84.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-019	Expansion CAC Ratio IQR: $0.61-$1.67.	Benchmarkit, page 19
SAAS-021	CY-24 CAC payback IQR: 12-24 months.	Benchmarkit, page 22

For a deeper ACV-by-ACV view and calculation definitions, use the CAC benchmarks report plus the CAC calculator and LTV:CAC calculator. Keep fully loaded customer acquisition cost separate from media-only CPA.

GRR, NRR, Expansion, and Churn Benchmarks

Retention depends on pricing model, ARR, ARPA, and subscriber count. Benchmarkit’s survey shows a flat 101% median NRR from CY-23 to CY-24, while ChartMogul’s larger platform dataset connects high NRR with expansion-heavy growth.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-022	CY-22 median GRR: 90%.	Benchmarkit, page 29
SAAS-023	CY-23 median GRR: 89%.	Benchmarkit, page 29
SAAS-025	Usage-based-pricing median GRR: 92%.	Benchmarkit, page 32
SAAS-026	Subscription-pricing median GRR: 88%.	Benchmarkit, page 32
SAAS-027	Hybrid subscription-plus-usage median GRR: 88%.	Benchmarkit, page 32
SAAS-029	Hybrid subscription-plus-usage median NRR: 110%.	Benchmarkit, page 36
SAAS-038	Retention-report population: 2,500+ SaaS businesses.	ChartMogul
SAAS-039	At $15M-$30M+ ARR, expansion drove 40% of 2024 growth vs 30% in early 2021.	ChartMogul
SAAS-041	Companies with at least 100% NRR grew more than twice as fast as those below 100%.	ChartMogul
SAAS-042	Expansion accounted for more than half of revenue among companies with at least 100% NRR.	ChartMogul
SAAS-043	Low-NRR growth mix: 70% new business and 15% expansion.	ChartMogul
SAAS-045	Only 6% of companies with 12,000+ subscribers reached at least 100% NRR.	ChartMogul

ChartMogul used H1 data from 2021 through 2024 and completed the analysis in July and August 2024. The customer-retention report preserves more ARR-, ARPA-, and subscriber-segment evidence instead of compressing it into one retention target.

Gross Margin and Operating Expense Benchmarks

Revenue mix changes the meaning of gross margin, and company profile changes the meaning of operating expense. Subscription revenue had a higher median gross margin than professional services, while private companies invested more heavily in R&D than the public comparison group.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-030	Median total-revenue gross margin: 77%.	Benchmarkit, page 44
SAAS-032	Median professional-services gross margin: 30%.	Benchmarkit, page 44
SAAS-033	Professional services represented about 15% of total revenue at the median.	Benchmarkit, page 44
SAAS-034	Median sales and marketing expense: 37% of revenue.	Benchmarkit, page 46
SAAS-035	Median private-company R&D expense: 34% of revenue.	Benchmarkit, page 46
SAAS-036	Median G&A expense: 24% of revenue.	Benchmarkit, page 46
SAAS-037	Median public-company R&D expense: 23% of revenue.	Benchmarkit, page 52

Professional-services margin should not be used as a subscription-margin target. Likewise, the public-versus-private R&D comparison has different company-size and maturity profiles and is descriptive, not causal.

Free-to-Paid Conversion and SaaS Portfolio Benchmarks

Product conversion and buyer-side portfolio spend belong in separate operational layers. ChartMogul’s January 2026 survey covers 200 B2B software products; Zylo’s telemetry covers organizational SaaS licenses and spend.

Claim	Benchmark	Evidence
SAAS-046	Primary entry motion: 57% free trial, 26% freemium, 7% reverse trial.	ChartMogul
SAAS-047	62% used a 14-day trial, the most common length.	ChartMogul
SAAS-050	Average portfolio size: 305 applications, down 0.07% year over year.	Zylo

ChartMogul defines conversion here as a lead or free signup becoming a paying customer within six months. The free-trial conversion report covers card requirements, signup rates, trial lengths, and motion-specific ranges in more detail. Zylo’s 2026 index is based on more than 40 million licenses and more than $75 billion in discovered and categorized spend; it is a buyer-portfolio benchmark, not a SaaS-vendor revenue benchmark.

How to Use SaaS Benchmarks Without Misreporting Them

Match the benchmark to the same metric definition, segment, and observation window before comparing performance. A number becomes misleading when its denominator or population is removed.

Start with the question. Growth, NRR, CAC payback, gross margin, free-to-paid conversion, and portfolio spend answer different operating questions.
Match the segment. Use ACV for payback, pricing model for some growth and retention comparisons, and subscriber count for ChartMogul’s NRR context.
Preserve the statistic type. A median is not a target, a 75th percentile is not a market average, and an interquartile range is not a confidence interval.
Keep source families separate. Survey responses, platform telemetry, and organizational portfolio data should not be averaged together.
Recalculate your own metric. Use consistent cohort, gross-margin, sales-and-marketing, and time-window definitions before diagnosing a gap.

Methodology and Source Boundaries

Every row is source-locked and machine-readable. Claims without enough information to preserve an evidence type, population, period, section, and caveat were excluded.

The selection favors figures that can be reused without detaching them from their denominator. A chart median is included only when the report exposes the relevant metric, segment, period, and sample note. A directional statement is included only when the source states the comparison directly. Forecasts, generic best-practice thresholds, unattributed market-size roundups, and numbers found only in a secondary summary were excluded. When two pages use the same label for different calculations, the rows remain separate rather than being reconciled into a new figure. That rule matters most for CAC, conversion, and retention, where gross-margin adjustment, cohort window, expansion treatment, and entry-motion definitions can change the result. The public files therefore support auditing and citation, not automatic target setting.

Benchmarkit 2025 SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmarks

Evidence: Private-SaaS benchmark survey with chart-specific N values.
Included here: Growth, CAC ratios, CAC payback, GRR, NRR, gross margin, revenue mix, and operating expense.
Limitation: Medians vary by ARR, ACV, financing source, pricing model, and other attributes. The report’s survey-date line conflicts with its CY-24 data request.

ChartMogul retention report

Evidence: Anonymized, aggregated platform data from more than 2,500 SaaS businesses.
Window: H1 data from 2021 through 2024; analysis completed July-August 2024.
Limitation: ChartMogul customers are not a full-market census, and NRR varies with ARR, ARPA, and subscriber count.

ChartMogul conversion report

Evidence: January 2026 survey of 200 B2B software products.
Definition: Free-to-paid means conversion within six months.
Limitation: Entry motion, card requirement, price, and product type materially change conversion.

Zylo 2026 SaaS Management Index

Evidence: Platform telemetry covering 40M+ licenses and $75B+ in discovered and categorized SaaS and cloud spend.
Included here: Average annual SaaS spend and portfolio size.
Limitation: Buyer-side portfolio telemetry is not vendor performance data or a probability sample of all organizations.

The canonical ledger is data/research/saas-benchmarks-2026-07-10.json. Public CSV, JSON, and JSONL are generated from the same 50 rows. No cross-source synthetic average is calculated.

FAQ

What is a good SaaS growth rate in 2026?

Benchmarkit’s private-SaaS sample shows 26% median CY-24 growth, with an 11% 25th percentile and 50% 75th percentile. Pricing model and financing source produced different medians, so compare with the nearest segment rather than treating 26% as a universal target.

What is a good SaaS net revenue retention rate?

Benchmarkit’s CY-24 median was 101%, while its hybrid subscription-plus-usage segment reached a 110% median. ChartMogul found that companies at or above 100% NRR grew faster and relied more heavily on expansion, but subscriber count and ARR change how attainable that threshold is.

What is a good SaaS gross revenue retention rate?

Benchmarkit’s CY-24 median was 88%. Its usage-based-pricing segment had a 92% median, versus 88% for subscription and hybrid pricing. Use a consistent cohort definition and exclude expansion ARR from GRR.

What is a good CAC payback period for SaaS?

Benchmarkit’s gross-margin-adjusted CY-24 median was 18 months, with a 12-24 month interquartile range. ACV materially changes payback, so use the CAC benchmark segmentation rather than one company-wide rule.

What is a good SaaS gross margin?

Benchmarkit’s medians were 81% for subscription revenue, 77% for total revenue, and 30% for professional services. The correct comparison depends on revenue mix and which costs are included in cost of goods sold.

What is a good free-to-paid conversion rate?

ChartMogul’s January 2026 survey reported an 8% median within six months across 200 B2B software products, but the distribution was wide and entry motion mattered. Compare the same trial or freemium model, card requirement, price, and conversion window.

Where can I download the SaaS benchmark dataset?

Use the CSV for spreadsheets, JSON for structured applications, or JSONL for line-by-line processing. All three contain the same 50 stable claim IDs.