slug: saas-benchmarks

metric_category: growth

claim: Benchmarkit's CY-22 private-SaaS growth-rate median was 30%.

source_title: 2025 SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmarks

source_section: Page 7: Growth Rate by CY-22 vs CY-23 vs CY-24

evidence_type: private SaaS company benchmark survey

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: N=149

geography: multiple company regions; the cited total-population charts do not publish regional weighting

period: report presents calendar-year 2024 or trailing-twelve-month metrics, with selected CY-22 and CY-23 comparisons

caveat: Metric-specific medians and quartiles are not universal targets. The report glossary says the survey was open February-March 2024 while also requesting CY-24 or trailing-twelve-month data, creating an internal chronology conflict.


claim: Benchmarkit's CY-23 private-SaaS growth-rate median was 27%.


claim: Benchmarkit's CY-24 private-SaaS growth-rate median was 26%.


claim: The 75th percentile of Benchmarkit's CY-22 growth-rate distribution was 75%.


claim: The 75th percentile of Benchmarkit's CY-23 growth-rate distribution was 60%.


claim: The 75th percentile of Benchmarkit's CY-24 growth-rate distribution was 50%.


claim: The 25th percentile of Benchmarkit's CY-24 growth-rate distribution was 11%.


claim: Bootstrapped participants had a 34% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's financing-source view.

source_section: Page 8: Growth Rate by Financing Source


claim: Angel-backed participants had a 40% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's financing-source view.


claim: Venture-capital-backed participants had a 30% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's financing-source view.


claim: Private-equity-backed participants had a 13% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's financing-source view.


claim: Usage-based-pricing participants had a 44% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.

source_section: Page 11: Growth Rate by Pricing Model


claim: Subscription-pricing participants had a 25% median CY-24 growth rate in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.


claim: Benchmarkit's median New Name CAC Ratio was $2.00 of sales and marketing expense per $1 of new-customer ARR.

source_section: Page 19: New Name vs Blended vs Expansion CAC

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: New Name N=73


claim: Benchmarkit's median Blended CAC Ratio was $1.40 per $1 of new plus expansion ARR.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Blended N=43


claim: Benchmarkit's median Expansion CAC Ratio was $1.00 per $1 of expansion ARR.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Expansion chart sample is not separately labeled on page 19


claim: Benchmarkit's interquartile range for New Name CAC Ratio was $1.50 to $2.82.


claim: Benchmarkit's interquartile range for Blended CAC Ratio was $1.17 to $1.84.


claim: Benchmarkit's interquartile range for Expansion CAC Ratio was $0.61 to $1.67.


figure: 18 months

claim: Benchmarkit's CY-24 median gross-margin-adjusted CAC payback period was 18 months.

source_section: Page 22: CAC Payback Period by CY-22 vs CY-23 vs CY-24

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: N=148


figure: 12-24 months

claim: Benchmarkit's CY-24 CAC payback interquartile range was 12 to 24 months.


metric_category: retention

claim: Benchmarkit's CY-22 median gross revenue retention was 90%.

source_section: Page 29: Gross Revenue Retention by CY-22 vs CY-23 vs CY-24

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: N=225


claim: Benchmarkit's CY-23 median gross revenue retention was 89%.


claim: Benchmarkit's CY-24 median gross revenue retention was 88%.


claim: Usage-based-pricing participants had 92% median gross revenue retention in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.

source_section: Page 32: Gross Revenue Retention by Pricing Model


claim: Subscription-pricing participants had 88% median gross revenue retention in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.


claim: Hybrid subscription-plus-usage participants had 88% median gross revenue retention in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.


claim: Benchmarkit's CY-24 median net revenue retention was 101%.

source_section: Page 34: Net Revenue Retention by CY-22 vs CY-23 vs CY-24

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: N=228


claim: Hybrid subscription-plus-usage participants had 110% median net revenue retention in Benchmarkit's pricing-model view.

source_section: Page 36: Net Revenue Retention by Pricing Model


claim: Benchmarkit's median total-revenue gross margin was 77%.

source_section: Page 44: Gross Margin, Total Revenue vs Subscriptions vs Services

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Total revenue N=196


claim: Benchmarkit's median subscription-revenue gross margin was 81%.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Subscription revenue N=76


claim: Benchmarkit's median professional-services gross margin was 30%.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Professional services N=38


claim: Benchmarkit says professional services represented about 15% of total revenue at the median.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Professional-services revenue-mix sample is not stated on the page


claim: Sales and marketing expense was 37% of revenue at the median in Benchmarkit's total-population view.

source_section: Page 46: Operating Expenses as a Percentage of Revenue

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Sales and marketing N=157


claim: R&D expense was 34% of revenue at the median in Benchmarkit's total-population view.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: R&D N=142 on page 46


claim: G&A expense was 24% of revenue at the median in Benchmarkit's total-population view.

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: G&A N=140 on page 46


claim: Public SaaS companies had 23% median R&D expense as a share of revenue in Benchmarkit's private-versus-public view.

source_section: Page 52: R&D Expenses to Revenue by Private vs Public

population: private SaaS companies; the cited charts use metric-specific samples from 43 to 228 responses; cited chart/sample: Public SaaS N=101


metric_category: methodology

claim: ChartMogul says its retention report analyzed more than 2,500 SaaS businesses.

source_title: The New Normal For SaaS

source_section: Report description and introduction

evidence_type: anonymized and aggregated platform telemetry

population: more than 2,500 SaaS businesses in ChartMogul's dataset

geography: not stated on the public report page

period: H1 data from 2021 through 2024; analysis completed July-August 2024

caveat: ChartMogul customer telemetry is not a census of all SaaS companies. ARR, ARPA, subscriber count, and NRR bucket materially change the comparison.


metric_category: expansion

claim: For companies with $15M-$30M+ ARR, ChartMogul says expansion drove 40% of growth in 2024 versus 30% in early 2021.

source_section: Executive summary: retention as a growth driver


claim: The median company with at least 100% NRR grew 48% year over year in H1 2024, according to ChartMogul.

source_section: How Much Does NRR Impact Growth?


claim: ChartMogul says companies with at least 100% NRR grew more than twice as fast as SaaS companies below 100% NRR.


claim: ChartMogul says expansion accounted for more than half of revenue among companies with at least 100% NRR.

source_section: MRR movements by NRR range


figure: 70% new / 15% expansion

claim: Companies in ChartMogul's low-NRR range relied on 70% new business and 15% expansion for growth.


metric_category: churn

claim: Companies in ChartMogul's low-NRR range had 7% median churn, twice the rate of companies with at least 100% NRR.

source_section: Customer churn by NRR range


claim: Only 6% of companies with at least 12,000 subscribers reached at least 100% NRR in ChartMogul's analysis.

source_section: Subscriber count and NRR


claim: In ChartMogul's 2026 survey, 57% of products led with a free trial, 26% with freemium, and 7% with a reverse trial.

source_title: The Conversion Report

source_section: Free trials are twice as popular as freemium

evidence_type: survey of B2B software products

population: 200 B2B software products

period: study conducted in January 2026

caveat: The survey defines free-to-paid conversion as a lead or free signup becoming a paying customer within six months. Entry motion, card requirement, price, and product type change the result.


claim: A 14-day trial was the most common trial length, used by 62% of surveyed products.


metric_category: conversion

claim: The median free-to-paid conversion rate across ChartMogul's 200 surveyed B2B software products was 8% within six months.

source_section: The myth of normal free-to-paid conversion


claim: Organizations in Zylo's 2026 benchmark spent an average of $55.7 million on SaaS annually, up 8% year over year.

source_title: 2026 SaaS Management Index

source_section: Portfolios Make Room for New AI Investments-But It Comes at a Cost

evidence_type: SaaS management platform telemetry

population: Zylo's real-world dataset covering 40M+ licenses and $75B+ in discovered and categorized SaaS and cloud spend

period: 2026 edition with year-over-year comparisons; nine years of underlying spend, license, and usage data

caveat: Zylo customer telemetry describes managed organizational software portfolios, not SaaS vendor unit economics or a probability sample of every company.


figure: 305 apps

claim: Organizations in Zylo's 2026 benchmark held an average of 305 applications while overall app counts dipped 0.07% year over year.