Every figure sourced and dated, August 2026

SaaS valuation multiples 2026: revenue, EBITDA and monthly profit multiples for SaaS acquisitions

SaaS valuation multiples in 2026 sit far below the 2021 peak, and the right number for your business depends entirely on which market you are actually in. Public SaaS companies traded at a median 3.4x EV/Revenue in March 2026. Disclosed private SaaS acquisitions going back to 2015 carry a median of 4.5x revenue. Small bootstrapped SaaS sold on marketplaces changes hands at roughly 26x to 37x monthly net profit, which works out to only about 2.2x to 3.0x annual profit. Those three numbers describe three completely different populations of company, and comparing them directly is the most common valuation mistake founders make.

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The confusion is mostly a units problem. Marketplaces quote a multiple of MONTHLY net profit, while advisors, private equity buyers and every public market report quote a multiple of ANNUAL revenue. A 30x multiple sounds enormous next to 4x, but 30x monthly profit is 2.5x annual profit, which on a 60% net margin is about 1.5x annual revenue. The table below puts all three markets in one place with the source and date on every row, converts the monthly figures into annual ones, and shows what actually moves a number within each band.

There is no single SaaS multiple. There are three markets with different units, and once you convert them to the same basis the small end of the market prices far lower than the headline numbers suggest.

Three markets, one basis, every row sourced

SaaS valuation multiples by market segment, converted to a common basis

Multiples get quoted on three different bases and are rarely labeled clearly. Revenue multiples apply to annual revenue. EBITDA multiples apply to annual EBITDA. Marketplace multiples apply to average MONTHLY net profit over the trailing twelve months, so dividing by 12 gives the annual profit multiple. The fourth column does that conversion so every row can be read against every other row.

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Segment	Multiple	What it multiplies	Same figure annualized	Source	As of
Public SaaS companies, median	3.4x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	March 2026
Public SaaS companies, aggregate	26.6x	EBITDA	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	March 2026
Private SaaS deals, median	4.5x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis, 543 deals	2015 to 2026
Private SaaS deals, lower quartile	2.4x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis, 543 deals	2015 to 2026
Private SaaS deals, upper quartile	8.1x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis, 543 deals	2015 to 2026
Private SaaS deals, median EBITDA	23.0x	Annual EBITDA	Already annual	Aventis, 232 deals	2015 to 2026
SaaS deals under $5M	3.3x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	2015 to 2026
SaaS deals $5M to $20M	3.8x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	2015 to 2026
SaaS deals $20M to $50M	4.2x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	2015 to 2026
SaaS deals $50M to $100M	6.2x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	2015 to 2026
SaaS deals above $500M	6.2x	Annual revenue	Already annual	Aventis Advisors	2015 to 2026
Marketplace sale, typical	26.4x	Monthly net profit, TTM	2.20x annual net profit	Empire Flippers Scoreboard	2 September 2026
Marketplace sale, premium	28.3x	Monthly net profit, TTM	2.36x annual net profit	Empire Flippers Scoreboard	2 September 2026
Marketplace sale, $1M+ premium	37.0x	Monthly net profit, TTM	3.08x annual net profit	Empire Flippers Scoreboard	2 September 2026
Marketplace sale, distressed	14.1x	Monthly net profit, TTM	1.18x annual net profit	Empire Flippers Scoreboard	2 September 2026
Bootstrapped private SaaS	4.8x	Run-rate ARR	Already annual	SaaS Capital, historical	Year-end 2024
Equity-backed private SaaS	5.3x	Run-rate ARR	Already annual	SaaS Capital, historical	Year-end 2024

Public and private deal figures are from the Aventis Advisors SaaS valuation multiples study published 1 April 2026, covering 543 transactions with disclosed revenue multiples and 232 with disclosed EBITDA multiples. Marketplace figures are from the Empire Flippers public Scoreboard, read firsthand on 13 August 2026, where multiples are defined as sale price divided by average monthly net profit over the trailing twelve months. The annual-equivalent column is our arithmetic, dividing the monthly multiple by 12. The SaaS Capital figures are from a January 2025 post and describe year-end 2024, shown here only as a historical anchor. Ranges describe populations, not your business. This is educational, not investment advice or a valuation of any specific company.

Side by side

Where you sell changes the multiple you get, and what it costs to get it

A fair look at what each does well. Both are useful. Here is where they differ.

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Feature	Buyouts	Empire Flippers	Acquire.com
Multiple basis used in listings	ARR and MRR multiples, verified before listing	Multiple of average monthly net profit, TTM	TTM revenue and profit, seller-stated
Publishes realized sale multiples?	Multiples shown on every listing	Yes. A public Scoreboard with average sale multiples	No aggregate multiple scoreboard we could find
Typical realized multiple published	Set per listing, not a blended average	26.4x monthly profit typical, 37.0x on $1M+ premium	Not published
Who verifies the numbers behind the multiple	MRR, ARR, growth and churn verified before listing	Vets and verifies seller financials before listing	Seller-reported. The buyer runs diligence
Fee at close on a $1,000,000 sale	3% on the $1,500 tier, so $30,000	$105,000 plus $24,000, so $129,000	7% in the $250k to $1M band, so $70,000
Average time to sale	Varies by listing	125 days average, published on the Scoreboard	Not published
Listing or upfront fee	$149, $499 or $1,500 one-off by tier	None at all	$25, $50 or $100 a month by price band
Best suited to	AI SaaS priced off verified recurring revenue	Profitable businesses priced off trailing monthly profit	Founders comfortable running their own deal

Comparison reflects general, publicly understood positioning. Capabilities change, so check each marketplace for the latest. Trademarks belong to their owners.

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A 30x multiple and a 3x multiple can be the same price

This is the single most useful thing to understand about SaaS multiples. Marketplaces quote monthly, everyone else quotes annually, and the two get compared as if they were the same unit. Divide the monthly figure by 12 to get the annual profit multiple: 24x monthly is 2.0x annual, 30x is 2.5x, 36x is 3.0x and 48x is 4.0x. To go one step further and reach a revenue multiple, multiply the annual profit multiple by your net margin. A business selling at 30x monthly profit on a 60% net margin is changing hands at roughly 1.5x annual revenue, which is well under the 3.3x median that disclosed sub-$5 million SaaS deals show. That gap is real, and it mostly reflects two different populations: venture-backed companies with disclosed deals on one side, small bootstrapped tools on the other.

Multiples fell hard, and the decline is well documented

Public SaaS traded above 30.0x revenue at the 2021 peak. By early 2025 the median was 7.3x, by July 2025 around 6.0x, and by March 2026 it was 3.4x. The private M&A series follows the same shape: a 6.4x median in 2021, 3.3x in 2023, 2.9x in 2024, 3.8x in 2025 and 3.1x through March 2026. Two things follow from that. First, any multiple you read in an article written before 2024 is describing a market that no longer exists, which is why the date on each row of the table above matters more than the number. Second, EBITDA has quietly become the metric that decides software valuations, because growth rates that once justified a pure revenue multiple have compressed. The public index was trading at roughly 26.6x EBITDA in aggregate when Aventis last measured it.

Size moves the multiple more than almost anything else

Bigger companies sell for more per dollar of revenue, consistently and by a wide margin. Across disclosed deals from 2015 to 2026, SaaS businesses under $5 million in deal value carry a 3.3x median revenue multiple, $5 million to $20 million carries 3.8x, $20 million to $50 million carries 4.2x, and $50 million to $100 million jumps to 6.2x. The step up between the $20-50 million band and the $50-100 million band is close to a doubling. The practical read for a founder is that growth into the next size band is usually worth more than any amount of pitching, and that the spread within a band is wide: the lower quartile across all private deals is 2.4x and the upper quartile is 8.1x, so retention, growth rate and margin decide where in that range you land.

Good questions

Empire Flippers vs Buyouts, answered

It depends on size and market. Across disclosed private SaaS deals from 2015 to 2026 the median is 4.5x revenue, with a lower quartile of 2.4x and an upper quartile of 8.1x. Public SaaS traded at a median 3.4x revenue in March 2026. Small bootstrapped SaaS sold on marketplaces typically goes for about 26x monthly net profit, which is 2.20x annual profit.

For public SaaS the median was 3.4x EV/Revenue as of March 2026, down from above 30x at the 2021 peak. For private disclosed deals the 2026 reading through March was 3.1x revenue. On marketplaces, Empire Flippers reported an average typical sale multiple of 26.4x monthly net profit on 26 August 2026, equal to 2.20x annual profit.

Almost always as a multiple of a single headline metric rather than a discounted cash flow. Larger and venture-backed companies are priced on a multiple of annual revenue or ARR. Profitable smaller companies are priced on a multiple of profit, usually monthly net profit on marketplaces or annual EBITDA in advisor-led deals. Growth rate, net revenue retention, churn and margin then move the multiple within the range.

Small SaaS sold through marketplaces typically sells at roughly 26x to 37x average monthly net profit, which is about 2.2x to 3.0x annual profit. Larger SaaS sold through advisors is priced on revenue instead, with a 3.3x median under $5 million in deal value rising to 6.2x in the $50 million to $100 million band.

An ARR multiple applies to annual recurring revenue only, stripping out one-off services, setup fees and any non-recurring income. A revenue multiple applies to total annual revenue. For a pure subscription business the two are nearly identical. For a business with meaningful services income the ARR figure is smaller, so the same price produces a higher ARR multiple than revenue multiple.

Both, and which one dominates depends on growth. Fast-growing companies are priced on revenue because current earnings understate the business. Slower-growing and profitable companies are priced on EBITDA. That balance has shifted toward EBITDA since 2024 as growth rates compressed. Across disclosed private SaaS deals the median EBITDA multiple is 23.0x, with a lower quartile of 12.8x.

Across 232 disclosed private SaaS transactions from 2015 to 2026 the median EV/EBITDA multiple is 23.0x, with a lower quartile of 12.8x and an upper quartile of 47.1x. The public SaaS index was trading at roughly 26.6x EBITDA in aggregate as of March 2026. Small profitable SaaS on marketplaces trades far below that, nearer 2x to 3x annual profit.

Growth slowed and the cost of capital rose. Public SaaS peaked above 30x revenue in 2021 when growth was fast and money was cheap, then fell to 7.3x by early 2025, around 6.0x by July 2025 and 3.4x by March 2026. With many companies now guiding to under 10% growth, a high revenue multiple is much harder to justify, so buyers moved toward earnings-based pricing.

Sometimes, and not automatically. Buyers pay up for defensible AI products with real retention and proprietary data, and pay down for thin wrappers over a third-party model that a competitor could rebuild in a weekend. AI has also become a source of valuation risk across software generally, since buyers now discount products they think a model provider could absorb. Durable retention matters more than the label.

Divide by 12. A 24x monthly profit multiple is 2.0x annual profit, 30x is 2.5x, 36x is 3.0x and 48x is 4.0x. To turn that into a revenue multiple, multiply the annual profit multiple by your net margin. At a 60% net margin, 30x monthly profit is 2.5x annual profit and roughly 1.5x annual revenue.

They measure different things on different companies. Marketplace multiples apply to monthly profit at small bootstrapped businesses. Reported M&A multiples apply to annual revenue at larger, often venture-backed companies with disclosed deal terms. Once converted to a common basis, small bootstrapped SaaS genuinely does price lower, because buyers see more key-person risk, thinner moats and smaller absolute cash flows.

Yes, substantially. Across disclosed deals from 2015 to 2026 the median revenue multiple is 3.3x under $5 million in deal value, 3.8x from $5 million to $20 million, 4.2x from $20 million to $50 million and 6.2x from $50 million to $100 million. The jump between the $20-50 million and $50-100 million bands is close to a doubling, so crossing into a larger band is often worth more than negotiating harder.

High churn, concentrated revenue and key-person dependency. Empire Flippers reports distressed businesses selling at 14.1x monthly profit against 26.4x for typical sales, closer to half, and defines distressed as a recent problem such as a traffic or revenue loss. Messy financials matter too, because anything a buyer cannot verify quickly gets discounted or renegotiated during diligence.

The public and private deal figures come from the Aventis Advisors SaaS valuation multiples study published 1 April 2026, covering 543 transactions with disclosed revenue multiples. The marketplace figures were read firsthand from the Empire Flippers public Scoreboard on 13 August 2026. The SaaS Capital bootstrapped and equity-backed figures are from a January 2025 post describing year-end 2024 and are labeled as historical. Multiples move, so check the source dates before relying on any of them.

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