80+ SaaS Statistics and Trends You Shouldn't Ignore (2024)
After over 20 years of development, the global SaaS market is worth billions of dollars.
The rapid changes in industry competition, product demand, and the continuous evolution of business models have led to new market opportunities that continue to arise. Over the past decade, the SaaS market has seen a compound annual growth rate of 25%.
Today, SaaS has taken the world by storm. No industry is left untouched; from tech to healthcare, SaaS has become integral to most business operations.
But there is nothing more satisfying than seeing its growth through real, hard numbers. As a SaaS SEO and link-building agency, we looked at 50+ reports (not kidding) to uncover the most exciting findings about SaaS growth, usage, market, pricing, trends, views, and challenges.
We are sure you will not find these latest stats anywhere else.
So, let's get started.
What We'll Cover:
Top SaaS Statistics - Editors Pick
- Organizations use an average of 110 SaaS tools (6)
- As of late 2022, the SaaS market had attained a valuation of $261.15 billion. (1)
- The global SaaS market is worth about $3 trillion and is estimated to surge to $10 trillion by 2030. (2)
- By the end of 2023, 99% will use at least one SaaS app. (3)
- The anticipated size of the global SaaS market is projected to reach $208 billion by 2023, and this will continue to rise. (4)
- Over the past seven years, the SaaS industry has increased by around 500%. (5)
- By 2025, 85% of business apps will be SaaS apps. (6)
Trends and Growth Statistics for SaaS
1. Every $1 million spent on customer acquisition costs (CAC) generates an additional $100,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), indicating a higher yield in MRR for equivalent sales and marketing expenditures.
2. On average, an organization uses 130 SaaS apps, up from 110 apps for an 18% increase. (3)
- Medium-saas apps drive the growth of new apps. Large enterprises use 410 apps, whereas medium enterprises use 192 apps. (3)
4.The SaaS industry market has grown over 16x since 2015. (3)
- In the coming years, all workplaces will be SaaS-powered. According to BetterCloud's report of over 750 respondents, the enterprises served can be divided into three segments:
- SaaS-Powered Workplaces – 96% of the apps used are SaaS-based
- Workplaces in transition – 49% of the apps are SaaS-based
- Traditional Workplaces – 13% are SaaS-based (3)
6.Automation through SaaS apps can help improve two crucial metrics: employee experience and the number of tickets. (3)
7. Gartner forecasts SaaS spending to reach nearly $600 billion in 2023, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. (8)
8. By 2025, 85% of business apps will be SaaS apps. (6)
9. Last year, the SaaS industry transitioned its focus to sustainability rather than growth. The top SaaS business with ARR between $ 1 million and $30 million grew 62.1% in 2022 (vs. 93.4% in 2020 and 78.9% in 2021). (9)
10.SaaS companies with ARRs over $1m saw growth accelerate slightly in the first quarter of this year. (10)
11.The best-in-class retention rate is at the 110% mark. If you are not sure your SaaS tools are producing the results you are looking for, try calculating these SaaS metrics.
12. In 2023, the SaaS market is expected to witness growth of 16.8%. (8)
13. In 2021, the global market for Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) was estimated at $5,608 million, with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.1% from 2022 to 2030. (1)
Usage statistics for SaaS
14. Embracing SaaSOPs allows IT to support a large number of end users; SaaS-powered workplaces have one IT person out of every 83 employees; workplaces in transition have one for every 63; and traditional workplaces have one for every 59. (3)
15. 32% of IT professionals say SaaS automation improves operational efficiency, better compliance, improves accuracy, reduces IT teams, and helps professionals spend more time on strategic projects. (3)
16. Organizations are investing heavily in SaaS management platforms (SMPs)- 76% of SaaS-powered workplaces will likely use an SMP within this year.
17. 99% of IT enterprise apps are SaaS-based in SaaS-powered workspaces.
18. According to the Cisco 2023 Global Networking Trends study, most organizations, precisely two-thirds, currently host over 40% of their workloads across multiple clouds. Additionally, most organizations employ over two cloud providers and most utilize over five Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. (10)
19. According to the 2022 Cloud Computing Survey by Foundry, key factors driving cloud investment for IT decision-makers include:
- 40% aimed to facilitate disaster recovery and business continuity.
- 39% expressed a desire to replace on-premise legacy systems.
- 34% mentioned reducing the total cost of ownership as a motivator.
- 33% sought to enhance employee productivity.
- 32% aimed to bolster flexibility in responding to evolving market conditions. (11)
20. Cloud providers top the categories with the highest expenditure. The combined spending on AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and other cloud-native solutions equals the total spending on all other Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. (12)
Top SaaS Apps by Category
As of Jan 2024, Adobe is the biggest SaaS company with a valuation of $276 billion. It is followed by Salesforce ($271.9 billion) and Intuit ($174.2 billion).
Here is the list of the biggest 50 SaaS businesses by category
Top Sales SaaS Apps
Top Marketing SaaS Apps
Top Engineering SaaS Apps
Top Customer Support SaaS Apps
Top DevOps SaaS Apps
Top Business Operations SaaS Apps
Top Finance SaaS Apps
Top IT & Security SaaS Apps
Market statistics for SaaS
China
21. China's revenue in the SaaS market is expected to reach US$14.53 billion in 2023. (21)
22. China SaaS revenue is predicted to grow at an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2028) of 16.48%, resulting in a market volume of US$31.16 billion by 2028. (21)
23. The average spend per employee in China's Software as a Service market is projected to reach US$18.28 in 2023. (21)
24. The top reason why China was keen on adopting cloud solutions was to scale fast to support growth, followed by increasing IT efficiency and resilience. (22)
US
25. Revenue from the US SaaS market is estimated to reach US$141.40 billion in 2023. (23)
26. The US SaaS industry shows an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2028) of 5.64%, predicting the market volume to go above US$186.00bn by 2028. (24)
27. The US has 8x times more SaaS companies than any other country. It has approximately 17,000 SaaS companies, 15,000 more than the leading SaaS country, the UK. (23)
28. The average spend per employee in the Software as a Service market will reach US$0.84k in 2023. (23)
29. In global comparison, most SaaS revenue will be generated in the United States (US$141,400.00m in 2023). (23)
India
30. India's SaaS industry is set to reach $50 billion by 2030 and create revenue of $20-25 million by 2025. (25)
31. The annual recurring revenue (ARR) for Indian SaaS firms has 4x to reach $12–$13 billion in 2022, with investments in this sector increasing sixfold to $5 billion over the past five years. (26)
32. The Indian SaaS market has exhibited a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30-35%, surpassing 20-25% growth rates in the UK and 15-20% in the US markets. (26)
33. Indian SaaS businesses will have raised a record 5.1 billion in 2022, and 70% of investors expect to put more money into SAAS products. (26)
34. In 2022 alone, 280 Indian SaaS companies have achieved revenue ranging from $1 Mn to $10 Mn. (27)
Others
35. The UK SaaS market will almost double between 2020 and 2025. In 2020, the valuation of the UK SaaS sector stood at around €7.5 billion, and projections indicate it will nearly double, reaching €14.5 billion in the next three years. (28)
36. Germany is at the forefront of SaaS European market revenue, with a current figure of €6.85 billion, and it is anticipated to rise to €16.3 billion by 2025. (29)
37. The projected value for the Latin American SaaS industry is expected to exceed $5 billion in 2022. (30)
38. In 2020, the SaaS sector comprised 41.12% of all startups in Brazil.
- While this means more opportunities for SaaS companies – it also means fierce competition. You must have a solid SaaS marketing strategy to keep up with changing market trends and stay ahead of competitors.
Pricing statistics for SaaS
39. A significant 81.2% of survey participants felt that the inability to provide flexible payment options hindered closing deals, with 47% strongly supporting this viewpoint. (7)
40. 85% believed introducing more flexible payment choices for customers could substantially decrease churn. (7)
41. Negotiations regarding payment terms extend sales cycles by 2.3 weeks or 16 days. (7)
42. According to Capchase's latest survey, 64.4% of respondents believe the number of stakeholders involved in a deal has increased since H1 2022, with the average number of stakeholders sitting at 2.7. Additionally, 44% of respondents reported that as many as 3 to 4 stakeholders are involved in each deal. (7)
43. Most of these stakeholders are high-positioned decision-makers, with around 59% of reported stakeholders being founders or CEOs. This indicates that key leaders are increasingly paying attention to where the money is going. (7)
44. Collections, reminders, billings, and reconciliation take up 28.2% of the average finance team's time. (7)
45. According to the State of Usage-Based Pricing by OpenView Partners, 44% of surveyed SaaS companies indicated the adoption of usage-based pricing. (13)
46. A 1% change in price optimization results in an average profit increase of 11.1%. (13)
47. 54% of seed-stage companies charge less than $5,000 per year for an average customer, while this is the case for only 30% of expansion and growth-stage companies. (14)
48. Only 41% of seed-stage companies adopt a value-based pricing approach. The rest either emulate competitors (30%), rely on gut-based judgment calls (21%) or employ a cost-plus approach (7%). (14)
49. Competitor pricing is a commonly cited pricing strategy, followed by value-based and cost-plus. (15)
50. "Just right" discounts are what you need to grab solid customer growth. (15)
- The "Mid-discount" cluster of 10-30% sees revenue per customer grow by 4% per quarter.
- "Deep discount" of 30% and more for faster annual customer growth. (15)
51.Free offerings are one of the most common acquisition tactics in the SaaS world. Most common free offering-
- Premium-tier free trial (44%)
- Freemium offering (19%)
- Lowest-tier free trial (16%)
- Reverse trial (13%)
- No free offering (8%)
SaaS pricing can look complicated from the outset. It can get confusing with overwhelming pricing models, strategies, and tactics doing the rounds. You must understand various SaaS pricing models to increase sales and reduce unnecessary churn.
SaaS Adoption and Churn
52. Data indicates that businesses with revenue exceeding $10 million, on average, experience a churn rate of 8.5%, whereas those with income less than $10 million are more likely to have a churn rate of 20% or higher. (16)
53. Avoidable customer churn costs businesses $136 billion a year. (16)
54. A 5% reduction in customer churn can result in 25% to 95% profit increases. (16)
55. 20-40% of customer churn is avoidable, such as failed, expired, and delinquent credit cards. This unnecessary churn represents one to two percentage points for businesses with a 5% overall churn rate. (16)
56. Even a churn reduction of 4% can double your MMR. (17)
57. A quarter of customers churn due to a lack of flexible payment options. (7)
58. Companies with best-in-class retention rates grew 1.8 times faster than their competitors. (9)
59. 2022 was a challenging year for most SaaS businesses. Many customers cut their SaaS spending. This is in contrast to 2021, which saw almost 70% of companies have a higher retention rate than the previous year. (9)
60. Companies in the top quartile with an Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) exceeding $1,000 per month achieved a net retention rate of 110% or more. Conversely, among B2C businesses with an ARPA below $25 per month, the top quartile only achieved a 70% net retention rate. When assessing a SaaS company's gross retention, it's essential to consider its ARPA. (9)
61. To beat your competitors, you need to increase the number of users, retain them, and make them raving fans. These are our proven strategies to reduce customer churn after assisting many top SaaS companies.
Challenges for SaaS
SaaS businesses have to deal with security issues and inefficient operations, among other problems, in order to do well in the market.
62. The present average duration of the B2B SaaS sales cycle is 134 days (equivalent to 4.4 months), in contrast to the 107-day (3.5-month) average recorded in the first half of 2022.
63. The median Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) has surged by 180%, suggesting that companies must allocate significantly more funds to secure the same number of deals. This is a clear indication of challenges within the sales environment. (7)
64. The CAC payback period has extended by 150%, signifying that the time required to recover the costs incurred in acquiring deals has considerably lengthened. This indicates a sales environment characterized by prolonged and costly sales cycles. (7)
65. The median decline of 47% in the Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost (LTV/CAC) ratio suggests that companies generate less revenue from customers despite higher acquisition costs. This points to the increased difficulty in securing profitable deals, leading many companies to grapple with a diminished pool of prospects. (7)
66. According to a recent BetterCloud survey, 37% of organizations are worried about securing the SaaS stack, 24% expressed concerns about keeping up with operational tasks, and 20% were anxious about mitigating SaaS sprawl. (3)
67. 64% of organizations report that the current limitations hinder their ability to achieve operational efficiency gains through automation and visibility. (3)
68. 50% of enterprises waste at least 10% of their annual expenditures on software and SaaS applications. (18)
69. Over 50% of companies have allocated over 10% of their cloud budget to resources that are underutilized, unmanaged, or unaccounted for in the cloud environment. (18)
Security
70. In 2022, 65% of SaaS apps were unsanctioned—where users adopted apps without IT's knowledge or approval.
71. The top three SaaS-related issues that organizations will face in 2022 are:
- Sensitive data living across more apps (43%)
- User forwarded work email to personal email (35%)
- Security policy violations (25%) (3)
72. 47% of organizations say they lack the resources to manage SaaS at scale. (3)
73. Approximately 70% of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) lost by companies with a total ARR exceeding $1 million is attributed to churn, with the remaining 30% stemming from contraction. (9)
Workforce Planning
74. 86% of organizations say new employees lack access to necessary tools to do their jobs on Day 1, and another 35% say it takes more than a week. (9)
75. Over a third (36%) of SaaS companies were not offboarded within 24 hours of leaving the organization. (9)
76. 76.5% of organizations are worried cutting down on SaaS spending will impact employee productivity.
77. 73% of businesses agree that Third-party SaaS application issues account for most employee IT troubleshooting.
COVID Effect
78. According to IDC, 22.5% of businesses report no change in SaaS spending; 25.9% will increase their SaaS spending by up to 20%, and 4.5% will increase it by more.
79. The predicted growth in virtual healthcare suggests a significant rise in health insurance spending in the US, with estimates now reaching around $250 billion, a substantial increase from the initial projection of $3 billion during the pandemic.
80. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average growth rate of SaaS portfolios was 62%.
81. In May 2020, the usage of SaaS tools increased by 17% as remote working practices and lockdown restrictions grew.
References
Market Analysis Report (GrandViewResearch)
- The SaaS factor: Six ways to drive growth by building new SaaS businesses (Mickinsey)
- 2023 State of SaaSOps (BetterCloud)
- Public cloud application services/software as a service (SaaS) end-user spending worldwide from 2015 to 2024 (Statista)
- 80+ SaaS Statistics and Trends (2023) (Exploding Topics)
- 2020 State of SaaSOps (BetterCloud)
- B2B SaaS Sales Cycles in 2023: New Insights and Data (CapChase)
- Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach Nearly $600 Billion in 2023 (Gartner)
- SaaS Benchmarks Report (ChartMogul)
- 2023 Global Networking Trends Report (Cisco)
- How SaaS is accelerating the digital transformation of organizations (Unit4)
- 2023 SaaS Spend Trends and Insights (CloudEagle)
- The usage based pricing playbook (Togai)
- Mastering SaaS Pricing (OpenView)
- The state of B2B SaaS pricing in 2023 (Paddle)
- Churn Reduction 101 (Custify)
- The Complete Guide to Customer Success for SaaS Companies (Process.st)
- 2023 Snapshot Survey: SaaS and Cloud Spend Optimization & Automation (oomnitza)
- COVID-19 Response: SaaS Supports Digital Transformation (IDC)
- SaaS Industry Statistics (Redline)
- Software as a Service - China (Statista)
- Cloud in China: The outlook for 2025 (McKinsey)
- Software as a Service - United States (Statista)
- Leading software as a service (SaaS) countries worldwide in 2022, by number of companies (Statista)
- India’s SaaS industry to reach $50 billion by 2030, to generate revenue of $20-25 million: Report (The Hindu)
- India becomes the second-largest SaaS ecosystem globally; what’s driving this growth? (BusinessToday)
- India Saas Report 2023 – Saasonomics: Navigating Growth And Effeciency (Zinnov)
- From Cloud to Edge (Reply)
- Market revenue of software as a service (SaaS) versus other software in Europe 2020 and 2025, by country (Statista)
- Latin American Software-and Platform-as-a-Service Market, Forecast to 2022 (Research and Markets)
- Associação Brasileira de Startups
- The 50 Biggest Public SaaS Companies in the U.S. (Mike Sonders)