How much is a SaaS worth? Small SaaS multiples in 2026

A small SaaS (under about $1M a year in revenue) is usually worth 3x to 5x its annual profit, or 1x to 3x its annual revenue. Those are the ranges Acquire.com, the largest startup marketplace, gives for the businesses it sees, and its January 2026 multiples report puts the median confirmed sale at 3.9x profit in both 2024 and 2025. Where a given business lands inside the range depends on growth, churn, how much of your time it needs and how believable its numbers are.

This guide explains which multiple to use, what moves it up or down, and works through three examples in dollars. It is written for founders pricing a micro-SaaS or indie product and for buyers checking whether an asking price is reasonable.

How are small SaaS businesses valued?

Small SaaS businesses are valued as a multiple of a yearly figure: either profit (what the owner takes home) or revenue (ARR, which is MRR × 12). Buyers of small businesses mostly anchor on profit, because they are buying an income. Acquire.com's report says the same: buyers "still anchor valuation on profit unless a business is operating at exceptional scale."

The two numbers you need:

• ARR (annual recurring revenue) = current MRR × 12. If you aren't sure your MRR is calculated the way a buyer will calculate it, strip out trials, one-off payments and cancelled subscriptions first; a buyer's due diligence will.
• Annual profit, often called SDE (seller's discretionary earnings) for small businesses: revenue minus the costs of running the business, with the owner's own salary added back. Hosting, tools, payment fees, contractors and paid marketing are costs; the founder's pay is not, because the buyer replaces it with their own time.

Should you use a revenue multiple or a profit multiple?

Use a profit multiple if the business is profitable and roughly stable; that is how most small SaaS sales are priced. Use a revenue multiple if the business is growing fast and reinvesting most of its revenue, so profit understates what it earns, or if it has no real cost base yet.

In practice, work out both and check that they tell a similar story. SaaS has high margins: Acquire.com reports an average margin of about 71% among the profitable SaaS startups listed on its marketplace in 2024 and 2025. At a 70% margin, 3.9x profit is about 2.7x revenue, which is inside the 1x to 3x revenue band. If your two estimates are far apart, your costs are unusually high or low, and a buyer will ask why.

What makes a SaaS worth a higher multiple?

The same handful of things move the multiple, in roughly this order of weight:

Factor	Pushes the multiple up	Pushes it down
Growth	MRR rising month over month	Flat or shrinking MRR
Churn	Low monthly churn, long-lived customers	Customers leaving within a few months
Revenue quality	Subscriptions, spread across many customers	One-off payments, one customer worth 30%+ of MRR
Owner time	A few hours a week	A full-time job, or knowledge only the founder has
Proof	Revenue verified at the payment provider	Screenshots and spreadsheets
Age	Several years of history	A few months, or a new Stripe account
Market	Clear niche, little competition	Easy to clone, or dependent on one platform

Two of these are worth stressing for small deals. Churn matters because a buyer pays today for revenue that has to still be there next year; a SaaS losing 10% of its customers a month is replacing most of its base every year. And proof matters because uncertainty is priced as a discount. A buyer who can't confirm the revenue either walks away or offers less to cover the risk. See how to verify a startup's revenue before you buy it for what buyers check.

How much is a SaaS with $1k MRR worth?

A SaaS with $1,000 MRR has $12,000 ARR. With low costs (say $150 a month in hosting, tools and fees), annual profit is about $10,200.

• Profit method: 3x to 5x × $10,200 = $30,600 to $51,000
• Revenue method: 1x to 3x × $12,000 = $12,000 to $36,000

The overlap, roughly $30,000 to $36,000, is a sensible starting point for a stable product. At this size the buyer pool is mostly indie hackers and first-time buyers, many of whom are price-sensitive, so a young product with no growth will usually sell nearer the low end of the revenue range.

How much is a SaaS with $5k MRR worth?

A SaaS with $5,000 MRR has $60,000 ARR. Say costs are $1,000 a month, so annual profit is $48,000.

• Profit method: 3x to 5x × $48,000 = $144,000 to $240,000
• Revenue method: 1x to 3x × $60,000 = $60,000 to $180,000

The overlap is about $144,000 to $180,000. If MRR has grown steadily for a year and churn is low, the top of that band is defensible. If MRR has been flat for six months, expect offers nearer $120,000 to $150,000, because the buyer is paying for an income stream with no upside.

How much is a SaaS with $20k MRR worth?

A SaaS with $20,000 MRR has $240,000 ARR. Say costs, including a part-time support contractor, are $5,000 a month, so annual profit is $180,000.

• Profit method: 3x to 5x × $180,000 = $540,000 to $900,000
• Revenue method: 1x to 3x × $240,000 = $240,000 to $720,000

At this size buyers include small holding companies and funds, who run fuller due diligence and look closely at churn cohorts, customer concentration and how much the business depends on the founder. A clean handover plan matters as much as the multiple.

What multiple do mobile apps and other subscription products sell for?

Subscription apps on the App Store and Google Play are valued the same way, on profit or revenue, but buyers usually apply extra discounts for platform risk (Apple and Google take a commission and control distribution) and for revenue that depends on paid ads. The method is identical; the inputs differ. Use the revenue after store fees, not gross bookings, as your revenue figure.

How do I get a valuation for my own SaaS?

1. Calculate MRR properly. Active paying subscriptions only, annual plans divided by 12, discounts applied, no trials or one-off payments.
2. Work out annual profit with your own pay added back.
3. Apply both ranges above and look at where they overlap.
4. Adjust for growth, churn and owner time, using the table above.
5. Compare with live listings. Asking prices of comparable businesses tell you what the market will look at.

VerifyArr's sell page does steps 3 to 5 for you. It takes your MRR, growth and churn and returns a range based on the median asking multiple of comparable listings, raised for strong growth or low churn and lowered for flat revenue or high churn, so you can see why the number is what it is. The stats page shows the current median asking multiples by category.

Frequently asked questions

Is a SaaS worth 10x revenue?

Not at small scale. Multiples like that come from venture-backed or public companies with fast growth. Acquire.com cites public SaaS revenue multiples of around 5.5x at the end of 2025, and small private SaaS businesses trade well below public companies.

Do buyers pay for a SaaS with no profit?

Yes, if it has revenue and growth. They price it on revenue, usually at the lower end of the 1x to 3x range, and sometimes include an earn-out tied to future revenue.

Does an asking price equal the sale price?

No. Asking prices are what the seller hopes for; the final price is usually agreed after due diligence and is often lower. Use asking multiples as a ceiling, not a guarantee.

How much does verified revenue add to a valuation?

There is no published figure for it. What it does is remove a reason for a buyer to discount: when the buyer can see MRR, growth and churn straight from the payment provider, they have less uncertainty to price in and fewer questions before an offer.

---

Want a quick range for your own business? Connect Stripe or RevenueCat on VerifyArr to get a valuation from comparable listings and a public page with your verified MRR, free and with no commission if you decide to sell.