Answers
How do you value a small SaaS business, for example one making $1,000 MRR?
Short answer: Small SaaS businesses are usually valued on profit, not revenue: Acquire.com reports a 3.9x median profit multiple for confirmed SaaS sales in 2024 and 2025. A SaaS making $1,000 MRR at 80% margin earns about $9,600 a year, so roughly $23,000 to $37,000 at 2.4x to 3.9x, adjusted for churn, age and owner hours.
Are small SaaS businesses valued on profit or revenue?
Small SaaS businesses are valued on profit: Acquire.com's Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (11 February 2026, updated 1 September 2026) gives a 3.9 times median profit multiple for confirmed SaaS sales in both 2024 and 2025, with the average in the "low-to-mid 4x" range. The same report puts public SaaS companies at about 5.5 times revenue at the end of 2025, which is a different market and should not be applied to a business making a few thousand dollars a month.
How do asking multiples for small SaaS compare with sold multiples?
SaaS and software listings priced $10k–150k asked a median of 2.39× annual profit in FirstPass Memo's October 2026 sample (20 listings, median asking price $50,000), below Acquire.com's 3.9 times median for confirmed sales. The gap has several causes: our figures are asking prices on seller-stated profit, the listings are smaller, and many are young. Flippa's H1 2026 report gives a lower SaaS average of 2.47 times on its sales.
What is a SaaS with $1,000, $3,000 or $10,000 MRR worth?
A SaaS making $1,000 MRR at an 80% profit margin earns about $9,600 a year, so it is worth roughly $23,000 at 2.39 times profit and $37,000 at 3.9 times. At $3,000 MRR the same range is about $69,000 to $112,000, and at $10,000 MRR about $229,000 to $374,000.
| MRR | Annual profit at 80% margin | At 2.39× (our SaaS asking median) | At 3.9× (Acquire.com sold median) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $9,600 | $22,944 | $37,440 |
| $3,000 | $28,800 | $68,832 | $112,320 |
| $10,000 | $96,000 | $229,440 | $374,400 |
Annual profit = MRR × 0.8 × 12. Multiples: FirstPass October 2026 asking median for SaaS and software listings; Acquire.com median confirmed SaaS sale multiple, 2024 and 2025.
An 80% margin is an assumption for the table; Acquire.com reports average margins of 71% for 2024. Use the margin from the actual books.
What adjustments change what a small SaaS is worth?
Four adjustments move a small SaaS away from the headline multiple: monthly churn, age, owner hours and customer concentration. In our October 2026 sample, 8 of the 16 SaaS and software listings that stated an age were under 12 months old, which means less than a year of evidence that the revenue lasts.
- Churn. High churn shrinks the revenue you are paying for. See what churn rate is acceptable.
- Age. Under 12 months, pay toward the low end; our checker flags under 12 months of history.
- Owner hours. Subtract a fair cost for the seller's time before applying any multiple.
- Concentration. One customer above a quarter of revenue is a concentration risk.
What does a $1,000 MRR SaaS look like after a churn stress test?
A composite $1,000 MRR SaaS at 4% monthly churn, priced at $30,000, pays back in about 38 months if revenue stayed flat, about 43 months with $30 of new MRR a month, and never if new sales stopped. That is why a price near 2.4 times profit can be fair for a young product and 3.9 times only for one with low churn and a long record.
Composite example, run through the SaaS churn stress test
| MRR today | $1,000 |
|---|---|
| Monthly revenue churn | 4% |
| New MRR added each month | $30 |
| Profit margin | 80% |
| Asking price | $30,000 |
| MRR after 12 months, new sales continue | $903 |
| MRR after 12 months, no new sales | $613 |
| Payback if MRR stayed flat | 37.5 months |
| Payback with churn and new sales | 43.1 months |
| Payback with churn and no new sales | never |
| All future profit if sales stop | $20,000 |
Run your own figures in the SaaS churn stress test, check revenue with how to verify Stripe revenue, and read the micro-SaaS decision page before an offer.
Sources
- Acquire.com, Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (11 February 2026, updated 1 September 2026), read 7 October 2026
- Flippa, The New Era of Digital M&A: Flippa's H1 2026 Insights Report (updated 24 July 2026), read 7 October 2026
- FirstPass Memo, online-business listing benchmarks, October 2026, our own data, CC BY 4.0
Related
- How many times profit do online businesses sell for?
- What churn rate is acceptable?
- How to verify Stripe revenue
- SaaS churn stress test
- Is buying a micro-SaaS worth it?
- Listing benchmarks, October 2026
- How to buy a SaaS business
- Is Acquire.com legit?
- Glossary of listing terms
- More questions buyers ask
Get the SaaS and software seller checklist
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We will write when paid memos open, and occasionally before. Unsubscribe any time by replying "stop" to hello@firstpassmemo.com. Looking at a live listing priced $10k–150k? Apply for a free beta memo instead; its confirmation page has the same downloads.
Composite examples are invented and labelled. Figures from other sites are quoted with a link and the date we read them; FirstPass figures are asking prices and seller-stated profit, not sale prices. Informational screening only, not investment, legal or tax advice.