Startups and investing

Selling a small SaaS in 2026: what buyers pay and what they check

October 15, 2026

Small SaaS businesses sell for about 3 to 5 times yearly profit on the marketplaces, more through brokers when the books are clean. Where to sell, how profit becomes a price, what moves the multiple (including AI), what due diligence asks for, and a list of what to fix a year before.

Two people shaking hands over a laptop showing financial charts, printed reports on the desk

Most small software businesses are never sold. They are run until the founder is tired of them and then left to shrink. That is a waste, because there is an active market for profitable small SaaS products: individual buyers looking to own a business, small holding companies that buy and run several, and competitors who want the customers. The founders who get a good price are usually the ones who prepared for a year, not the ones who listed the week they decided to stop.

This article covers what small SaaS businesses sell for in 2026 according to the marketplaces and brokers that publish their numbers, how buyers turn your figures into a price, what they check in due diligence, and what to fix in the year before you sell.

Who buys, and where

For a business worth less than a few million dollars, sales mostly go through three kinds of channel:

- Marketplaces such as Acquire.com and Flippa. You list the business, buyers contact you, and you run the sale yourself. Cheapest, and best for smaller and simpler businesses.
- Curated marketplaces and brokers such as Empire Flippers and FE International. They vet and value the business, market it to their buyer lists and manage the process for a commission. Worth it for larger deals or when you do not want to run the sale yourself.
- Direct: a competitor, a partner or a larger customer. Often the best price, because the buyer gets something specific, but you have no comparison unless you also talk to others.

The buyers have changed too. FE International reports that 64% of its last 25 SaaS sales went to non-technical buyers. That matters for what you prepare: someone who cannot read your code needs to see that the product runs without you.

What buyers pay

Small SaaS is priced mostly on profit, not revenue. The published numbers:

- Acquire.com: confirmed SaaS sales on the marketplace had a median profit multiple of 3.9 times in both 2024 and 2025, with averages "in the low-to-mid 4x range", for businesses under $10 million in value; the average time on market was 81 days (Acquire.com, Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report, January 2026). Its general guidance is about 3 to 5 times annual profit or 1 to 3 times annual revenue (Acquire.com, SaaS Valuation Multiples in 2026).
- FE International, a broker: SaaS businesses "typically fall within the 4x to 10x annual profit (SDE) range", with 5 to 7 times for businesses valued under $2 million and 7 to 10 times above it (FE International, SaaS metrics and valuation).
- Empire Flippers, which switched to annual multiples on 8 September 2026 (a business it would have shown at "36x monthly" is now 3.0 times annual): "most small businesses trade between 1x and 5x their annual SDE or EBITDA" (Empire Flippers, We're switching to annual multiples).

The ranges differ because the samples differ. A self-serve marketplace includes many small, owner-run products; a broker takes on businesses it expects to sell well and prepares them. Read them together: a small, profitable SaaS that runs mostly on its founder sells for something like 3 to 5 times its yearly profit, and a well-run, growing one with clean books can sell for more.

How profit becomes a price

The profit buyers multiply is usually seller's discretionary earnings (SDE): profit before the owner's own pay and personal costs run through the business. FE International uses SDE when the business depends on the owner, grows less than 50% a year or has less than $2 million in revenue, which covers almost every small SaaS. Revenue multiples are for fast-growing companies reinvesting everything in growth.

An illustrative example: a SaaS with $20,000 a month in recurring revenue ($240,000 a year), $70,000 a year in costs and an owner who pays themselves $30,000 a year through the company:

text

Revenue                         $240,000
Costs, including $30,000 owner pay
  (hosting, tools, contractors)  -$70,000
Profit                          $170,000
Owner pay added back            +$30,000
SDE                             $200,000

At Acquire.com's median 3.9x    $780,000
At 3x to 5x                     $600,000 to $1,000,000
As 1x to 3x revenue             $240,000 to $720,000

Every add-back has to be shown. Acquire.com's guide says buyers "will not accept every add-back" and "discount numbers they cannot verify". A personal laptop, a conference trip or a family member on payroll is only added back if you can show it is not needed to run the business.

What moves the multiple

The same profit can sell for three times or six times. From the reports above, what buyers pay more for:

- Low churn and long customer life. FE International's sample of 25 sales had monthly churn from 1% to 11%, averaging 4.7%. Below that average is a selling point; above it, the buyer is pricing in customers who will leave.
- Steady or rising revenue. FE wants revenue "trending consistently and, ideally, modestly upward". Acquire.com lists "declining revenue, concentrated customers, messy financials" as what pushes a price below the usual range.
- Age. Two years of history is FE International's preferred entry point, with a premium from three years.
- Little dependence on the founder. FE reports that outsourced development and support can add 0.5 to 0.75 to the multiple, because the buyer does not have to replace you.
- No single large customer. If one customer is a quarter of revenue, the buyer is buying a risk.

AI is a question now in every sale. Acquire.com's 2026 guide puts it plainly: "A thin wrapper around a widely available model may face pricing and retention pressure." Does AI raise the value? "Not by themselves." Buyers ask whether AI improves margin or retention, and whether it makes your product easier to replace. If your product calls a model, expect questions about the cost per customer, what happens when the model vendor changes prices or retires the model, and whether a customer could get the same result from a chatbot.

What due diligence asks for

After a buyer makes an offer, usually as a letter of intent, they check what you told them. For a small SaaS, expect:

text

Money
- 24 months of profit and loss, matching the bank and the
  payment processor (Stripe, Paddle) month by month
- MRR, churn and refunds by month, from the billing system
- Add-backs listed with evidence

Customers
- Customer count and revenue by customer (top 10 named or anonymised)
- Contracts, terms of service, any custom deals or discounts

Product and code
- Repository access (often read-only, sometimes to a reviewer)
- Hosting, domains, third-party services and their accounts
- Licences of what the product uses; open-source obligations
- Model vendors, prompts and their monthly cost, if AI is used

Running it
- Who does what each week, and how long it takes
- Support volume and how it is answered
- Contractors and what they are owed
- Anything legal: complaints, disputes, data requests, breaches

Acquire.com advises having "at least 24 months of consistent profit and loss statements" before going to market. A common way for a deal to fall apart in diligence is numbers in the listing that the records do not support.

What to fix a year before

text

1. Separate business and personal spending; one bank account, one card.
2. Monthly P&L from the books, matched to the payment processor.
3. Track MRR, churn and refunds monthly; keep the history.
4. Write down how the business runs: deploys, support, renewals, billing.
5. Hand off at least one weekly job (support, a contractor for code).
6. Move accounts (domains, hosting, email, model APIs) to business logins
   that can be transferred.
7. Fix the worst churn cause you know of.
8. If one customer is over 20% of revenue, work on the others.
9. If the product calls a model, know the cost per customer and have a
   second model you have tested.
10. Decide what you want: price, a clean exit, staying on for a few months.

Much of this list is also what makes a business worth keeping. A business with clean books, a written runbook and a founder who is not on call every day is pleasant to own, which is exactly what the buyer is paying for.

Selling is the other end of the investor conversation. If you are still deciding whether to raise money rather than sell, we looked at what investors are asking in 2026 in how investors see internet startups in 2026.

Buyers look at gross margin and how many people it takes to run the business. This calculator puts your revenue per employee and gross margin side by side with published benchmarks. Free, in your browser.

Open the revenue per employee calculator

Sources

Acquire.com, Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (January 2026) (median SaaS profit multiple 3.9x in 2024 and 2025, averages in the low-to-mid 4x range, 81 days on market, businesses under $10 million; customer-reported data); Acquire.com, SaaS Valuation Multiples in 2026 (September 2026; 3x to 5x profit or 1x to 3x revenue; add-backs; 24 months of P&L; AI wrappers); FE International, SaaS metrics and valuation (January 2026; 4x to 10x SDE, 5x to 7x under $2 million; SDE test; churn in 25 sales; non-technical buyers; outsourcing premium); Empire Flippers, We're switching to annual multiples (8 September 2026; 1x to 5x annual SDE or EBITDA for most small businesses). Pages read on 15 October 2026. The example business and its figures are our own illustration.