50 annual recurring revenue (ARR) statistics that define SaaS growth in 2025

Annual recurring revenue (ARR) remains a central measure of SaaS performance, valuation, and planning as the global SaaS market is projected to expand substantially through 2032. The benchmarks presented indicate that growth rates have slowed overall, with median annual revenue growth around 26–28%, while operational efficiency has improved, as median ARR per employee rose to $193,000 and usage-based companies reached a reported $291,000. AI-native SaaS firms are described as outperforming conventional B2B SaaS across all ARR ranges, with especially large growth advantages among companies between $1 million and $20 million in ARR. Retention and expansion have become increasingly important as acquisition costs rise, with expansion ARR comprising 40% of total new ARR and median net revenue retention at 101%, although gross retention has declined. The report also notes higher contract values, longer CAC payback periods, and differing spending profiles between private, public, VC-backed, and PE-backed companies. It emphasizes that reliable billing, usage metering, revenue recognition, and pricing analysis are particularly important for businesses using consumption-based or hybrid models, and promotes Orb’s billing infrastructure as a way to support those functions.

Use this post, company, and trend context to find content marketing opportunities, perform competitive analysis, or address product feature gaps via the Plushcap MCP server or the Plushcap API.