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Developer Tool & API Valuation Calculator

What a developer tool or API business sells for: low churn, usage-based revenue and infrastructure costs, priced on 2026 deal data.

Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources

Revenue

$

Average of the last three months, before payment fees and platform shares.

%
−10%30%

After churn. 4% a month is 60% a year.

%
0%20%

MRR lost each month to cancellations and downgrades, as a share of MRR.

$
months

Months of revenue a buyer can verify.

Costs and margin

%
0%100%

Revenue left after hosting, payment fees, platform shares and model or API costs.

$

Tools, contractors, support staff. Leave out your own pay and marketing.

Acquisition

$

0 if growth is all organic.

Risk and founder

Support, development, marketing: everything a buyer would take over.

$/h

What a buyer would pay a hire or contractor. Used for EBITDA.

Platform dependencyPlatform dependency
%
0%100%
Estimated exit value$639,000Range $573,000 to $706,000
SDE, a year
$133,200
Profit before your pay, valued at 4.80×
EBITDA, a year
$70,800
After $62,400 to replace your 20 hours a week; 9.0× EBITDA
MRR multiple
32.0×
2.66× ARR
Revenue cross-check
$1,188,000
$240,000 ARR × 4.95×; the estimate weighs profit 100%, revenue 0%
LTV:CAC
70.2
LTV $3,510, CAC $50, paid back in 0.7 months
How the multiple is builtTurns of SDE added or taken off, largest first.
FactorTurns
Base: SDE $100k to $250k3.50×
Growing 60 to 100% a year+0.75
Churn 2% a month or less+0.40
LTV:CAC 3 or more+0.25
Top customer 10 to 20% of revenue−0.10
Part-time founder, 5 to 20 hours0
Two years or more of history0
Platform risk: independent0
Gross margin 70 to 80%0
SDE multiple4.80×
From revenue to SDE and EBITDA, a year
ARR (MRR × 12)$240,000
Cost of revenue (22%)-$52,800
Gross profit$187,200
Operating costs-$42,000
Paid marketing-$12,000
SDE$133,200
Founder's time (20 h × $60 × 52)-$62,400
EBITDA$70,800
SDE multiple for each example businessEach vertical's starting example on these pages. Hover or focus a row for its value and churn.
  1. 1Developer tool / API4.8× SDE
  2. 2B2B SaaS3.8× SDE
  3. 3WordPress plugin3.0× SDE
  4. 4Shopify app3.0× SDE
  5. 5Chrome extension2.1× SDE
  6. 6Productised service1.8× SDE
  7. 7Notion / no-code templates1.5× SDE
  8. 8AI wrapper / GPT app1.5× SDE

How is a micro-SaaS valued?

A developer API on $20,000 MRR with 2% churn, 4% monthly growth and 78% margins after infrastructure is worth about $639,000 (4.8× SDE). Developers rarely switch once a tool is wired into their code, and that stickiness is what buyers pay a premium for.

SDE = MRR × 12 × gross margin − (operating costs + marketing) × 12 EBITDA = SDE − founder hours × hourly rate × 52 SDE multiple = size-band base + growth + churn + founder + age + platform + concentration + LTV:CAC + margin (1.5× to 8×) value = w × SDE × SDE multiple + (1 − w) × ARR × ARR multiple, w = 0 at 10% SDE margin rising to 1 at 40%

This page uses the same method as the Micro-SaaS Valuation Calculator, which explains each term and assumption in full.

Worked example

A developer API on $20,000 MRR at $90 a month per team, growing 4% a month with 2% monthly churn, 78% margin after infrastructure, $3,500 a month of other costs, one customer at 12% of revenue, and a founder on 20 hours a week.

  1. 1ARR: $240,000; gross profit at 78%: $187,200
  2. 2SDE: $187,200 − $54,000 of costs and marketing = $133,200
  3. 3Base multiple for SDE of $100k to $250k: 3.5×
  4. 4Adjustments: growing 60 to 100% a year +0.75; churn 2% a month or less +0.40; lTV:CAC 3 or more +0.25; top customer 10 to 20% of revenue −0.10
  5. 5SDE multiple: 4.80×, so $133,200 × 4.80× = $639,000
  6. 6Revenue cross-check: 4.9× ARR = $1,188,000; weight on profit 100%

About $639,000, within $573,000 to $706,000: 32.0× MRR, and 9.0× EBITDA after paying $62,400 a year for the founder's hours.

Frequently asked questions

Why do developer tools earn higher multiples?

Switching costs. Once an API is in a customer's code and deploy pipeline, replacing it means engineering work, so churn is low, often under 2% a month, and expansion follows usage. Both earn positive adjustments. The risks buyers check are infrastructure costs that grow faster than revenue and one large customer driving most of the usage.

How should I enter usage-based revenue?

As MRR, using the average of the last three months so one spike does not inflate it, and churn as net revenue lost from customers who left or cut usage. If usage revenue swings a lot month to month, expect buyers to value it slightly below the same amount of fixed subscriptions.

What multiple does a developer tool sell for?

For the business on this page, about 4.8× SDE, or 32× MRR: $639,000 on $20,000 of MRR and $133,200 of annual SDE. Change the inputs above to your own figures; churn, growth and founder hours move the multiple most.

Sources

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