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Micro-SaaS Valuation Calculator

What your SaaS would sell for: SDE and EBITDA, an exit multiple adjusted for growth, churn, founder hours and platform risk, and an ARR cross-check.

Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources

Revenue

$

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

%
−10%30%

After churn. 3% a month is 43% 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$351,000Range $304,000 to $398,000
SDE, a year
$93,600
Profit before your pay, valued at 3.75×
EBITDA, a year
$31,200
After $62,400 to replace your 20 hours a week; 11.3× EBITDA
MRR multiple
23.4×
1.95× ARR
Revenue cross-check
$662,000
$180,000 ARR × 3.67×; the estimate weighs profit 100%, revenue 0%
LTV:CAC
26.2
LTV $3,280, CAC $125, paid back in 1.3 months
How the multiple is builtTurns of SDE added or taken off, largest first.
FactorTurns
Base: SDE $50k to $100k3.00×
Growing 30 to 60% a year+0.40
LTV:CAC 3 or more+0.25
Gross margin 80% or more+0.10
Churn 2 to 4% a month0
Part-time founder, 5 to 20 hours0
Two years or more of history0
Platform risk: independent0
No customer over 10% of revenue0
SDE multiple3.75×
From revenue to SDE and EBITDA, a year
ARR (MRR × 12)$180,000
Cost of revenue (18%)-$32,400
Gross profit$147,600
Operating costs-$36,000
Paid marketing-$18,000
SDE$93,600
Founder's time (20 h × $60 × 52)-$62,400
EBITDA$31,200
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?

Work out SDE: a year of gross profit minus operating and marketing costs, with the founder's pay added back. Multiply it by an exit multiple, about 2.5× for the smallest businesses and 5× above $1M of SDE, moved up for growth and low churn and down for founder time, platform risk and customer concentration.

Small SaaS businesses are priced on owner earnings: profit with the founder's pay added back. The multiple starts from what businesses of that size sell for and moves up or down for the things buyers check: growth, churn, how much of the founder's time it needs, its age, dependence on one platform, its largest customer, unit economics and margin. A business with little or no profit is priced on revenue instead, and the two are blended between.

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%
MRR
Monthly recurring revenue: subscription revenue billed each month
ARR
Annual recurring revenue, MRR × 12
SDE
Seller's discretionary earnings: annual profit before any pay to the owner
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation; here SDE less a market wage for the founder's hours
churn
The share of recurring revenue lost each month to cancellations and downgrades
CAC
Customer acquisition cost: paid marketing divided by new customers
LTV
Lifetime value: monthly gross profit per customer ÷ monthly churn, capped at five years
Base SDE multiple by size, before adjustments (checked October 2, 2026)
Annual SDEBase multipleValue at the top of the band
under $50k2.5×$125,000
$50k to $100k3.0×$300,000
$100k to $250k3.5×$875,000
$250k to $500k3.9×$1,950,000
$500k to $1M4.3×$4,300,000
over $1M5.0×–

Worked example

A three-year-old B2B SaaS on $15,000 MRR at $120 a seat-month, growing 3% a month net, with 3% monthly churn, 82% gross margin, $3,000 a month of tools and contractors, $1,500 of ads bringing 12 customers, and a founder working 20 hours a week.

  1. 1ARR: $180,000; gross profit at 82%: $147,600
  2. 2SDE: $147,600 − $54,000 of costs and marketing = $93,600
  3. 3Base multiple for SDE of $50k to $100k: 3.0×
  4. 4Adjustments: growing 30 to 60% a year +0.40; lTV:CAC 3 or more +0.25; gross margin 80% or more +0.10
  5. 5SDE multiple: 3.75×, so $93,600 × 3.75× = $351,000
  6. 6Revenue cross-check: 3.7× ARR = $662,000; weight on profit 100%

About $351,000, within $304,000 to $398,000: 23.4× MRR, and 11.3× EBITDA after paying $62,400 a year for the founder's hours.

Frequently asked questions

What multiple do micro-SaaS businesses sell for in 2026?

Most sell for 2.5× to 5× SDE. Acquire.com's January 2026 report puts the median at 3.9× annual profit across confirmed SaaS sales, almost all under $10M. Among the examples on these pages, a developer tool with its assumptions values at 4.8× and an AI SaaS at 1.5×, figures checked October 2, 2026.

Why is my ARR valuation so much higher than my SDE valuation?

Revenue multiples are quoted for larger, growing companies whose buyers pay for future growth. Micro-SaaS buyers mostly pay for today's profit, so a business with healthy margins is valued on SDE, and the ARR figure is a ceiling rather than an offer. The calculator leans on ARR only when profit is thin, below a 40% SDE margin, where SDE would undervalue the revenue.

How many times MRR is a SaaS worth?

Typically 20 to 50 times MRR for a profitable micro-SaaS, which is the same as 2 to 4 times ARR. The example above works out at 23× MRR, $351,000. The MRR multiple calculator opens on that figure.

SDE or EBITDA: which do buyers use for a micro-SaaS?

SDE, for most businesses under about $1M of profit, because the buyer will usually replace the founder themselves. Once a business needs a paid team to run it, buyers and brokers switch to EBITDA, which subtracts a market wage for the founder's role. The two give different multiples of the same price; this page shows both. See the SaaS EBITDA multiple calculator.

What lowers a SaaS valuation the most?

High churn, a founder who works full time in the business, and dependence on one platform. Churn above 6% a month means a buyer is paying for customers who will be gone within two years. A founder working 40 hours a week means the buyer is buying a job. A Shopify, Chrome or LLM API dependency can end with one policy change. Each is shown as an adjustment above.

How do I raise my exit multiple before selling?

Cut churn first: annual plans, onboarding that gets customers to value quickly, and dunning for failed payments. Then document and automate what you do each week until the business runs in a few hours, and give it 12 months of clean, separate accounts. Each step moves a line in the adjustment chart above, and buyers pay for the trend as well as the level.

Sources

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