WordPress Plugin Valuation Calculator
What a premium WordPress plugin sells for: licence revenue as MRR, renewal rate as churn, and support hours as founder time.
Updated · By Niraj Kumar · 4 sources
https://checkpre.com/finance/wordpress-plugin-valuation-calculator
Revenue
Average of the last three months, before payment fees and platform shares.
After churn. 1.5% a month is 20% a year.
MRR lost each month to cancellations and downgrades, as a share of MRR.
Months of revenue a buyer can verify.
Costs and margin
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.
What a buyer would pay a hire or contractor. Used for EBITDA.
- SDE, a year
- $84,000
- Profit before your pay, valued at 3.05×
- EBITDA, a year
- $21,600
- After $62,400 to replace your 20 hours a week; 11.9× EBITDA
- MRR multiple
- 25.6×
- 2.13× ARR
- Revenue cross-check
- $303,000
- $120,000 ARR × 2.52×; the estimate weighs profit 100%, revenue 0%
- LTV:CAC
- 46.3
- LTV $463, CAC $10, paid back in 0.6 months
| Factor | Turns |
|---|---|
| Base: SDE $50k to $100k | 3.00× |
| Platform risk: moderate | −0.30 |
| LTV:CAC 3 or more | +0.25 |
| Gross margin 80% or more | +0.10 |
| Steady, 10 to 30% a year | 0 |
| Churn 2 to 4% a month | 0 |
| Part-time founder, 5 to 20 hours | 0 |
| Two years or more of history | 0 |
| No customer over 10% of revenue | 0 |
| SDE multiple | 3.05× |
| ARR (MRR × 12) | $120,000 |
|---|---|
| Cost of revenue (10%) | -$12,000 |
| Gross profit | $108,000 |
| Operating costs | -$18,000 |
| Paid marketing | -$6,000 |
| SDE | $84,000 |
| Founder's time (20 h × $60 × 52) | -$62,400 |
| EBITDA | $21,600 |
- 1Developer tool / API4.8× SDE
- 2B2B SaaS3.8× SDE
- 3WordPress plugin3.0× SDE
- 4Shopify app3.0× SDE
- 5Chrome extension2.1× SDE
- 6Productised service1.8× SDE
- 7Notion / no-code templates1.5× SDE
- 8AI wrapper / GPT app1.5× SDE
How is a micro-SaaS valued?
A five-year-old premium WordPress plugin earning $10,000 a month from annual licences, growing slowly with steady renewals, is worth about $256,000 (3.0× SDE). Age and 90% margins help; slow growth and 20 hours a week of support hold it near three times earnings.
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 five-year-old premium WordPress plugin earning $10,000 a month from annual licences (about $18 a month each), growing 1.5% a month, with renewals working out to 3.5% monthly churn, 90% margin, and 20 hours a week of support and updates.
- 1ARR: $120,000; gross profit at 90%: $108,000
- 2SDE: $108,000 − $24,000 of costs and marketing = $84,000
- 3Base multiple for SDE of $50k to $100k: 3.0×
- 4Adjustments: platform risk: moderate −0.30; lTV:CAC 3 or more +0.25; gross margin 80% or more +0.10
- 5SDE multiple: 3.05×, so $84,000 × 3.05× = $256,000
- 6Revenue cross-check: 2.5× ARR = $303,000; weight on profit 100%
About $256,000, within $214,000 to $298,000: 25.6× MRR, and 11.9× EBITDA after paying $62,400 a year for the founder's hours.
Frequently asked questions
How do I enter annual licences in a monthly calculator?
Divide a year of licence revenue, new sales and renewals together, by 12 for MRR. For churn, take the share of licences that do not renew and spread it over the year: a 60% renewal rate loses 40% a year, about 4% a month. Lifetime deals belong in revenue only in the months they were sold, so leave them out of MRR.
What do buyers check in a plugin business?
Renewal rate, the free plugin's active installs and rating on WordPress.org, support ticket volume and code quality across PHP and WordPress versions. A plugin with a large free user base feeding upgrades is worth more than one relying on paid ads, and one whose founder spends most of the week on support is worth less.
What multiple does a WordPress plugin sell for?
For the business on this page, about 3.0× SDE, or 26× MRR: $256,000 on $10,000 of MRR and $84,000 of annual SDE. Change the inputs above to your own figures; churn, growth and founder hours move the multiple most.
Sources
- Acquire.com, Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (January 2026) · checked
- Acquire.com, SaaS valuation multiples in 2026: what buyers actually pay · checked
- FE International, SaaS valuation multiples 2026: private deal benchmarks · checked
- FE International, SaaS valuations: how to value a SaaS business · checked
Related calculators
- Micro-SaaS Valuation CalculatorWhat 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.
- Shopify App Valuation CalculatorWhat a Shopify app sells for: earnings after the App Store share, with the multiple adjusted for merchant churn and platform risk.
- B2B SaaS Valuation CalculatorWhat a bootstrapped B2B SaaS sells for: SDE, EBITDA and an exit multiple adjusted for growth, churn, seat pricing and founder time.
- SaaS EBITDA Multiple CalculatorTurn owner earnings into EBITDA by paying for the founder's hours, and see the EBITDA and SDE multiples a sale price implies.