Public SaaS companies: growth, free cash flow and Rule of 40, company by company

Key findings

• The median public SaaS company scores 39.6 on the Rule of 40, just under the line: 17.9% revenue growth plus a 21.3% free cash flow margin. 30 of 62 companies score 40 or more.
• Profit is now doing most of the work. The median free cash flow margin (21.3%) is higher than the median growth rate (17.9%). Only 2 companies (DigitalOcean, Netskope) burned cash over the last twelve months (see the company notes below the table).
• The market pays for the score. On Bessemer's published enterprise value to forward revenue multiples, companies scoring 40 or more trade at a median 7.9x, against 2.8x for those under 30.
• Net revenue retention is a minority disclosure. 33 of 62 companies publish a net retention figure in their latest filing; the median is 110%. The five largest that do not: Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow, Shopify, Palo Alto Networks.

Medians and quartiles

Percentiles interpolate between companies (Excel's QUARTILE.INC). Where a company gives NRR only as a bound ("over 110%") or a range ("low 120s"), the lower number is used.

Multiples by Rule of 40 and by growth

Bessemer publishes an enterprise value to forward revenue multiple for every company in its cloud index. Grouping those multiples by the growth and Rule of 40 figures we computed from the filings:

The 30 companies at 40 or more trade at 2.8 times the median multiple of the 13 under 30. That is the same direction ICONIQ and Aventis report for 2026; we cover their figures and the year's selloff in the SaaSpocalypse and SaaS valuations. To see what a growth rate and NRR are worth for a private company, try the SaaS valuation calculator.

All 62 companies

Select a column heading to sort. Sorted by Rule of 40 to start. Figures in US dollars; each company's latest reported quarter, which ends between Jun 30, 2026 and Sep 30, 2026.

n/d = no net retention figure in the latest 10-Q/10-K or earnings release. Bold Rule of 40 = 40 or more. EV / forward revenue is Bessemer's figure (S&P Capital IQ data) from cloudindex.bvp.com on October 22, 2026, not our calculation. Download all fields as CSV (includes operating cash flow, capex and quarterly revenue).

How each company defines net revenue retention

Companies use different names and methods, so read the NRR column as a rough comparison. In the company's own words:

• Asana: 97%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", as of July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• Bill.com: 95%, "Net dollar-based retention rate", fiscal 2026, revenue-based, calculated once a year. 10-K
• BlackLine: 102%, "Dollar-based net revenue retention rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Braze: 110%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", trailing 12 months to July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• Cloudflare: 120%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", three months ended June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Datadog: low 120s%, "Trailing 12-month dollar-based net retention rate", as of June 30, 2026; company says "in the low-120%'s". 10-Q
• Dynatrace: 110%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Elastic: about 111%, "Net Expansion Rate", approximately, as of July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• Fastly: 117.2%, "Last-twelve-months net retention rate (LTM NRR)", trailing twelve months to June 30, 2026, revenue-based. 10-Q
• Figma: 136%, "Net Dollar Retention Rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Five9: 106%, "Annual dollar-based retention rate (subscription plus telecom revenue)", twelve months ended June 30, 2026; 107% on subscription revenue alone. 10-Q
• Freshworks: 104%, "Net dollar retention rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Gitlab: 117%, "Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate", as of July 31, 2026 (reported as "over 130%" when above that). 10-Q
• Intapp: 123%, "Cloud NRR", trailing twelve months to June 30, 2026, cloud customers only. 10-K
• JFrog: 121%, "Net dollar retention rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Klaviyo: 109%, "NRR", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• MongoDB: 122%, "Net ARR expansion rate", as of July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• Netskope: 114%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", as of July 31, 2026, ARR-based. 10-Q
• Nutanix: 106%, "Net dollar-based retention rate", as of July 31, 2026. 10-K
• Okta: 107%, "Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate", as of July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• PagerDuty: 98%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", last 12 months ended July 31, 2026, ARR-based. 10-Q
• Q2: 113%, "Net revenue retention rate", year ended December 31, 2025 (annual figure repeated in the Q2 2026 10-Q); subscription NRR 115%. 10-Q
• Qualys: 105%, "Net dollar expansion rate", as of June 30, 2026, constant currency. 10-Q
• Rubrik: over 119%, "Average subscription dollar-based net retention rate", as of July 31, 2026, subscription ARR. 10-Q
• SailPoint: 113%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", as of July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• ServiceTitan: over 110%, "Net dollar retention rate", three months ended July 31, 2026. 10-Q
• Snowflake: 126%, "Net revenue retention rate", as of July 31, 2026, trailing product revenue. 10-Q
• Tenable: 106%, "Dollar-based net expansion rate", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Twilio: 116%, "Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate", three months ended June 30, 2026, total revenue. 10-Q
• UiPath: 109%, "Dollar-based net retention rate", as of July 31, 2026, ARR over the preceding 12 months. 10-Q
• Waystar: 108.3%, "Net Revenue Retention Rate", 12 months ended June 30, 2026. 10-Q
• Weave: 92%, "Dollar-based net revenue retention rate", as of June 30, 2026; gross revenue retention 89%. 10-Q
• Workiva: 110.5%, "Net retention rate (including add-ons)", as of June 30, 2026. 10-Q

No net retention figure (29): Adobe, Agilysys, Alkami, AppFolio, Atlassian, AvePoint, Crowdstrike, DigitalOcean, DocuSign, HubSpot, nCino, Palantir, Palo Alto Networks, Paycom, Paylocity, Procore, Ringcentral, Salesforce, Samsara, SentinelOne, ServiceNow, Shopify, Sprinklr, SPS Commerce, Toast, Veeva Systems, Workday, Zeta, Zscaler. Some of them publish a different retention measure:

• Crowdstrike: Earnings release says gross and net retention increased but gives no number.
• Procore: Discloses gross retention rate (95% as of June 30, 2026), not net.
• Paylocity: Discloses annual revenue retention rate (greater than 92% in fiscal 2024 to 2026), a gross measure.
• Ringcentral: Discloses net monthly subscription dollar retention rate (over 99%), a monthly measure not comparable with annual NRR.
• Workday: Discloses gross revenue retention rate (about 97% as of July 31, 2026), not net.

Company notes

• Bill.com: NRR is calculated once a year (fiscal 2026).
• DigitalOcean: Capex includes "Acquisition of equipment under financing arrangements" ($126.8M in fiscal 2025), which DigitalOcean reports as an investing cash outflow.
• Q2: NRR is the annual figure for 2025, repeated in the Q2 2026 10-Q.
• Shopify: Most revenue is merchant solutions (payments), not subscriptions.
• Toast: Most revenue is fintech (payments) and hardware, not subscriptions.

What this means for a private SaaS company

These are large companies: the median one has $1.48B of trailing revenue. A private company at $2M to $20M of ARR usually grows faster and burns cash, so its Rule of 40 is built mostly from growth. The Rule of 40 still works as a yardstick, and the table shows why investors care: the score lines up with the multiple. Run yours in the Rule of 40 calculator.

Net retention is the other lever. The companies above with NRR of 120% or more (Cloudflare, Datadog, Figma, Intapp, JFrog, MongoDB, Snowflake) grow a large part of their revenue from customers they already have. Our guide to net revenue retention covers how to calculate it and which definition to use when you report it to investors.

Methodology

• Companies: the constituents of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index on October 22, 2026, a public list of US-listed cloud software companies, minus those that do not report quarterly results in US GAAP XBRL (Cellebrite, Monday.com, Wix file as foreign private issuers). The list includes a few companies whose revenue is mostly payments rather than subscriptions; they are flagged in the company notes.
• Source: each company's latest 10-Q or 10-K on SEC EDGAR, read through the SEC's XBRL company facts API, plus the cash flow statement as filed. Nothing comes from a data vendor except the Bessemer multiple column. Data pulled October 22, 2026.
• TTM revenue: the last four fiscal quarters (year to date plus the prior fiscal year minus the same year-to-date period a year earlier).
• Revenue growth: revenue in the latest fiscal quarter against the same quarter a year earlier. For a fiscal fourth quarter, the quarter is the full year minus the first nine months.
• Free cash flow: net cash from operating activities minus capital expenditures, trailing twelve months. Capital expenditures are every investing line on the filed cash flow statement for property and equipment, capitalized or internal-use software, and capital expenditures; acquisitions, intangible assets and securities are left out. This is GAAP free cash flow: many companies report an "adjusted" figure that adds back items such as restructuring or employer payroll taxes on equity, so a company's own number can be higher.
• Rule of 40: revenue growth plus free cash flow margin, both in percent.
• NRR: read by hand from the same 10-Q or 10-K (or the quarter's earnings release) and quoted with the company's own name for the metric. Gross retention and monthly retention rates are not counted as NRR.
• EV / forward revenue: Bessemer Venture Partners' published per-company figure on October 22, 2026. We did not compute enterprise value ourselves; the column is there so the table can be read against valuation.
• Refresh: quarterly, after the next round of filings. Earlier editions stay available as CSV. The script that builds this table is in our repository (scripts/public-saas/fetch.mjs) and re-runs from scratch.

Frequently asked questions

What is the median Rule of 40 score for public SaaS companies?

39.6 across the 62 companies in this table (latest reported quarter as of October 22, 2026), with revenue growth measured on the latest quarter and margin as trailing twelve-month free cash flow. The middle half runs from 31.9 to 48.3, and 30 of 62 companies score 40 or more.

How fast are public SaaS companies growing?

The median company grew revenue 17.9% year over year in its latest reported quarter; the middle half grew between 12.7% and 26.3%. These are large companies (median trailing revenue $1.48B), so expect a private company at a few million dollars of ARR to grow much faster.

What is a typical net revenue retention rate for public SaaS?

Among the 33 companies that disclose a net retention figure, the median is 110% (middle half 106% to 117%). Companies define it differently: some use ARR, some revenue, some a single quarter, some twelve months, so the comparison is rough. 29 companies in the table publish no net retention figure in their latest filing.

Do companies with a higher Rule of 40 get higher valuation multiples?

In this table, yes. Using Bessemer's published enterprise value to forward revenue multiple for each company, the median is 2.8x for companies scoring under 30, 4.6x for 30 to 40 and 7.9x for 40 or more. Growth splits them even more sharply: 3.9x under 15% growth against 10.9x at 25% or more.