Our 2023 SaaS Predictions (and the Stats to Back Them Up)

Whether your startup develops software or just benefits from it, knowing the latest SaaS trends (and the stats to back them up) can make a huge difference.

If you're working in the SaaS industry, these insights will help you make strategic decisions. If you're just a user, this information will help you manage your stack more efficiently and become an informed buyer.

In this guide, we'll cover a comprehensive set of over 35 SaaS industry statistics. 

We’ll explore:

• SaaS industry growth by niche and region
• Startups’ adoption of AI-powered tools
• The adoption of low-code and no-code solutions
• CRM adoption trends & ROI
• Collaboration tool adoption trends

Ready? Let’s dive in!

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Our Top 2023 SaaS Industry Stats

In this section, we’ll cover 21 SaaS industry stats that will help you make the right decisions in 2023. 

We’ll explore:

• SaaS industry growth
• Micro-SaaS market growth
• B2B SaaS growth
• SaaS growth by region
• SaaS management trends & stats

Let's take a closer look.

SaaS Industry Growth Stats

The SaaS industry is experiencing explosive growth. And it's easy to see why. SaaS tools are the backbone of modern-day businesses. Especially startups. SaaS tools empower businesses to scale their marketing, stay in touch with their customers, automate tedious processes, and more. 

But, what do the stats say? 

Let’s see:

• In 2021, the SaaS market was worth approximately 146 billion dollars. By 2023, it’s expected to reach 195 billion U.S. dollars (Statista).
• In the last seven years, the SaaS industry has grown by approximately 500% (ExplodingTopics).
• As of 2023, enterprises are expected to spend $195 billion on SaaS, a 17% increase over $167 billion in 2022 (Gartner).
• In total, SaaS represents about a third of cloud spending (Gartner)

Micro-SaaS Market Growth Stats

Micro-SaaS tools are simple solutions, designed for a specific niche market. These tools target a very specific pain point, and are popular for "doing one thing right". MicroSaaS tools often take the form of plugins and extensions for existing platforms.

Micro-SaaS companies are often run by small, or even one-person teams. That's how simple their products usually are. 

One thing's for sure: As the SaaS market diversifies, micro-SaaS companies will continue to emerge. Especially, as low-code solutions lower the barrier of entry for non-technical founders. 

While you may gravitate towards "all-in-one" solutions (especially to prevent tool redundancy), micro-SaaS tools may have a place in your stack.

But, are SaaS buyers at large seeing value in micro-SaaS solutions? 

Let’s take a look at the numbers:

• Back in 2021, there were already more than 175,000 extensions (including themes) available in the Chrome Web Store. Only 45 of them came from Google-backed developments (Chrome Web Store)
• Almost 70% of Chrome extensions have less than 100 users (Debugbear)
• Under 8% of Google Chrome extensions have more than 1,000 users (Debugbear)
• There are over 55,000 WordPress plugins to date (Kinsta)
• 5 out of 5 of the most downloaded WordPress plugins have a premium, paid version (Kinsta)

B2B SaaS Growth Stats

The SaaS industry went through many changes in the last couple of years. But along the way, the demand for B2B SaaS solutions continued to grow.

It's fair to say that B2B SaaS is one of the most exciting and innovative niches in the software industry.

With the right SaaS stack, a growing company can:

• Adopt efficient processes
• Grow sustainably
• Lower the risk of competing with larger companies

Let's take a look at the some key B2B SaaS statistics:

• Companies spend approximately $145 billion per year on B2B SaaS technology, and experts forecast a YoY (year-over-year) growth of 40% (Gartner)
• The number of SaaS startups that launched initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2021 increased by 125% YoY (BMC)
• Over 78% of small businesses have SaaS tools in their software stack (BMC)

Regional SaaS Market Growth Stats

Startup ecosystems are distributed all over the globe. However, only a few countries dominate the SaaS market.

According to the latest regional SaaS market statistics:

• Over 8x more SaaS companies are based in the US than anywhere else in the world (The Latka Agency)
• By 2025, the US SaaS industry is expected to double, reaching $225B in market value, compared to an estimated $108.4B in 2020 (Reply)
• The Chinese, Indian and Brazilian SaaS ecosystems are expected to grow over twofold by 2025 (Reply)
• In major European markets, the value of the SaaS industry is expected to increase by more than double (Statista)
• Germany leads the European SaaS market, with a total revenue of €6.85 billion. By 2025, it’s expected to increase to €16.3 billion (Statista)

SaaS Management Stats

As startups grow, tracking software subscriptions across sectors becomes a challenge. And getting full visibility of your SaaS stack is key to:

• Optimizing your SaaS spending
• Tracking your internal processes
• Keeping your data secure

That's where SaaS management tools enter the picture.

These tools can help you:

• Keep track of your subscriptions
• Manage credentials and seats
• Centralize subscription renewals, cancellations, and approvals

But, is a SaaS management tool essential in 2023? 

According to Gartner, by 2026, half of the companies using multiple SaaS apps will centralize their stack management and analysis.

And, according to a survey conducted by Cledara:

• 59% of startups estimate that their employees have approximately 93 unreported SaaS subscriptions
• 63% of employees think SaaS management problems are damaging their company's culture 
• 62% of team members consider that manual SaaS management tasks prevent them from prioritizing strategic tasks
• 57% of employees report that keeping track of SaaS assets (such as invoices) is causing tension between teams

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SaaS Trends Statistics

Some tool categories will be particularly disrupted in 2023. These niches have been growing for a few years. But only recently have they acquired the tools they need to reach their full potential.

For instance, low-code and AI-powered software.

In this section, we'll share stats that will help you have a clearer vision of 4 key niches:

• AI-powered marketing tools
• No-code and low-code platforms
• CRMs
• Collaboration tools

Let's get started! 

AI-Powered Automation Solutions Stats

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly proficient by the day. And this opens up incredible new opportunities for 2023. The generative AI space is already hot, and many startups are jumping in. 

But, what exactly is generative AI? 

Generative AI tools create new, realistic outputs based on the characteristics of their training data, but without repeating it. 

With very simple inputs, generative AI tools produce entirely new content such as images, audio, video, text, code, and much more. 

This technological leap has created an entirely new niche. But, is the AI-powered SaaS market as promising as it seems?

Let’s look at the numbers:

• By 2023, the AI market is expected to grow by 38% (Tractica).
• 79% of survey respondents working at companies that have adopted AI for marketing & sales report that it has positively impacted revenue (McKinsey & Company).
• More than 80% of executives believe AI-powered automation can be applied to all business processes (Gartner)
• 72% of business leaders believe AI is a “business advantage” ( IBM, Venture Beat)

In 2023, however, there will be big changes across the generative AI space. Especially regarding:

• Pricing 
• Quality
• Scale 

In a context where content marketing has become both critical and highly competitive, AI copywriting tools will be one of the most promising sub-categories in the generative AI space. 

According to Cledara, the most popular AI writing assistant tools among startups are:

• Jasper
• Wordtune
• CopyAI

Will generative AI expand beyond marketing? We don't know for sure. Most of the generative AI space is focused on content production. And its impact is already significant enough. So much so that it's safe to assess that teams that aren't implementing AI in some capacity may be putting themselves at a disadvantage. Especially, if they're small teams, scaling content production in a fast-paced environment. 

Low/No-Code Solutions 

Many startups choose a low-code platform to develop their website or even their product.

Low-code solutions:

• Reduce developer reliance
• Speed up time-to-market
• Lower the cost of creating and optimizing your website

But, how's low-code adoption going? 

According to a Gartner forecast:

• The worldwide market for low-code development technologies is expected to reach $26.9 billion in 2023, a YoY increase of 19.6%
• In 2023, the low-code application platform (LCAP) market is expected to reach nearly $10 billion, growing 25%
• By 2026, low-code development tools will be used by 80% of developers outside formal IT departments, up from 60% in 2021

Whether you already use low-code tools or are thinking of using them: We foresee that these solutions will become even more popular. So, more startups will be reaping their benefits.

Are you struggling with the challenges that low-code addresses? If so, it may be a good time to consider it a viable option. 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Statistics 

Customer Relationship Management platforms (or CRMs) tend to constitute about 12.5% of a startup's total software spending. Efficient sales teams need a good CRM, and it's a tool worth investing in. 

Aside from how a good CRM can impact revenue, CRMs can help sales team to:

• Take control of their pipeline
• Collaborate with the marketing and support teams efficiently
• Nurture high-value leads
• Track and optimize their initiatives

Let’s see what’s reflected in the data:

• 91% of companies with ten employees or more use a CRM (Grand View Research).
• Companies usually invest in a CRM within their first five years of existence (Capterra)
• CRMs have an average ROI of $8.71 per dollar spent (Cledara).
• Pipedrive & Salesforce are the two most popular CRMs among startups worldwide (Cledara)

Collaboration Tool Statistics

Collaboration tools are essential for:

• Centralizing internal communication
• Keeping track of processes and tasks

With the right tool, you can keep your team aligned, even if they work asynchronously and remotely. 

Some collaboration tools are meant for knowledge management and task tracking (for instance, Trello or Asana). Others, such as Slack, focus on messaging and integrate with async collaboration tools.

We foresee that collaboration tools will continue to make a difference for startups in 2023.  

Let’s explore some stats:

• In 2026, the global market for online collaboration tools will grow to $20.8 billion, compared to an estimated $19.2 billion in 2021 (Apps Run the World) 
• With a usage rate of 13.3%, collaboration tools are the second most commonly used SaaS tool (Cledara)
• On average, startups spend 17.1% of their SaaS budget on collaboration tools (Cledara)
• Approximately 75% of employees consider collaboration and teamwork key to their work processes. However, 39% don’t believe their companies work collaboratively enough (Queens University of Charlotte)
• As of 2024, Gartner predicts that in-person meetings will account for only 25% of all team conversations. (Gartner)
• Only 33% of meetings happened in person in 2021, with more team members relying on collaboration tools (Gartner)
• According to 80% of organizations, cloud-based collaboration and communication tools will be essential to the future of workplaces (Verizon)

Simplify Your SaaS Management & Get The Most out of Your Tools

In this post, we covered some of the most important SaaS statistics and trends for the upcoming year.

SaaS tools can play a key role in developing more efficient and scalable processes. But, are you managing your software in an efficient and scalable way?

As your startup grows, keeping an eye on all your software subscriptions can become a daunting task. Do you know how many subscriptions your company is currently paying for? Are all these tools really necessary? Who has access to these platforms? How would you offboard them safely? 

Don't worry, there's a simple way to get in control and take the guesswork out of software management.

With Cledara, you can:

• Get a full picture of your SaaS stack
• Track your invoices and manage subscriptions
• Analyze tool usage and centralize seat management
• Easily detect redundant tools 
• Cancel unnecessary subscriptions with just one click
• Prevent shadow IT 
• Simplify credential management
• And more

You’re one click away from stress-free SaaS management. Book a Cledara demo today.

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