Seven surprising SaaS benchmarks from the 2024 State of Independent SaaS report

Executive overview

Most bootstrapped founders have no way to know if their metrics are good, bad, or broken. The 2024 State of Independent SaaS report surveyed nearly 700 mostly-bootstrapped founders to surface real benchmarks across growth, churn, acquisition model, and funding intent.

Rob Walling and Asia Orangio walk through eight findings from the report, covering founder team size, trial model trade-offs, target market growth rates, and advertising channel performance.

The model that grows fastest is rarely the one with the highest lifetime value — and knowing which trade-off you're making is the whole game.

Founder team size and growth

• Solo founders make up ~70% of bootstrapped SaaS; two-founder teams another ~15%.
• Founder trios (three co-founders) show 2–3x average month-over-month growth vs. solos or duos.
• The hypothesis: a third founder breaks decision ties rather than creating committee paralysis.
• Four or more co-founders shows a sharp drop-off in average growth — too many cooks, a weak link usually present.
• This pattern has held across all four survey years (2020–2024).

Credit card upfront: a declining default

• In 2020, 73% of founders required a credit card to start a free trial; it peaked at 78%, and fell to 71% in 2024.
• The trend reflects a shift toward opt-in free trials (no credit card required).
• Rob's default: require a credit card when you don't yet know your ICP (ideal customer profile) — it filters for intent.
• Asia's default: once you have 10–20+ paying customers and a dialed-in ICP, removing the requirement creates a larger qualified pipeline.
• If the end user isn't the buyer (e.g. a developer without a corporate card), requiring one is counterproductive.

Target market growth rates

• Enterprise and mid-market are the fastest-growing segments by average month-over-month growth (~26%).
• NGOs rank third — likely because they resemble enterprise in size and purchasing structure.
• SMBs land in the middle (~12% MoM).
• Consumers, education, and government are the slowest segments (5%, low single digits, ~1.75% respectively).
• "Other" (unfocused targeting) showed contractions — a strong signal that lack of focus kills growth.

Funding intent is declining

• In the 2021 survey (covering 2022 intent), 30% of respondents planned to seek outside funding within 12 months.
• By the 2024 survey, that figure fell to 23.5%.
• The drop tracks with harder fundraising conditions, less favorable terms, and higher valuations no longer available.
• Among Tiny Seed portfolio companies, roughly one-third eventually raise additional funding — even after taking an accelerator round.
• The bootstrapper culture is shifting: "the exit strategy is death" reflects a growing preference for sustainable independence.

Battle of the acquisition models: growth, churn, and LTV

• Freemium (free plan): ~10.4% average MoM growth, ~11% average MoM churn — growth and churn nearly cancel out. Monetization is typically broken.
• Free trial, credit card required: ~14% average MoM growth (highest), ~5.5% average MoM churn (lowest). Strong on both metrics upfront.
• Free trial, no credit card required: ~7.6% average MoM growth (lowest), ~6.3% average MoM churn. Weakest short-term numbers.
• LTV flips the story: no-CC free trial averages $6,500 LTV — roughly 2x freemium ($3K) and nearly 2x CC-required ($3,600).
• Higher LTV with higher churn implies no-CC companies charge significantly more per customer.
• CC-required grows faster but may indicate broken monetization — customers are acquired efficiently but not maximally monetized.
• Freemium without a clear conversion strategy consistently underperforms; bootstrappers drawn to it rarely have the infrastructure to make it work.
• The right model depends on stage, ICP clarity, and whether the founder can qualify leads without the credit card as a filter.

Paid advertising channels

• Google Ads is the dominant channel: ~65% of founders cite it as a top revenue driver.
• Meta/Facebook Ads is second at ~30%.
• Other ranks third — likely a mix of podcast sponsorships, event sponsorships, and display advertising.
• LinkedIn Ads is fourth despite being the expected third for B2B SaaS — the ad tooling is widely considered poor.
• Twitter/X ads remain negligible year over year.
• For B2B SaaS, the practical ranking is Google → Facebook → LinkedIn, with LinkedIn's poor ad interface being the main drag on adoption.