Where the numbers come from.
Every multiple on this site comes from published deal data. This page names the sources and explains how we combine them.
Sources
We use three public sources. We use their figures as published, without adjustment.
| ID | Source | Published | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | Flippa — Online Business M&A Insights: 2025 Recap & 2026 Outlook | December 23, 2025 | Flippa marketplace transactions, January–December 2025. Average and top-quartile profit multiples by asset category. |
| S2 | Acquire.com — Biannual Acquisition Multiples Report (Jan 2026) | February 11, 2026 | Anonymized confirmed SaaS sales on Acquire.com, mostly below $10M enterprise value. Median confirmed profit multiple 3.9× in both 2024 and 2025. |
| S3 | Empire Flippers — 2026 State of the Industry Report | 2026 | 161 businesses sold on Empire Flippers in 2025, all business models. Average sale multiple 23.93× monthly net profit, about 2.0× annual. |
Aggregation method
The typical range for each category runs from Flippa's 2025 average profit multiple to its top-quartile average, rounded outward to the nearest 0.5×. For example, SaaS at a 2.7× average and a 5.8× top quartile becomes 2.5–6.0×.
Acquire.com and Empire Flippers serve as cross-checks and are not blended into the range. Acquire.com's confirmed SaaS median of 3.9× sits inside the SaaS range. Empire Flippers' all-model average sale of about 2.0× annual appears as the dashed line in FIG. 02.
Flippa's "Service" category maps to our "Agencies & services". No public dataset isolates newsletters, so we treat them as content sites. Flippa's YouTube category is left out because we do not value channels.
| Category | Typical range | Average | Top quartile | Cross-check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS | 2.5–6.0× | 2.7× | 5.8× | Acquire.com confirmed-sale median: 3.9× |
| Content sites | 2.5–5.5× | 2.6× | 5.5× | Newsletters: no separate public dataset; closest proxy |
| Marketplaces | 2.5–4.5× | 2.5× | 4.5× | — |
| Apps | 2.0–5.5× | 2.4× | 5.4× | — |
| E-commerce | 1.0–3.0× | 1.4× | 2.7× | Empire Flippers all-model average sale: about 2.0× |
| Agencies & services | 1.0–2.5× | 1.2× | 2.1× | — |
SOURCES1 FlippaS2 Acquire.comS3 Empire FlippersMethodology · Updated October 15, 2026
Circle = Flippa category average · Bar end = top-quartile average · Dashed = Empire Flippers all-model average
SOURCES1 FlippaS2 Acquire.comS3 Empire FlippersMethodology · Updated October 15, 2026
Profit vs revenue
The table above shows profit multiples: sale price divided by seller discretionary earnings or EBITDA over the last twelve months.
The quick estimate on the home page and the full valuation result are expressed as a multiple of annual recurring revenue. The two are not directly comparable. A business with a 30% profit margin selling at 1.5× revenue is selling at 5× profit.
The full valuation
The full valuation combines four weighted methods:
| Method | Weight |
|---|---|
| Revenue multiple, adjusted for eight quality factors | 40% |
| EBITDA multiple | 25% |
| Three-year discounted cash flow | 20% |
| Qualitative market scorecard | 15% |
The eight quality factors are growth, gross margin, churn, net revenue retention, CAC payback, customer concentration, founder dependence and defensibility.
Limitations
- Marketplace data reflects deals closed on those marketplaces, mostly small businesses. Larger private deals can differ.
- The Acquire.com report is built from anonymized, customer-provided data.
- Empire Flippers figures are averages across all business models, not per category.
- An estimate is only as good as its inputs. We do not verify the numbers you enter.
- An estimate is not a certified appraisal, tax, legal or investment advice.
Updates
We last checked this page and the table against the sources on October 15, 2026. We update both when a source publishes new data. If you find an error, email hello@vestup.co.