The big list of 2025 SaaS statistics that you should know

The days of simply trusting business department heads to buy and manage their own software are over. Today, managing this sprawl is a critical mandate for both IT and finance, and it’s no longer a question of “if” but “how.” To make sense of this new landscape, the changing SaaS market, and evolving SaaS management processes, we researched industry analysts, leading global systems integrators, and major technology vendors. And of course, we also dug into the extensive BetterCloud research library to round up 140 of the most essential SaaS statistics for 2025.

This isn’t just a list of numbers; it’s a strategic playbook for anyone looking to gain control, cut costs, and secure their company’s future. And as companies around the world rush to gain control over their SaaS apps, users, licenses, vendors, contracts, files, and budgets, the need for robust SaaS management with an all-in-one platform has never been clearer.

Read on to learn key 2025 SaaS statistics around: 

• SaaS markets
• Where AI stands today and where it’s poised to go
• Shadow IT and the ongoing SaaS sprawl challenges
• SaaS spend and license management issues
• Managing SaaS with manual work and with automation
• Securing SaaS 
• Future of managing SaaS in 2025 and beyond

2025 SaaS market statistics: Slowing consolidation and rising revenues 

106 is the average number of SaaS apps per company in 2024, down from 112 in 2023, but the consolidation rate has dropped from 14% to just 5% year-over-year. (Source)

The global SaaS market is projected to reach $300 billion in 2025. This growth is heavily influenced by the adoption of AI. (Source)

18.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) growth in global SaaS revenue until 2030 (Source)

19.1% year-over-year growth in global SaaS end-user spending (Source)

IDC forecasts SaaS applications to capture over 40% of public cloud spending in 2024, with a 16.5% CAGR through 2028 (Source)

29% reduction in the number of SaaS apps in mid-sized firms (1,500–4,999 employees) in 2025 (Source)

About 75% of apps are now SaaS, leaving around 25% on-prem in 2025 (Source)

Statistics on AI in SaaS apps: nascent but fast-growing

95% of companies have invested in AI-driven use cases (Source)

7.3 is the average number of SaaS apps with AI functionality currently in use by organizations in 2025 (Source)

7% of total SaaS apps are AI-enabled in 2025 (Source)

60%+ of enterprise SaaS products have embedded AI features (Source) 

40% use AI in customer service/support automation SaaS apps (Source)

45% use AI in IT service management SaaS apps (Source)

76% of SaaS companies use or are exploring AI for operations in 2025 (Source) 

92% of SaaS companies plan to increase use of AI in their products in 2025 (Source)

AI in SaaS market size and growth: propelling a new wave of SaaS growth

Global AI SaaS market is expected to grow at a 38.28% CAGR, from $71.54 billion in 2023 to $775.44 billion by 2031 (Source) 

AI-created SaaS market is expected to grow at a 39.4% CAGR from 2025 to 2031 (Source)

Artificial Intelligence SaaS market is expected to grow at a 38.4% CAGR from 2024 to 2034 (Source) 

Global AI software revenue has gone from $9.5 billion in 2018 to $118.6 billion in 2025 (Source)

Shadow IT and SaaS sprawl statistics: persistent as ever

75% of employees are expected to acquire, modify, or create technology without IT’s oversight, by 2027, a significant increase in Shadow IT risks from 41% in 2022. (Source)

55% of employees are adopting SaaS applications without security’s involvement (Source) 

30% to 40% of IT spending in large organizations is Shadow IT. (Source: Gartner)

15% of employees routinely use unsanctioned generative AI tools on corporate devices. (Source) 

46% of organizations struggle to monitor non-human identities (Source)  

59% of IT teams remain concerned about Shadow IT in 2025 (Source)

21% of organizations found unauthorized SaaS app added or expensed by user in 2025 (Source)

23% of organizations found that a new SaaS app that stores sensitive data was added (Source)

72% of employees who use GenAI on corporate device use personal email accounts risks (Source)

17% of employees who use GenAI on corporate devices use corporate emails without a proper authentication system like Single Sign-On (SSO). This creates significant data leakage and security risks (Source)

90% of companies have employees who say they use chatbots, but most of them hide it from IT (Source)

SaaS license management and spending statistics: constant improvements

33% of orgs consolidated redundant apps in 2025 (Source)

41% shifted more to IT-managed, but budget pressures limit broader automation (Source)

21% reduced SaaS spending (Source)

17% say optimizing SaaS spend is their top concern in 2025 (Source)

63% say too many unused and/or underutilized SaaS apps and license or budget pressure drive SaaS app consolidation (Source)

69% of organizations say IT works with departments, as well as finance, operations and/or procurement to buy or renew SaaS, while 17% task only IT (Source)

30% claim to have an effective SaaS purchasing and renewal process in place (Source)

40% of organizations track renewal dates manually on calendar or spreadsheet (Source)

25% overspending will result from unused entitlements and unnecessary, overlapping tools by 2027 (Source)

2025 SaaS statistics on managing apps: SMPs are critical

70% of IT teams prefer all-in-one SMPs to automate discovery, management, security, and spend optimization across the SaaS stack (Source)

51% of IT pros find managing SaaS with point solutions more difficult than using a comprehensive SMP for automation (Source)

65% of total SaaS apps are IT-managed and supported, making the total number to be around 60 (Source)

60% of IT teams report excessive manual tasks (e.g., patching, troubleshooting) blocking strategic automation like AI adoption; unified SMPs could free 40-50% of routine time (Source)

36% either use or are building an enterprise marketplace or catalog of IT-sanctioned SaaS apps (Source)

70%+ of organizations will centralize SaaS application management using an SMP by 2028, an increase from less than 30% in 2025 (Source)

89% get their BetterCloud SaaS management platform operational in less than 6 weeks 2025 (Source)

53% start seeing value from the BetterCloud SaaS management platform within one month (Source)

93% of organizations using the BetterCloud SaaS management platform find the primary business benefit is increased organizational productivity (Source)  

Statistics on manual, time-consuming SaaS management work: automation is necessary now more than ever

31% increase year-over-year in the IT-to-employee ratio, which now stands at 1:108, indicating that IT teams are stretched thinner than ever (Source)  

60% of IT teams report that excessive manual tasks prevent them from focusing on strategic initiatives like AI adoption (Source) 

32% say they support more users than last year (Source)

48% of IT teams worry that forgetting offboarding steps could make them vulnerable (Source)

49% of organizations say they lack visibility and insight to automate effectively (Source)

70% of organizations prefer SaaS management platform enabling completely custom automation (Source)

Statistics on automating SaaS management: delivers efficiencies in many processes

70% of organizations will implement structured automation to deliver flexibility and efficiency by 2025, a significant increase from 20% in 2021 (Source)

41% of routine tasks automated today in the average organization (Source)

45% of organizations say they automated more processes last year (Source)

85% of organizations automate some SaaS management processes (Source)

21% of organizations automate mid-lifecycle user changes (Source)

25% of organizations automate SaaS password and MFA resets (Source)

25% of organizations automate file security monitoring and access revocation (Source)

25% of organization say that Increased accuracy and consistency is the biggest benefit for automating SaaS management (Source)

26% of organizations automate access management for groups and calendars (Source)

26% of organizations automate access management for apps (Source)

27% of organizations automate hardware provisioning (Source)

41% of organizations say that the greatest advantage of a no-code SMP to your IT team is it’s so easy for anyone in IT to use (Source)

48% increase in day one readiness for new employees when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

29% employee time savings resulting from automated helpdesk ticket resolutions when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

37% reduction in time spent for compliance requirements when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

40% increase in visibility and manageability of SaaS when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

49% increase in overall IT productivity when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

70%+ agree that BetterCloud SaaS management platform improves job satisfaction, IT productivity, and ability to scale (Source)

Statistics on automating user lifecycle management: big risk reduction and time savings, but too many organizations still don’t use it

54% of organizations lack automation for lifecycle management (Source) 

33% of organizations have had ex-employee not offboarded within 24 hours of departure (Source)

40% of organizations say it took more than one day to get new employee access to necessary SaaS apps (Source)

34% of organizations automate onboarding users (Source)

40% of organizations automate offboarding users (Source)

78% reduction in onboarding time when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

88% reduction in offboarding time when automating with a SaaS management platform (Source)

2025 statistics on securing SaaS apps: A high IT priority

86% of organizations say SaaS security is now a high priority (Source) 

76% of organizations are increasing budgets for activities like threat detection and SaaS security posture management (Source) 

48% worry about missing offboarding steps will make them vulnerable (Source) 

78% of IT teams are responsible for protecting sensitive data within SaaS apps (Source)

98% of organizations plan to increase cybersecurity spending in 2025 (Source)

76% of IT professionals are responsible for safeguarding sensitive data in SaaS apps (Source)

45% of IT professionals report struggling to secure user activity within those applications (Source)

Statistics on common SaaS security risks and breaches: Still too many

75% of organizations experienced a SaaS security incident in the last 12 months, with a significant number of these incidents tied to unauthorized applications. (Source: AppOmni, July 2025)

56% report concerns about overprivileged API access (Source) 

88% of breaches use stolen credentials risks (Source)

80%+ of cloud breaches from misconfigurations, like exposed keys (Source)  

30% of breaches in healthcare involve an insider often due to human error and inability to provider protected health (Source)

33% of breaches in the public sector are due to insider involvement (Source)

38% of breaches in education are due to insider involvement (Source)

11% of organizations experienced a data breach from ex-employee (Source)

33% of breaches involve Shadow IT (Source)

63% of security issues are caused by SaaS misconfigurations (Source)

13% of organizations reported breaches of AI models or applications. Of those, 97% lacked proper access controls. 20% of all breaches were due to “Shadow AI” (Source)

51% of organizations say investigating security breaches in easier when using non-expiring audit logs in a SaaS management platform (Source)

SaaS visibility and access control statistics: key to a secure SaaS stack

63% of organizations report external data oversharing (Source) 

56% of organizations say employees upload sensitive data to unauthorized SaaS apps, often without sufficient visibility or enforcement (Source) 

58% of organizations struggling to enforce access privileges (Source) 

55% of accounts monitored were guest user accounts rather than licensed users (Source)

61% of accounts disabled MFA (Source) 

60%+ of end-user accounts had Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) either disabled or inactive. (Source)

Organizations lacking full visibility into SaaS usage and configurations are five times more likely to experience data loss or cybersecurity incidents (Source)

Data protection and file sharing governance statistics: overlooked too often

48% of organizations experienced a user who forwarded work email to personal email (Source)

31% of organizations worry most about sensitive files shared publicly (Source)

56% of organizations find SaaS file security impossible to monitor manually (Source)

43% use software to enforce policies to control external file sharing (Source)

45% of all files in Microsoft 365 are shared externally (Source)  

26% of all Google files are shared externally (Source) 

40% of medium-severity security alerts in 2024 were because file download limit was exceeded (Source)

65% of organizations say their SaaS management platform is critical to SaaS file and data security (Source)

34% of critical security alerts in 2024 were because of IAM event where the user was outside the approved location (Source)

53% of low-severity security alerts in 2024 were for file opens (Source)

42% of security-first organizations find automated file sharing policy management, governance, and automation one of the most important SMP capabilities (Source)

Statistics on the dangers of Insider threats: why file sharing monitoring, content scanning, and timely offboarding are essential

70% of security-first organizations use software for file sharing policy enforcement publicly (Source)

62% of security-first organizations actively monitor SaaS adoption and usage using an SMP or SaaS spend management tool publicly (Source)

28% of security-first organizations say the top challenge to solve in their SaaS environment this year is improving file sharing governance and security (Source)

53% of security-first organizations say that their biggest SaaS security concern is a sensitive file shared publicly (Source)

70% more files are stored on Shared drives than MyDrives at the average company publicly (Source)

50% of files have 1 or no sharing permissions at the average company using Google Workspace publicly (Source)

25% of files have between 5 and an unwieldy 35 sharing permissions at the average company using Google Workspace publicly (Source)

83% of organizations reported experiencing at least one insider attack in the past year. (Source)

109% increase since 2018, the average global cost of an insider threat incident has reached $17.4 million in 2025 (Source) 

Malicious insider attacks are the most expensive, costing an average of $4.92 million per incident (Source) 

81 days is the average number of days it took to detect and contain an insider threat Incidents that take more than 90 days to contain can cost nearly $19 million (Source)    

75% of incidents result from non-malicious insiders (Source)

55% of incidents are due to negligence or mistakes (Source)

36% of organizations worry most about Insider threats, either malicious or negligent (Source)

The future of managing SaaS in 2025 and beyond

100% of routine, rules-based SaaS tasks automated via AI agents + APIs within 3 years (Source)

50% of organizations will adopt SaaS Management Platforms (SMPs) with AI governance features by 2027 (Source)

75% of enterprises will prioritize backup of SaaS applications as a critical requirement by 2028 (Source)

57% of SaaS buyers anticipating spending more over the next year (Source)

55% of AI solution purchases are funded by central IT budgets (Source)

73% of routine SaaS management will be automated in by 2028 (Source)

59% of organizations say that their top priorities are to make IT work burden more manageable and automate more IT operations (Source)

30% of traditional SaaS workflows will be replaced by AI-driven automation by 2027. (Source)

76% of leaders agree that AI will automate specific tasks but will not entirely replace roles (Source)

Agentic AI spending is expected to exceed 26% of worldwide IT Spending over the next 5 years to hit $1.3 Trillion in 2029, (Source)

Prepare for AI-driven SaaS with a unified SMP now

This collection of SaaS statistics highlights a critical need: take charge of your SaaS environment now and don’t delay.

The BetterCloud all-in-one SaaS management platform enables businesses to optimize their SaaS ecosystem with tools for efficient subscription management, improved user automation, and enhanced cost-effectiveness. These essential tools help organizations achieve three key objectives simultaneously:  

Unlike many point solutions designed for specific uses and specific users—like SAMs tailored for finance and accounting leaders or iPaaS focused on saving developers time rather than automating user lifecycle management—only 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ Leader BetterCloud provides a comprehensive approach.

From efficiency to security, the powerful, fully featured BetterCloud SMP is a single platform that provides multiple, far-reaching benefits for IT and the entire organization. 

To learn more about how BetterCloud can help you discover, manage, automate and secure your SaaS apps, users, files and spending, read our latest research reports on Unlocking a Safer SaaS Stack or 2025 State of SaaS, catch our next live demo, or request a demo.