Part 3: Strategic Cost Discipline in a Shifting Landscape
Operational Discipline Pays Off
Where did SaaS companies cut costs in 2024? An analysis of OPEXEngine’s 2025 SaaS benchmarks reveals a clear trend: Sales & Marketing (S&M) was the most consistently reduced expense category in 2024 compared to Research & Development (R&D) and General & Administrative (G&A) expenses. This trend was observed across both public and private companies, and across revenue bands.
In contrast, R&D spending held steady, pointing to a strategic shift: continued focus on go-to-market efficiency and continued investment in product and long-term differentiation.
G&A cuts varied; some companies achieved scale efficiencies in finance and admin, while others maintained spending to support transformation and reporting needs.
The takeaway? SaaS companies are prioritizing strategic, data-driven cost discipline. The data shows that – not surprisingly – to increase profit margins amid slowing growth, SaaS companies have focused on driving efficiency across the board. The broad-based cuts of 2022 are being replaced by more intentional decisions that reflect a longer-term view of value creation.
See the accompanying analysis of Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index data in our Brief on 2025 SaaS Sector Operating trends: https://www.opexengine.com/resource/brief-on-2025-saas-sector-operating-trends
