How Much Is My App Worth? 2026 App Valuation Guide (From a Buyer)

So, what is your app actually worth?

Short answer: in 2026, most profitable apps sell for roughly 2x to 5x their yearly profit. Where you land inside that range depends on four things: how many users renew, how many come without paid ads, how clean your numbers are, and how much the app depends on you.

That is the textbook answer. Here is the one from the other side of the table.

At BlueThrone we have bought close to 100 apps. Today we focus on apps doing roughly $500k+ a year, with deal budgets from $2M to $50M. Our last three public exits closed at $2.1M, $2.3M and $2.5M. So this is not a broker guide. This is how a buyer actually prices your app.

The formula everyone uses

App value = yearly profit (or revenue) × a multiple.

The profit part is math. The multiple is the buyer's answer to one question: "How sure am I this money keeps coming after I own it?"

Three ways buyers measure the "profit" part:

• SDE (Seller's Discretionary Earnings): profit + what you pay yourself + one-time costs. Used for owner-run apps.
• EBITDA: operating profit. Used when there is a team.
• Revenue / ARR: used for fast-growing subscription apps.

One trap: always ask if a multiple is on gross or net revenue. Net is what is left after Apple and Google take 15–30%. "3x revenue" on gross and on net are two very different checks.

2026 multiples: the real ranges

These come mostly from brokers and marketplaces, so read them as ranges, not promises:

• Owner-run apps: about 2x–5x SDE (Parachute Exit, 2026).
• Subscription apps 2+ years old with 4+ months of subscriber retention: about 3x–5x EBITDA (RevenueCat, interviews with 10 acquirers, 2026).
• Small apps listed on marketplaces: median asking price of 2.4x yearly revenue (AppAcquire live listings, Sept 2026).
• Flippa sales, H1 2026: about 2.6x yearly profit on average, about 5.5x for the top quarter (Flippa data via AppAcquire).
• Ads-only apps: the low end. Subscription-only apps: the high end. (Josh Peleg, our Head of M&A, on RevenueCat's Sub Club podcast.)

In plain numbers: an app making $600k profit a year is a $1.2M–$3M conversation. Same app, same revenue, $1.8M apart. The rest of this guide is about which end you land on.

Asking price is not selling price

Founders see an app like theirs listed at 5x and assume that is their number. Careful. A listing is what a seller hopes for.

In AppAcquire's 2026 data, apps with verified revenue (connected to RevenueCat or Stripe) were listed at a median of 2.6x. Apps with seller-reported revenue: 1.9x. Verified numbers are worth real money.

And due diligence almost always finds something. A churn spike. A dependency. An expired license. That gets negotiated down. The deals that close fast and fair are always the ones with clean data from day one.

What actually moves your multiple

1. Renewals (the big one)

If I could look at one chart, it would be your renewal curve. Revenue tells me what you made. Renewals tell me what I will make.

Here is a number most founders never check: the median renewal rate for annual plans in consumer apps is around 35% (Josh Peleg, Sub Club). Sold 1,000 annual plans? About 650 are gone at renewal.

Most founders look at ARR and feel proud. Buyers look at ARR and subtract churn. Same $600k ARR can be a 5x deal with strong renewals or a 3x deal with weak ones.

What buyers will ask for: D7 / D30 / D90 retention, annual renewal rate, month-1 cancellations, and churn split into users who cancel vs payments that fail.

2. Where your users come from

When we looked at the apps we bought, our top 5 made about 400x more revenue than the bottom 25%. Same team, same playbook. The difference was organic: people found those apps without anyone paying for it.

Organic rankings and word of mouth keep working when the ad budget stops. That is why it is the first thing we look for. Paid channels are fine too, as long as they are proven profitable, not running at breakeven.

Quick test: if you turned off all ads tomorrow, how much revenue would still be there in 90 days?

3. Revenue quality

• Subscriptions beat one-time purchases. One-time purchases beat ads.
• Annual plans help: cash up front, lower churn.
• Concentration costs you: 80% of revenue from one ad network, one country or one paywall test = a discount.

4. How much the app needs you

If it breaks when you take a week off, that is a discount. Write down how to build, release and support it. One good document can remove a big chunk of that risk.

5. Technical health

Clean code that builds. Updated SDKs. No security holes. No fragile third-party dependencies. The buyer's engineers will open your repo, so open it yourself first.

The red flags that kill valuations

From Josh's checklist (Sub Club, Oct 2025) and what we see on our side:

• High churn. Subscription revenue that will not hold.
• Bad CAC vs LTV. Growth that costs more than it earns.
• Unclear team. Outsourcers or consultants nobody mentioned.
• A shrinking or crowded category.
• Inflated expectations from VC rounds.
• Pumping revenue before a sale. Pushing lifetime plans or cutting marketing to fake profit. Buyers see it.

What changed in 2026

App Store fees and web checkout

Since May 2025, US apps can send users to web checkout without paying Apple's commission. That can lift margins a lot: roughly 94% kept on the web vs about 70% through in-app purchase.

But the 0% fee is still in the courts, and the EU has its own rules. A buyer will not pay a full multiple on margin that might shrink next year. If you moved revenue to the web, show your margin both ways: today, and if Apple's fee comes back.

Apps built with AI

Buyers do not reject apps built with AI tools. They check them harder: API keys sitting in the repo, a database any user can read, a thin wrapper around one AI provider (whose price changes the buyer inherits), and unclear code ownership. Fix these before you sell. Every one of them is a price-killer if the buyer finds it first.

Estimate your app's value in 5 minutes

1. Get your yearly profit. Last 12 months of net revenue (after store fees), minus real costs, plus what you pay yourself and one-time costs.
2. Start at 3x. The middle of the 2026 range.
3. Go up for strong renewals, mostly organic users, many annual plans, verified revenue, an app that runs without you, and 2+ years of steady growth.
4. Go down for rising churn, ads at breakeven, ad-heavy revenue, spreadsheet-only numbers, and a revenue drop in the last 6 months.
5. Sanity check: if your number is way above 2–2.5x yearly revenue for an app your size, recheck your inputs.

That gives you a range. A real price needs a buyer to look at your real data.

How to raise your value before you sell

• Connect revenue to a verifiable source (RevenueCat, Stripe, App Store Connect).
• Fix failed payments. It is often the fastest retention win you have.
• Push annual plans.
• Write the runbook: build, release, support.
• Clean the repo: secrets out, SDKs updated, permissions checked.
• Give the app its own developer account, payment accounts and email.
• Get your number before you need it. The best exits we see come from founders who were not desperate to sell.

And if you are tired but not ready to let go, selling is not the only move. Some founders bring in a team to grow it with them instead. That is what our Partnership model is for.

Want your real number?

Tell us about your app. Our analysts come back with a data-backed valuation within 10 business days. If it makes sense for both sides, we can go from first call to closing in about 20 days. No guessing.

Tell us about your app →

Not sure who to sell to? Read Who Buys Apps? 7 Types of App Buyers in 2026 (and Who Pays Most) to see which buyer fits your app and who pays the most.

FAQ

How much is my app worth?

Most profitable apps sell for about 2x–5x their yearly profit in 2026. An app making $500k profit a year is typically a $1M–$2.5M conversation. Renewals, traffic source, revenue type and how much the app depends on you decide where you land.

How much should I sell my app for?

Take your last 12 months of net profit, start at about 3x, then adjust up for strong renewals, organic users and verified revenue, and down for churn, ad dependency and heavy founder involvement. Then get at least one valuation from a real buyer.

Are subscription apps worth more than ad-supported apps?

Usually yes. Subscription revenue is more predictable, so it gets higher multiples. Ads-only apps tend to sit at the low end of the range.

Does building my app with AI lower its value?

Not by itself. Buyers check AI-built apps harder for security issues, exposed keys and dependence on one AI provider. Fix those first and it is valued like any other app.

How long does it take to sell an app?

On a marketplace it can take months. With a direct buyer like BlueThrone, about 20 days from first call to transfer, with a valuation in 10 business days.

Sources

• RevenueCat, "What app buyers really want in 2026: insights from 10 acquirers"
• Sub Club by RevenueCat, "Buying vs. Building: Scaling Beyond a Single App" with Josh Peleg, BlueThrone (Oct 2025)
• AppAcquire, "What Small Apps Actually Sell For: Multiples From Real Listings" (Sept 2026)
• Parachute Exit, "How to Value and Sell an App Business in 2026"
• RevenueCat, "Apple must allow External Payment Links: what Epic vs. Apple's ruling means for developers"
• BlueThrone monthly exit reports, Aug–Oct 2024