Cracking the SaaS Code: 50 Acronyms Explained for You

Let’s face it: SaaS jargon can feel like an uncrackable code sometimes. Acronyms get thrown around like confetti, and you’re left wondering if everyone’s secretly fluent in a language you didn’t study. Don’t worry – we’ve got your back! Here’s a list of 50 SaaS acronyms, complete with plain-English definitions to help you navigate the wild world of SaaS. Save for later. You're welcome.

Sales & Marketing Acronyms

1. ARR – Annual Recurring Revenue: Your subscription-based revenue, projected over a year. The bread and butter of SaaS growth.
   

2. MRR – Monthly Recurring Revenue: Like ARR, but zoomed in to a monthly lens.
   

3. CAC – Customer Acquisition Cost: The total cost of winning a customer, including marketing, sales, and resources.
   

4. LTV – Customer Lifetime Value: The total revenue you expect to earn from a customer during their subscription lifespan.
   

5. Churn – The percentage of customers leaving your platform over a given period. Lower churn = happier customers.
   

6. SQL – Sales Qualified Lead: A lead vetted by marketing and deemed ready for the sales team to swoop in.
   

7. MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead: A lead showing strong interest but not quite ready for the sales pitch yet.
   

8. ROI – Return on Investment: The ratio of profit to cost. If your ROI isn’t glowing, it’s time to pivot.
   

9. ABM – Account-Based Marketing: A targeted marketing approach tailored to specific accounts.
   

10. NPS – Net Promoter Score: A measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction. (Hint: Happy customers = higher NPS!)
    

Product & Development Acronyms

11. API – Application Programming Interface: The secret handshake that lets different software systems talk to each other.
    

12. UI – User Interface: The design and layout users interact with on your platform.
    

13. UX – User Experience: The overall experience someone has while using your product.
    

14. SLA – Service Level Agreement: A commitment between you and your customer on service expectations.
    

15. CDN – Content Delivery Network: A global network that speeds up content delivery by bringing it closer to users.
    

16. SDK – Software Development Kit: A developer’s toolkit for building apps within your platform’s ecosystem.
    

17. CI/CD – Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment: Automation processes that keep your product updates smooth and seamless.
    

18. PaaS – Platform as a Service: A cloud-based environment for developers to build applications.
    

19. SaaS – Software as a Service: Your favorite subscription-based software model.
    

20. IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service: Cloud computing infrastructure like servers and storage, rented on-demand.
    

Financial Acronyms

21. ARPU – Average Revenue Per User: The average revenue generated per user over a specific period.
    

22. CLTV – Customer Lifetime Value: Synonym for LTV. Yes, SaaS loves redundancy.
    

23. GMV – Gross Merchandise Value: The total sales revenue before deducting fees or expenses.
    

24. EBITDA – Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization: A profitability metric minus the accounting fluff.
    

25. TAM – Total Addressable Market: The total revenue opportunity available if you capture the entire market.
    

26. SAM – Serviceable Addressable Market: A subset of TAM you can realistically target.
    

27. SOM – Serviceable Obtainable Market: Your achievable slice of the pie in SAM.
    

28. COGS – Cost of Goods Sold: Direct costs tied to delivering your service.
    

29. MoM – Month-over-Month Growth: Your performance change from one month to the next.
    

30. YoY – Year-over-Year Growth: Same as MoM, but stretched over a year.
    

Customer Success Acronyms

31. CSM – Customer Success Manager: The hero ensuring your customers thrive with your product.
    

32. CSAT – Customer Satisfaction Score: How happy your customers are, rated by surveys.
    

33. TTV – Time to Value: How quickly customers achieve their goals using your product.
    

34. KPI – Key Performance Indicator: Metrics that define your success.
    

35. NRR – Net Revenue Retention: Revenue retained from existing customers after churn and upgrades/downgrades.
    

36. GRR – Gross Revenue Retention: Revenue retained without factoring in upgrades.
    

37. QBR – Quarterly Business Review: Regular check-ins with customers to ensure alignment and satisfaction.
    

38. FCR – First Call Resolution: Resolving customer issues on the first try.
    

39. CES – Customer Effort Score: Measures how easy it is for customers to interact with your brand.
    

40. CLV – Customer Lifetime Value: Yet another variation of LTV. (We know, SaaS loves acronyms.)
    

Operational & Technical Acronyms

41. CRM – Customer Relationship Management: Software for managing customer interactions and data.
    

42. ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning: Integrated systems for managing business processes.
    

43. BI – Business Intelligence: Analytics tools turning data into actionable insights.
    

44. GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation: The EU law protecting user data privacy.
    

45. ISO – International Organization for Standardization: Standards ensuring your product is top-notch.
    

46. AWS – Amazon Web Services: The cloud computing giant powering many SaaS backends.
    

47. SEO – Search Engine Optimization: Ensuring your product gets found on Google.
    

48. SEM – Search Engine Marketing: Paid strategies to increase your online visibility.
    

49. SOC 2 – Service Organization Control 2: A certification proving your security standards are legit.
    

50. BYOD – Bring Your Own Device: Encouraging employees to use their own devices at work.