--- title: Which Business Model Is Best? SaaS vs Open Core | daily.dev description: Analysis comparing SaaS and Open Core business models using S-1 filing data from recently IPO'd enterprise software companies (Anaplan, Okta, Zuora, Zscaler,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/which-business-model-is-best-saas-vs-open-core-reu2mcj5g twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Which Business Model Is Best? SaaS vs Open Core | daily.dev og:description: Analysis comparing SaaS and Open Core business models using S-1 filing data from recently IPO'd enterprise software companies (Anaplan, Okta, Zuora, Zscaler,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/which-business-model-is-best-saas-vs-open-core-reu2mcj5g og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Reu2MCJ5g.png og:image:alt: Which Business Model Is Best? SaaS vs Open Core og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Which Business Model Is Best? SaaS vs Open Core **[Teleport](https://daily.dev/sources/teleport)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Analysis comparing SaaS and Open Core business models using S-1 filing data from recently IPO'd enterprise software companies (Anaplan, Okta, Zuora, Zscaler, Cloudera, Elastic, MongoDB, Mulesoft). Examines valuation multiples, capital efficiency, gross margins, R&D costs, and sales/marketing efficiency. Finds no clear advantage for either model, debunking theories that Open Core lowers R&D costs via community contributions or that SaaS has better sales efficiency. Concludes a hybrid model - self-serve delivery with minimal services running on customer cloud infrastructure - may offer the best of both worlds, citing Elastic as an example. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SaaS in, SaaS out: Here’s what’s driving the SaaSpocalypse](https://daily.dev/posts/saas-in-saas-out-here-s-what-s-driving-the-saaspocalypse-cxmzyvh5m) · TechCrunch · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Resilience of the Core: Why the Death of SaaS is Premature in the Era of Vibe Coding](https://daily.dev/posts/the-resilience-of-the-core-why-the-death-of-saas-is-premature-in-the-era-of-vibe-coding-py58drouo) · IT Revolution · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Caught in the great SaaS squeeze](https://daily.dev/posts/caught-in-the-great-saas-squeeze-sjwgvq0w9) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#business](https://daily.dev/tags/business) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/which-business-model-is-best-saas-vs-open-core-reu2mcj5g) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Which Business Model Is Best? 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