Pricing Strategy Is Shifting, but Growth Pressure Remains
Software and technology leaders are heading into 2026 under continued pressure to grow revenue while managing churn, expansion, and customer sensitivity. Results from the 2026 Executive Pricing Benchmarks – Software & Technology survey show a clear shift away from aggressive price escalation toward more structural pricing levers that support long term growth.
Across the sector, pricing is increasingly viewed as a growth enabler rather than a short term margin lever. Leaders are prioritizing pricing actions that support customer expansion, retention, and monetization over headline list price increases.
Value Based Pricing Has Become the Standard
Value based pricing is now the dominant pricing approach across software and technology companies. More than half of surveyed firms anchor pricing decisions primarily on customer value rather than cost plus or competitor based benchmarks. This reflects a broader maturity in how software organizations think about pricing, particularly in markets where differentiation, outcomes, and usage patterns matter more than unit economics.
Despite this shift, value based pricing alone is not sufficient. The data shows that companies pairing value based pricing with strong execution, renewal discipline, and monetization strategy outperform peers who rely on pricing philosophy without operational rigor.
Monetization Depends on Expansion, Not Escalation
Unlike other industries, software and technology firms are relying far less on annual price increases to drive growth. Contractual price escalators remain modest, typically in the low single digits. Instead, revenue growth is being driven by upsell, cross sell, and improved retention.
This puts increased pressure on renewal execution and customer success. Net revenue retention improves with company scale, but most firms remain below the 100 percent threshold, signaling ongoing reliance on new customer acquisition rather than expansion alone.
Churn Is Driven by External Forces
Churn remains a persistent challenge across the software and technology landscape. Survey results indicate that churn is driven primarily by external factors such as budget constraints, economic pressure, and competitive switching, rather than product or service shortcomings.
Larger firms are particularly exposed to competitive switching, while smaller firms face greater sensitivity to customer budget reductions. This reinforces the need for pricing strategies that clearly communicate value and align pricing structures to customer outcomes and usage.
What Separates Top Performers
The benchmarks highlight several execution factors that consistently separate outperformers from the rest of the market:
Product bundling and optimized product mix deliver the strongest gains in both revenue and EBITDA
Centralized revenue management teams with C suite representation materially outperform decentralized or advisory pricing models
Advanced pricing analytics, particularly predictive and prescriptive models embedded into decision making, are strongly linked to superior financial performance
Companies relying on basic analytics or fragmented pricing ownership consistently underperform, even when pricing strategy is sound.
Implications for 2026
For software and technology leaders, the message is clear. Growth in 2026 will not come from pricing harder, but from pricing smarter. Organizations that combine value based pricing with disciplined execution, strong renewal processes, and advanced analytics will be better positioned to drive sustainable revenue growth while managing churn and margin pressure.
Download the Full Report
Download the 2026 Executive Pricing Benchmarks – Software & Technology report to explore detailed survey data, benchmarks by company size, and practical insights on pricing strategy, monetization, and execution.
