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How to Compare Cybersecurity Companies by Revenue, Growth, and Customer Retention

By Freedom251 Team · · 11 min read

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Compare cybersecurity companies on a common fiscal period, then layer revenue scale, like-for-like growth, recurring-revenue quality, retention, cash generation, and valuation. No single percentage identifies the strongest business: a large vendor can grow more slowly but generate far more cash, while a smaller subscription company may post faster growth and higher expansion from its installed base. The reliable approach is to label every figure as reported or estimated, show the fiscal date and scope, and keep gross retention separate from dollar-based net retention.

What is the fairest way to compare cybersecurity companies?

Build a scorecard in a fixed order: period alignment, revenue scale, comparable growth, recurring revenue, retention, profitability or free cash flow, and finally valuation. This prevents a high multiple or a single growth rate from hiding differences in business size, accounting periods, customer mix, or metric definitions.

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  1. Align periods and scope. Put every company on the same fiscal year or clearly mark each fiscal year-end. Record whether a number is consolidated, a segment, or a geographic subtotal, and distinguish reported results from consensus or market estimates.
  2. Measure scale. Capture revenue for the stated period before calculating growth. Scale shows the economic base on which growth is produced.
  3. Calculate like-for-like growth. Use the same prior period and currency basis where possible. Do not compare a full-year result with a quarterly figure or an estimate with an audited result without labeling the difference.
  4. Test recurring-revenue quality. For subscription-heavy vendors, ARR, billings, and renewal metrics often reveal momentum earlier than recognized revenue.
  5. Separate retention measures. Gross retention measures renewals before expansion; dollar-based net retention (DBNR) includes expansion, contraction, and churn in an existing cohort.
  6. Add cash and margins. Operating margin, billings, and free cash flow show whether growth is being converted into durable economics.
  7. Apply valuation last. An enterprise-value-to-revenue multiple is meaningful only beside the operating figures and the date on which the multiple was observed.

A comparison sheet should carry a source and date beside every cell. That audit trail is as important as the calculation itself because fiscal calendars and retention definitions differ across vendors.

How should I align fiscal periods, geography, and estimates?

Start by writing the measurement window in the column header, not in a footnote. Houlihan Lokey’s peer table uses dated 2025 estimates and calendarizes financials to a December year-end; those figures are therefore a normalized estimate set, not each issuer’s reported fiscal-year result.

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Use one period or show the mismatch

If one company closes its year in January and another in July, retain the issuer’s actual fiscal date and add a separate calendarized comparison only when the methodology is documented. Never silently relabel a July result as a December result. The same rule applies to trailing-12-month retention: the ending date belongs in the metric name.

Keep geography and consolidation consistent

Compare consolidated global revenue with consolidated global revenue. A regional security-services figure cannot be ranked against a worldwide product figure. If one filing reports constant-currency growth or excludes an acquired business, preserve that scope in the label rather than presenting it as an apples-to-apples organic rate.

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Separate reported results from estimates

Use a visible tag such as “reported” or “2026E estimate.” Momentum Cyber’s growth benchmark is based on PitchBook and company filings, dated March 31, 2026, and compares 2025A with 2026E. It should not be described as current reported revenue growth.

What do current revenue-growth benchmarks show?

The following rates are a dated estimate benchmark, not a league table of audited results. Momentum Cyber published them on March 31, 2026, using 2025 actual revenue and 2026 estimated revenue.

Company 2025A–2026E revenue growth Classification and date
Cloudflare 27% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Netskope 23% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Rubrik 23% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
CrowdStrike 22% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Zscaler 21% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
SentinelOne 20% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Palo Alto Networks 13% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Fortinet 11% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31
Okta 9% Momentum Cyber estimate, dated 2026-03-31

The spread ranges from 9% to 27%, but the ranking alone does not answer which company is better. Cloudflare’s 27% estimate applies to a different scale and product mix than Fortinet’s 11%; the next step is to pair each rate with revenue, recurring mix, retention, and cash generation.

How do revenue scale and growth answer different questions?

Revenue scale answers “How large is the business today?” Growth answers “How quickly is the base expanding?” A smaller company can grow at 25% and add less absolute revenue than a large company growing at 12%, so report both the percentage and the dollar increase when the underlying revenue is available.

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Reported scale example: Fortinet

Fortinet reported $6.80 billion of revenue for full-year 2025 results, released in 2026, and reported 14% year-over-year revenue growth. These are reported company figures for that stated period, not the March 31, 2026 estimate in the benchmark table.

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Recurring scale example: CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike reported $5.252751 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and 24% ARR growth at January 31, 2026. ARR is a contracted recurring run-rate measure, not the same accounting measure as recognized revenue, so it belongs in a separate column.

Convert growth into an absolute contribution

For each company, calculate current-period revenue − prior-period revenue and (current-period revenue ÷ prior-period revenue) − 1. Keep acquisitions, divestitures, currency effects, and constant-currency adjustments visible if the filing provides them. A percentage without its denominator can exaggerate the practical difference between vendors.

Which recurring-revenue metrics matter most?

ARR and retention are most informative when a vendor sells subscriptions, cloud services, or contracts that renew. They are less useful as a direct substitute for revenue at appliance-led or heavily professional-services businesses, where hardware shipments and services timing can dominate the income statement.

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ARR and billings

ARR estimates the annualized value of recurring contracts at a point in time. Billings reflect invoiced amounts and can lead recognized revenue when customers pay in advance. Record the definition, inclusion rules, and period end supplied by each company; two vendors can use the same label for different contract populations.

Gross retention

Gross retention asks how much of the starting recurring cohort remains after renewals, before counting upsells. It isolates churn and downgrades. CrowdStrike reported 97% gross retention in its 2025 statement, giving a view of renewal durability separate from expansion.

Dollar-based net retention

DBNR starts with the same customer cohort, then includes renewals, expansion, contraction, and churn. A result above 100% means expansion from continuing customers more than offset lost or reduced contracts; it does not mean every customer renewed or that new customers were included.

Metric What it includes Best use
ARR Annualized recurring contract run rate at a stated date Size and momentum of a subscription base
Gross retention Renewals after churn and contraction, before expansion Durability of the starting cohort
DBNR Renewals plus expansion, less contraction and churn Net change in an existing cohort
Recognized revenue Revenue recorded under accounting rules during the period Reported scale and growth

How comparable are CrowdStrike and Zscaler retention rates?

The percentages are close, but they must not be ranked without their dates and definitions. CrowdStrike reported 115% DBNR for the year ended January 31, 2026; its measure includes renewals, expansion, contraction, and churn while excluding incident-response and proactive-services revenue. Zscaler reported 114% DBNR for the trailing year ended July 31, 2025, compared with 116% for the prior year.

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Company Retention result Period end Definition detail
CrowdStrike 115% DBNR January 31, 2026 Includes renewals, expansion, contraction, and churn; excludes incident-response and proactive-services revenue
CrowdStrike 97% gross retention 2025 statement Gross renewal retention before expansion
Zscaler 114% DBNR Trailing year ended July 31, 2025 Compares recurring revenue from a customer cohort with the same metric for the prior 12-month period
Zscaler 116% DBNR Trailing year ended July 31, 2024 Prior-year comparison reported by the company

These figures illustrate why a retention ranking can mislead. The companies use different fiscal year-ends and may define eligible revenue differently; a one-point difference is not evidence of superior customer loyalty until the cohorts and exclusions are normalized.

What does customer expansion reveal about platform strategy?

Retention becomes more valuable when you understand why customers expand. CrowdStrike’s chief financial officer, Burt Podbere, said in 2025: “With 97% gross retention and accounts adopting Falcon Flex adding over $1 billion of in-quarter deal value, customers are increasingly consolidating on the Falcon platform as their AI-native SOC for today and tomorrow.” The statement links high renewal performance with broader platform adoption, but the quoted deal value is in-quarter deal value, not ARR or recognized revenue.

Use customer-consolidation commentary as context, not as a replacement for cohort mathematics. Ask whether expansion is broad across the installed base, concentrated in a few large accounts, or driven by a newly bundled product. The answer affects how repeatable the reported DBNR may be.

How should profitability and cash generation change the comparison?

Growth that consumes ever more cash carries different risk from growth funded by operations. Add operating margin, billings, and free cash flow to the same period framework used for revenue and retention. A vendor with lower growth but strong cash conversion may have more flexibility to invest, acquire technology, or withstand a pricing cycle.

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Free cash flow example: Fortinet

Fortinet reported $2.21 billion of free cash flow for full-year 2025 results and said it exceeded its Rule of 45 for the sixth consecutive year. The Rule of 45 is a combined growth-and-profitability yardstick; the company’s statement does not make that figure a substitute for a standardized cross-company margin calculation.

Check the cash definition

Free cash flow can be calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures, but companies may adjust for items such as stock-based compensation, restructuring, or customer acquisition payments in non-GAAP presentations. Put the company’s stated definition beside the value and avoid comparing an adjusted figure with an unadjusted one.

Use a two-axis operating view

  • Expansion quality: revenue or ARR growth, gross retention, and DBNR.
  • Economic quality: gross margin, operating margin, billings, and free cash flow.

This view distinguishes a fast-growing vendor with weak cash conversion from a mature vendor that grows more slowly but funds itself.

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When should valuation enter the analysis?

Only after operating metrics are aligned. Houlihan Lokey’s 2025E enterprise-value-to-revenue examples were calendarized to December year-end and should be treated as dated estimates, not permanent company attributes.

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Company 2025E EV/revenue Basis
CrowdStrike 17.5x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end
CyberArk 12.1x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end
Palo Alto Networks 11.3x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end
Fortinet 10.5x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end
Zscaler 10.0x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end
Okta 5.8x Houlihan Lokey 2025 estimate, calendarized to December year-end

A high multiple can reflect faster expected growth, stronger retention, higher margins, or scarcity value; it can also embed optimistic assumptions. Compare the multiple with the dated growth estimate and cash profile, and state whether enterprise value includes debt, leases, or other adjustments in the source methodology.

How do I build a repeatable cybersecurity-company scorecard?

Use one worksheet per company and a separate normalization page. The following sequence keeps calculations auditable.

  1. Set the cut-off date. Write the analysis date and freeze the information set so later estimates do not get mixed with earlier reported periods.
  2. Capture fiscal metadata. Record fiscal year-end, quarter or trailing period, currency, consolidation scope, and whether the value is reported, guidance, consensus, or an external estimate.
  3. Enter revenue and prior-period revenue. Calculate both percentage growth and absolute growth. Add a note for acquisitions, divestitures, or currency changes.
  4. Enter recurring metrics. Add ARR, subscription or recurring-revenue mix, billings, gross retention, and DBNR only when the company defines them.
  5. Copy the cohort rules. State which customers and revenue streams are included or excluded from each retention percentage.
  6. Add profitability and cash. Record gross margin, operating margin, free cash flow, capital expenditure, and the company’s adjustment policy.
  7. Add valuation last. Enter enterprise value, the revenue denominator, the date, and whether the denominator is actual or estimated.
  8. Run consistency checks. Flag mixed currencies, different fiscal year-ends, annual versus trailing periods, and estimates presented beside reported results.
  9. Write the conclusion by investor question. State who leads on scale, who leads on growth, whose cohort expands most efficiently, and which valuation assumes the most future performance.

What common mistakes make a comparison unreliable?

Ranking growth without a denominator

Percent growth is not an absolute-return measure. Always show the starting revenue or ARR and identify whether the base is organic, acquired, or currency-adjusted.

Calling DBNR “renewal rate”

DBNR includes expansion, so it can exceed 100% even while some customers churn. Use gross retention for renewal durability and DBNR for cohort economics.

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Mixing fiscal dates

A January year-end, July trailing period, and December estimate can sit in one article only when each date is visible. Otherwise the apparent ranking may reflect seasonality or timing.

Treating estimates as facts

The March 31, 2026 Momentum Cyber figures are 2025A–2026E estimates. Label them as such and do not replace later company-reported results without updating the period label.

Using valuation as the starting point

Multiples summarize expectations; they do not explain whether those expectations are supported by retention, margins, or cash flow. Operating comparisons should come first.

Ignoring product and revenue mix

Network appliances, cloud security subscriptions, identity products, incident-response work, and professional services have different renewal patterns and accounting timing. Compare like revenue streams or explain why a combined company-wide metric remains informative.

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Is a fast-growing cybersecurity company better than a larger, slower-growing one?

Not automatically. The better choice depends on the question: growth investors may prioritize expansion and DBNR, while a scale-focused buyer or shareholder may value cash generation, breadth, and lower execution risk. A defensible judgment combines growth with retention, margins, free cash flow, and the valuation paid for those qualities.

For example, the benchmark places CrowdStrike at 22% estimated 2025A–2026E revenue growth and Fortinet at 11%, while Fortinet’s reported full-year 2025 revenue was $6.80 billion and free cash flow was $2.21 billion. Those figures describe different strengths; they do not by themselves establish a winner because the growth number is an estimate and the Fortinet figures are reported results from a different measurement framework.

What should a final comparison table contain?

A reader should be able to identify the period, scope, definition, and source without opening another document. Include these columns:

  • Company and primary business model
  • Revenue and prior-period revenue, with currency and fiscal date
  • Year-over-year growth, marked reported or estimated
  • ARR or recurring-revenue mix, with definition
  • Gross retention and DBNR, each with cohort period and exclusions
  • Billings, operating margin, and free cash flow
  • Enterprise value/revenue multiple, denominator type, and observation date
  • Source name and publication date

Do not fill a missing metric with a guess. Omit the column for a short comparison or label a company-specific definition in the cell when a direct comparison would otherwise imply false precision.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can dollar-based net retention be above 100% if a company loses customers?

Yes. Suppose a starting cohort is worth $100 million, $5 million churns, and continuing customers expand by $20 million; DBNR is $115 million divided by $100 million, or 115%. The measure says the cohort grew in dollars, not that every account renewed.

Why do cybersecurity companies report ARR instead of treating all subscriptions as revenue immediately?

Accounting rules recognize subscription revenue over the service period, while ARR describes the annualized contract run rate at a point in time. ARR can therefore indicate bookings momentum before the related revenue appears in the income statement.

How often should an investor refresh a cybersecurity comparison?

Refresh after each company reports a fiscal period, after a material acquisition or divestiture, and when valuation inputs move sharply. Keep prior versions so a change in ranking can be traced to operating results, estimate revisions, or market prices.

What is a practical way to compare vendors with different product mixes?

Create separate cohorts for subscription, hardware, and services where disclosures allow it, then compare consolidated results only as a second view. This prevents a high-margin recurring product from masking a volatile services or appliance business.

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