INDUSTRY REPORT
Nicole Segerer
SVP & General Manager,
Revenera
Executive Summary
This year’s global survey of 501 product leaders highlights growing threats to profitability from every angle. As one Finance Director at a producer of embedded software warned, “Pricing, piracy, competition, and customer expectations” are rocking the foundations of today’s monetization strategies, with unlicensed use continuing to undermine the sustainability of legitimate software sales.
Key Findings
Piracy continues to be a major threat.
Nearly one-third (31%) of software producers identify piracy as a major cause of revenue leakage – making it the most commonly reported source of lost income.
Unlicensed software usage is undermining revenue goals.
21% of respondents say that unlicensed usage (overuse/misuse/piracy) is one of the biggest blockers to growing annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Greater license enforcement is necessary.
More than 1/4 (27%) of respondents plan to add or improve automated enforcement initiatives for their monetization strategies.
Lack of awareness is a growing problem.
The number of respondents who don’t know how they’re losing revenue to unlicensed software increased from 5% a year ago to 8% today. Among those who don’t have entitlement management technology in place, this skyrockets to 50% – highlighting a concerning blind spot.
China and Russia continue to record the highest levels of misuse and piracy.
Notably, India has moved ahead of the United States to become the third most impacted country, while Germany has seen a sharp rise in cases – climbing from 11th to sixth on the list of noncompliance hotspots.
Closing data gaps can provide insights to drive sales.
Many respondents (30%) let telemetry data go to waste, collecting it but failing to analyze it. Meanwhile, 43% say limited visibility into customer entitlements and usage data is a blocker to ensuring efficient renewals.
We face challenges in choosing the right pricing model, preventing revenue leakage, and extraction of valuable insights from analytics. Integrating AI adds value, but also increases complexity and compliance concerns.”
SVP/VP of Marketing/Sales Device/hardware (with embedded
software)-focused company with more
than $250 million USD annual revenue
Contents
- Executive Summary
- Spotlight: Act on the Data You Have!
- Extent and Impact of Unlicensed Software Usage
- Sources of Revenue Leakage
- Extent of Software Piracy, Overuse, and Misuse
- The Impact of Revenue Leakage
- Spotlight: Top 20 Software License Misuse and Piracy Hotspots
- Recovering Revenue from Unlicensed Software Use
- Enforcement Initiatives
- The Importance of Predictability
- The Bottom Line
- Survey Background
The Revenera Monetization Monitor 2026 Outlook Series
This report is the second part of an annual series first published in 2019. The first report addressed Software Monetization Models & Strategies. Both reports are based on 501 complete responses to a survey conducted by Revenera from April through June 2025.
Spotlight: Act on the Data You Have!
Looking at piracy, overuse, and misuse as a pipeline for new or expanded sales helps software suppliers tap into a rich source of data to drive annual recurring revenue (ARR).
Some users may not realize they’re out of license compliance, but unlicensed use shows clear demand for your application – a signal that sales teams can’t afford to miss.
Recapturing lost revenue – especially when it occurs unintentionally – is possible through effective license compliance initiatives, such as using telemetry data to build a pipeline of accounts that are more likely to convert into paying customers based on their reliance on your product to achieve their goals.
However, identifying unauthorized use and supporting revenue growth through improved compliance appears to be a challenge for many Revenera Monetization Monitor survey respondents:
Only 31% utilize telemetry/phone home data to detect potential piracy, overuse, or misuse.
30% let telemetry data go to waste – collecting it but failing to
analyze it.
43% report that limited visibility into customer entitlements and usage data is a challenge in ensuring customer renewals.
Nearly a quarter (23%) don’t consolidate data from multiple systems into a data lake for further analysis with business intelligence tools. Among those using homegrown solutions to manage entitlements/use rights, this jumps to 43%, suggesting they’re not well-positioned to analyze the data being collected across different systems.
While getting predictability around license compliance isn’t always possible, data-driven approaches are essential to protecting, forecasting, and recovering revenue.
With 70% of those who offer AI features or products saying delivery costs are cutting into profitability, it’s crucial to minimize losses wherever possible – starting with identifying and tackling revenue leakage.
One of the biggest challenges is the lack of unified, real-time analytics across product usage, customer behavior and revenue streams.”
C-level Executive
in engineering & development SaaS/cloud-focused company with
$101–$250 million USD annual revenue
