If you’ve ever wondered what your WordPress agency would actually sell for, you’re not alone. It’s one of the first questions sellers ask — and one of the hardest to answer without the right framework. The short version: your agency is worth what a buyer will pay for the revenue it reliably generates. Everything else is context.

This is part of our WordPress Agency Acquisition Series. Be sure to view more insights we’ve shared on selling your WordPress agency.

Related reading: what is a WordPress agency worth — valuation multiples explained.

It Starts With MRR

Monthly Recurring Revenue — MRR — is the single most important number in any agency valuation. Not gross revenue. Not project billings. Not what you made last December. Buyers are paying for predictable, recurring income that will still be there after you’re gone.

That means hosting fees, care plans, maintenance retainers, plugin licenses, and any other service clients pay for on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Project revenue is nice context, but it has no guaranteed recurrence and no real relationship stickiness — a client who hired you for a website build three years ago may not need you again for another four. That’s not what buyers are buying.

Sticky vs. Non-Sticky Revenue

Not all MRR is created equal. Hosting is the gold standard — a client can’t cancel without losing their website, so friction to leave is extremely high. Care plans are strong but slightly less sticky; a client can cancel without an immediate consequence. Marketing retainers (SEO, PPC, social) carry the highest post-acquisition churn of any service type — new ownership creates uncertainty, and results take time to materialize.

When a buyer is looking at your book of business, they’re quietly sorting every service into one of these categories. The higher the proportion of hosting and care plan revenue, the stronger the valuation.

What Else Adds Value (and What Doesn’t)

Beyond MRR, a few other assets can move the needle on a deal:

  • Your website — if it generates organic traffic and inbound leads, it has real value. A buyer may keep it live post-acquisition rather than redirect it.
  • Google Business Profile and reviews — transferable reputation that a new owner can build on
  • Client assets — logos, stock photo libraries, branding files, proposal templates
  • SOPs and documentation — a well-documented agency is far easier to absorb and signals a lower-risk acquisition
  • Plugin licenses — some lifetime deals or agency licenses can be folded into the buyer’s existing stack

Your team matters too — but its value depends on structure. A well-documented, distributed team where responsibilities are clear is an asset. A team where everything runs through the owner is a liability, because the buyer has to figure out how to replace that owner.

How Multiples Actually Work

Most small WordPress agency acquisitions are valued as a multiple of MRR or annual recurring revenue (ARR). The range moves based on quality — a clean book of hosting-heavy clients with long tenure and low churn commands a higher multiple than a messy book of marketing retainers with high turnover.

In a revenue share / earn-out deal — which is my preferred structure — the “multiple” is baked into the duration and percentage. A 24-month earn-out at 80–90% of net recurring revenue is effectively paying the seller close to two years of what they would have made operating it themselves, without the operational burden. That’s the structure I use, and it works because it aligns incentives: the seller wants clients to stay, so they invest in a clean handoff.

Common Valuation Mistakes

The biggest one: emotional attachment inflating the ask. You built this thing. You’ve poured years into it. That has real meaning — but a buyer is paying for forward-looking cash flow, not backward-looking effort. The years you put in don’t factor into the multiple.

The second: underestimating transition costs. A buyer is inheriting your clients, your processes, and your tech debt. The integration work — migrating accounts, setting up billing, making intro calls, rebuilding trust — can easily consume a month or more of focused work. A buyer factors that in. You should too.

Third: confusing your take-home with the buyer’s profit. If you’re deeply embedded in day-to-day operations — handling every client issue, doing all the QA, running all the accounts — a buyer has to replace that labor. Your net isn’t their net. The more you’ve removed yourself from the operational bottleneck before the sale, the closer those two numbers get.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you want to improve your valuation before going to market:

  • Know your MRR number — exactly, not approximately
  • Separate recurring from project revenue in your books
  • Identify your stickiest services and make sure they’re clearly documented
  • Start removing yourself from day-to-day operations — delegate, document, automate
  • Clean up your financials — a buyer who can’t make sense of your books will lowball or walk

If you’re curious what your agency might be worth and want a straightforward conversation about it, reach out to CyberOptik. No pressure, no pitch — just a real look at what you’ve built. You can also explore CyberOptik’s acquisition program for agency sellers or visit our FAQ to find every question about agency valuation answered in one place.