SaaSHub Data Shows Median Product Lifespan Falling to About 1.5 Years

The Product Graveyard has been tracking the status and lifespan of hundreds of thousands of products, according to the post. The median had hovered around four years for some time before the 2026 drop.

The post’s author wrote that the shift matches their own observations: many products are being vibe-coded, released and abandoned soon after. Software has become too cheap to produce, the author said, so many people experiment for free with their ideas only to find that the ideas were not viable or that they could not bring in customers.

Distribution and marketing have become much more important than before, the author wrote, in a context where everyone can build features for free. The author said they expect the trend of shortening product lifespan to continue further down. Alternatively, the author wrote, at some point people may realize there are no users for their products because every user can build their own custom product, leaving about a dozen huge platforms that host and help people build those apps.

Until then, the author described the market as a gold rush in which many makers are abandoning their empty buckets.

Editor's Summary

SaaSHub’s Product Graveyard data, cited in a Hacker News post, show the median product lifespan falling from about four years to roughly 1.5 years, with a sharp drop in 2026. The post’s author attributed the shift to cheaper software production and greater pressure to distribute and market products, and expected the shortening trend to continue or to lead toward a market dominated by a few platforms that help users build their own apps.