Elastic N.V. ESTC

Competitive advantage analysis · technology

Software & SaaS Specialized
Overall moat score
65/100
Moderate

About Elastic N.V.

Elastic N.V., a search artificial intelligence (AI) company, provides software platforms to run in hybrid, public or private clouds, and multi-cloud environments in the United States and internationally. It primarily offers Elastic's Search AI Platform, a set of software products that ingest and store data from various sources and formats, as well as performs search, analysis, and visualization on that … Full ESTC analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Consistent Subscription Growth Revenue consistency is strong (score 0.68), pointing to a sticky customer base.
  • Debt Covered by Cash Generation Debt capacity is solid (score 0.62), supporting resilience through cycles.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Moderate
64

Where ESTC ranks in Software - Application

Elastic N.V. ranks #57 of 264 scored companies in Software - Application by moat score — the top 22%. The widest moat in the group is Dave Inc. (DAVE) at 80/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near ESTC in Software - Application
# Company Moat score Rating
53 Freshworks Inc. FRSH 66/100 Moderate
54 Zoom Communications, Inc. ZM 66/100 Moderate
55 DocuSign, Inc. DOCU 66/100 Moderate
56 Yalla Group Limited YALA 65/100 Moderate
57 Elastic N.V. ESTC 65/100 Moderate
58 Docebo Inc. DCBO 65/100 Moderate
59 Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. ALRM 64/100 Moderate
60 Workiva Inc. WK 64/100 Moderate
61 Clearwater Analytics Holdings, CWAN 64/100 Moderate

See every Software & SaaS company ranked by moat score →

How ESTC scores on the Software & SaaS Specialized defenses

Pricing Power

Score 64 · 20% of the moat score

In software, pricing power is visible in gross margin: a vendor that has to discount in order to renew gives it up first.

Recurring Revenue Stickiness

Score 70 · 18% of the moat score

Recurring revenue is the model's central claim, and it is a moat only when customers renew and expand without being re-sold each year.

Innovation Engine

Score 57 · 16% of the moat score

Software is competed away rather than depreciated, so a vendor that stops investing loses its category.

Cash Scalability

Score 67 · 18% of the moat score

The test of a software business is whether growth eventually stops consuming cash.

Capital Efficiency

Score 63 · 16% of the moat score

A software platform employs very little capital, so a genuine franchise should produce high returns on it without leverage.

Balance Sheet Resilience

Score 66 · 12% of the moat score

Software companies fund years of customer acquisition before those customers pay back, which makes access to capital a strategic variable rather than a treasury detail.

How each Software & SaaS Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding ESTC's moat

What is Elastic N.V.'s moat score?

Elastic N.V. (ESTC) scores 65 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #57 of 264 scored companies in Software - Application, the top 22%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 263 companies in Software - Application. Its strongest defense is Recurring Revenue Stickiness (70/100) and its weakest is Innovation Engine (57/100).

How does Elastic N.V. compare with other Software - Application companies?

Elastic N.V. ranks #57 of 264 scored companies in Software - Application by moat score. The widest moat in Software - Application is Dave Inc. (DAVE) at 80/100. The companies ranked closest are Yalla Group Limited (YALA) at 65 just above it and Docebo Inc. (DCBO) at 65 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Software & SaaS Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 263 companies in Software - Application. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Elastic N.V. scored with the Software & SaaS Specialized template?

Software costs almost nothing to reproduce, so the entire economic question is whether customers keep paying. Revenue is a subscription rather than a sale, the cost of winning a customer is paid years before that customer becomes profitable, and margins arrive only if renewals hold. The Software & SaaS template scores retention, reinvestment, and the point at which growth turns into cash.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Elastic N.V.?

The Software & SaaS Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and ESTC scores: Pricing Power (64), Recurring Revenue Stickiness (70), Innovation Engine (57), Cash Scalability (67), Capital Efficiency (63), Balance Sheet Resilience (66). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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