7 GitHub Metrics That Predict SaaS Success
The engineering health indicators that separate winners from failures
Your GitHub, GitLab, and Vercel repositories tell a story. Successful SaaS companies share common patterns in their development metrics. Here are the 7 metrics that matter most.
1. Commits Per Week
Why it matters: Consistent commits signal active development, bug fixes, and feature velocity. Declining commits often precede product stagnation.
2. PR Review Time
Fast PR reviews (<24 hours) indicate:
- • Strong team collaboration
- • Clear code standards
- • High developer morale
3. Issue Age
Average age of open issues reveals technical debt:
4. Code Review Coverage
Percentage of PRs that get reviewed before merging:
- • 100% = Strong quality culture
- • 80-99% = Good practices
- • <80% = Quality issues ahead
5. Contributor Activity
Number of active contributors in the last 30 days:
6. Branch Staleness
Branches older than 30 days without activity signal:
- • Abandoned features
- • Merge conflicts building up
- • Poor project management
7. Deployment Frequency
How often you ship to production:
Pro Tip: Track These Automatically
Manual tracking is tedious and error-prone. SaaS Radar automatically monitors all 7 metrics across GitHub, GitLab, and Vercel and alerts you when they cross danger thresholds.