Legal · Benchmarks

Benchmark network & data sharing

Last updated 21 August 2026

Beacon's benchmarks let you see how your growth and retention compare to similar companies. They only work because companies contribute — anonymously. This page explains exactly what you'd be sharing, the protections around it, and what you're agreeing to.

What you contribute

If you join the benchmark network, your workspace contributes pre-computed, aggregated statistics — figures like retention or growth for your metric and peer group. That's it. Your raw records never leave your workspace. Your company's identity, your individual customers, and your prices are never shared and never made identifiable.

The protections — how anonymity is kept

Aggregates only. Only pre-computed statistics leave your workspace — never rows, never records.

Safety in numbers. A benchmark for a group is only ever shown once at least seven companies are contributing to it, so no single company can be picked out.

Never identifiable. Your company, your customers and your pricing are never visible to anyone in the network.

Your region, respected. If you've told us your data has to stay in the US or the EU, your contribution stays in that region's pool. If you haven't set a regional rule, it joins the global pool — which is larger, so comparisons become available sooner.

Nothing before you agree. Nothing is contributed until you've agreed to it — on Free that happens at sign-up, on a paid plan whenever you switch it on.

Contributing and seeing benchmarks go together

Benchmarks only exist because companies contribute to them, so the two sides are one choice, not two. On a paid plan you decide: contribute your anonymised aggregates and you receive the full benchmark set back; switch contributing off and benchmarks switch off with it. There is no setting that takes the benchmarks without adding to them — if there were, there would eventually be nothing to take.

On Free, contributing is part of the deal

The Free plan exists because companies contribute to the benchmark pool — that's what makes it free. So on Free, contributing your anonymised aggregates is a condition of the plan, and you agree to it, plainly, at sign-up. If you'd rather not share, Beacon isn't free for you — a paid plan is the option.

Leaving the network

On a paid plan you can switch contributing off at any time. That stops any future contribution, and benchmarks stop for your workspace at the same time. Statistics already contributed remain in the pool in their aggregated, non-identifying form — because they can't be traced back to you, they don't need to be unwound. If you switch it back on later, your contributions count from that point forward; nothing is backfilled.

On the Free plan, leaving the network means moving off Free.

What you agree to

The choice is presented as an explicit, plain-language step — not buried in a long agreement. The wording shown is:

Free plan — shown at sign-up

I agree to contribute my workspace's anonymised, aggregated statistics to Beacon's benchmark network.

Only pre-computed statistics are shared — never my raw records, and never anything that identifies my company, my customers or my prices. A figure is shown to the network only when at least seven companies are contributing to a group. This is a condition of the Free plan; I can move to a paid plan if I'd prefer not to contribute. Full detail is on this page and in the Privacy Notice.

Paid plan — optional, shown in settings

Contribute my anonymised aggregates and receive the full benchmark intelligence.

Same protections as above. I can turn this off at any time; if I do, benchmarks stay off for my workspace. Contributing and receiving are one choice, not two separate settings.