Which types of apps are product-led vs sales-led — how does the motion change by product archetype?
- By Ali Abouelatta
- n = 757
- Published
- Updated
- 2 min read
- gtm · strategy · plg · sales-led · self-serve · archetype · prosumer · enterprise
Short answer
The self-serve-vs-sales split flips hard by archetype. Prosumer apps are the most product-led at 38% PLG, while Enterprise apps are the most sales-led at 48% — with Collaborative close behind at 39% sales-ledsource[1]. For everything consumer-facing (Consumer, Social, Marketplace), PLG runs 13-29% and sales-led stays under 10%source[1]. Your archetype, not your ambition, largely determines whether a self-serve or sales motion fitssource[1].
Prosumer apps lead on self-serve PLG (38%) while Enterprise leads on sales-led (48%) — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.
Bar chart · PLG %
PLG % — PLG and sales-led shares by archetype
One block is about 1.4%
- Prosumer
- 38%
- Consumer
- 29%
- Social
- 23%
- Enterprise
- 20%
- Collaborative
- 17%
- 2-sided Marketplace
- 13%
PLG and sales-led shares by archetype
For each product_archetype, the share of its growth-engine-tagged companies running each motionsource[1]:
| Archetype | Companies | PLG % | Sales-led % | PLS % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prosumer | 110 | 38% | 7% | 6% |
| Consumer | 427 | 29% | 5% | 3% |
| Social | 237 | 23% | 9% | 5% |
| Enterprise | 60 | 20% | 48% | 27% |
| Collaborative | 46 | 17% | 39% | 28% |
| 2-sided Marketplace | 140 | 13% | 6% | 2% |
Prosumer tops the self-serve chart; Enterprise and Collaborative are the only two archetypes where sales-led clears 39%source[1].
How to apply it
Map your product to an archetype first, then let the modal motion set your defaultsource[1]. Prosumer and Consumer apps should assume self-serve and treat a sales team as a later, optional layer — sales-led is a 5-7% behavior theresource[1]. Enterprise and Collaborative apps should assume a sales or product-led-sales motion; self-serve alone is the 17-20% minority in those segmentssource[1]. Marketplaces are the odd one out: low on both PLG (13%) and sales (6%) because they lean on paid and liquidity insteadsource[1].
Caveats
Each archetype row's denominator is its own count of companies with a growth_engine tag (Consumer 427 down to Collaborative 46), inside Lazyweb's ~600-900-company tagged subset — not the 62,376-company tablesource[1]. product_archetype and growth_engine are both multi-select arrays, so a single company can appear under more than one archetype and hold multiple motions; row shares don't sum to 100%source[1].
The numbers
| # | Stat | Computed from |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 38% (n=110)arch_prosumer_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Prosumer plg_pct 38.2 |
| 02 | 29% (n=427)arch_consumer_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Consumer plg_pct 29.0 |
| 03 | 23% (n=237)arch_social_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Social plg_pct 23.2 |
| 04 | 20% (n=60)arch_ent_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Enterprise plg_pct 20.0 |
| 05 | 17% (n=46)arch_collab_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Collaborative plg_pct 17.4 |
| 06 | 13% (n=140)arch_mkt_plg | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype 2-sided Marketplace plg_pct 12.9 |
| 07 | 48% (n=60)arch_ent_sales | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Enterprise sales_pct 48.3 |
| 08 | 39% (n=46)arch_collab_sales | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Collaborative sales_pct 39.1 |
| 09 | 27% (n=60)arch_ent_pls | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Enterprise pls_pct 26.7 |
| 10 | 28% (n=46)arch_collab_pls | selfServeVsSalesByArchetype Collaborative pls_pct 28.3 |
Methodology
Universe is Lazyweb's companies table (62,376 rows); 757 carry a product_archetype tag and per-archetype motion shares are computed over the subset of each archetype that also carries a growth_engine. Both fields are hand-tagged multi-select enum arrays, so archetypes overlap and shares don't sum to 100%. July 2026 snapshot.
Sources
- [1]
Lazyweb Research analysis of 757 companies, July 2026
PLG, Sales-led and PLS shares within each product_archetype; each row's N is the companies of that archetype carrying a growth_engine tag (Consumer 427, Social 237, Marketplace 140, Prosumer 110, Enterprise 60, Collaborative 46).
Source: Lazyweb Research — proprietary analysis of real, in-market app screens. Cite as Lazyweb Research, 2026-07-09.