Here's the thing... people are lazy.
They are also busy.
Combine the two, and you have a recipe for people dropping out of your signup process.
Imagine this scenario... you are browsing around and find a cool software. You are excited!
Okay, let's sign up!
Oops, the kid is crying - gotta go.
The form looks long, and HN tab is beckoning - gotta go!
It may seem unrealistic, but this is the reality of every day browsing behavior.
People browse while cooking, while riding public transportation, while trying to tune out their significant other, or while on the toilet. Yep... the toilet!
Tiny moments and spare seconds stand between a signup and an eventual further exploration of your SaaS, and forever abandoning the excited state.
We'd all love to imagine that our prospect is sitting in the office with 5 hours to go in the day. Back firmly against the chair, perfect posture, huge screen perfectly lit and plenty of time on the clock. Sitting there... signing up for your awesome product.
These conditions, while true in some cases, are completely absent in others.
Now... imagine this:
You're on your tiny phone screen, outside, with the sun reflecting - making hard to see. You walk down the street or from your car to the store, looking at this SuperNewCoolThing.ai and want to take it for a quick spin.
The ONLY thing that stands between it, and you, is the email field.
10 seconds and you're in. Well, maybe. But... even if you ditch the flow now, I can follow up and get you to come back.
You should try breaking up your form - at least as an AB test. Here is why:
Yes, there are actual downsides of multi-step forms, and they are particularly pronounced in complex B2B fields with a lot of data needing to be specified.
In the B2B space, the top of the funnel is less of an issue because a lot more research goes into selecting the right vendor. When the prospect is ready to make a move, a lot of times they'll use auto-fill to get all of their info into the form.
In short, multi-step makes it harder to fill out forms with autocomplete. This is mostly problematic in technical / engineering related SaaS — where the end user is highly technical and enjoys using shortcuts like autofill.
Personally, I would just test to see what happens, and if you see any adverse effects you can always revert back.