Recurring revenues, which comprised 75% of our first quarter revenues, were strong, led by a 25% growth in subscription revenues.
A favorable revenue mix with strong subscription growth, coupled with cost efficiencies, drove a 270 basis point expansion of our non-GAAP operating margin to 26.8%.
Cash flow continued to be very robust as cash from operations grew 26% and free cash flow grew almost 34%.
Bookings in the first quarter were solid at approximately $247 million, but were down 22.8% against a very challenging comparison with the first quarter of 2020.
Our largest deal in the quarter was a SaaS arrangement for our Munis ERP solution with the City of Fresno, California valued at approximately $10 million.
On March 31, we completed two tuck-in acquisitions, DataSpec and ReadySub, for a total purchase price of $12 million in cash.
ReadySub is a cloud-based platform that delivers comprehensive absence and substitute teacher management solutions, serving approximately 1,000 school districts across the United States, with only approximately 20 of which overlapping with Tyler's 2,000 school district clients.
Most importantly, last week, we completed the $2.3 billion cash acquisition of NIC, a leading digital government solutions and payments company that serves more than 7,100 federal, state and local government agencies across the nation.
In addition, NIC has extensive experience and expertise and scale in the government payments area, processing more than $24 billion in payments on behalf of citizens and governments last year, which will accelerate Tyler's strategic payments initiative.
NIC had revenues of $460.5 million and net income of $68.6 million in 2020.
NIC's core first quarter revenues, excluding the TourHealth and COVID initiatives that are expected to wind down after the second quarter, grew more than 10% over last year.
In addition, NIC's operating income, again excluding the TourHealth and COVID initiatives as well as acquisition costs, rose more than 20%.
Both GAAP and non-GAAP revenues for the quarter were $294.8 million, up 6.6% on a GAAP basis and 6.5% on a non-GAAP basis.
Software license revenues declined 20.3%, reflecting both extended sales cycles and a high mix of subscription deals at 66% of new software contract value.
Software services revenue declined 8.6% as a result of the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and our shift to remote delivery of most services resulted in a decline in billable travel revenue.
On the positive side, subscription revenues rose 25.4%.
We added 84 new subscription-based arrangements and converted 39 existing on-premises clients, representing approximately $52 million in total contract value.
In Q1 of last year, we added 131 new subscription-based arrangements and had 19 on-premises conversions, representing approximately $98 million in total contract value.
Subscription contract value comprised approximately 66% of total new software contract value signed this quarter, compared to 73% in Q1 of last year.
The value weighted average term of new SaaS contracts this quarter was 4.0 years, compared to 5.9 years last year.
Revenues from e-filing and online payments, which are included in subscriptions, were $26.9 million, up 22.4%.
That amount includes e-filing revenue of $15.6 million, up 4.8%, and e-payments revenue of $11.3 million, up 59.3%.
For the first quarter, our annualized non-GAAP total recurring revenue, or ARR, was approximately $886 million, up 12.9%.
Non-GAAP ARR for SaaS arrangements for Q1 was approximately $302 million, up 26.3%.
Transaction-based ARR was approximately $108 million, up 22.4%, and non-GAAP maintenance ARR was approximately $476 million, up 4.1%.
Our backlog at the end of the quarter was $1.55 billion, up 3%.
As Lynn noted, our bookings in the quarter were solid at $247 million.
However, this was down 22.8% compared to a difficult comparison to Q1 of last year.
Last year's first quarter bookings included several large contracts, including two significant follow-on SaaS deals with the North Carolina courts, with a combined contract value of approximately $38 million.
For the trailing 12 months, bookings were approximately $1.2 billion, down 13.3%, although they do not include the majority of the $98 million extension of our Texas e-filing contract signed in Q4 of 2020 because of certain termination provisions in that contract.
If the Texas e-filing renewal was fully included, trailing 12-month bookings would have been down only 6.4%.
The prior trailing 12-month bookings also included four significant SaaS deals with the North Carolina courts, with a combined contract value of approximately $123 million.
Our subscription -- software subscription booking in the first quarter added $10.2 million in new annual recurring revenue.
Cash flow was once again very strong in the first quarter as cash from operations increased 26.4% to $71.7 million and free cash flow grew 33.9% to $61.7 million, representing an all-time high for first quarter free cash flow.
In March, we completed a $600 million offering of 0.25% convertible senior notes due 2026.
The notes are convertible into Tyler common stock at a conversion price of $493.44, which represents a 30% premium over our closing price on March 4.
On April 21, concurrent with the closing of the NIC acquisition, we entered into a new $1.4 billion senior unsecured credit facility with a group of eight banks.
The facility includes a $300 million term note due in 2024 and a $600 million term note due in 2026, both of which can be prepaid without penalty.
The facility also includes a new five-year $500 million revolving credit agreement that replaces our prior $400 million revolver.
Our balance sheet remains very strong and its pro forma net leverage at the NIC closing was approximately 3.2 times trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA.
And we expect to end the year with net leverage under 2.5 times.
The current blended interest rate on the $1.75 billion of debt we have outstanding today is 1.1%.
Exiting 2020, our financial position was stronger than ever, allowing us to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions, including NIC, the largest acquisition in our history with a purchase price of $2.3 billion in cash.
We also expect that the $350 billion of aid to state and local governments under the American Rescue Plan Act will provide a significant measure of relief to budget pressures faced by many of our clients and prospects and have a positive impact on recovery of our markets.
More than 3,500 of the world's largest publicly listed companies provide detailed data and background to this global survey for evaluation by its independent sustainability ranking body.
Finally, this week, we are virtually hosting more than 5,000 clients at Connect 2021, our annual user conference with a theme called Virtually Possible.
Team members from across Tyler are providing nearly 700 hours of valuable content for our clients using our advanced virtual event platform.

Summary:
Both GAAP and non-GAAP revenues for the quarter were $294.8 million, up 6.6% on a GAAP basis and 6.5% on a non-GAAP basis.