Comparison
RetentionCheck vs ProfitWell (Paddle Retain)
ProfitWell shows you what churned. RetentionCheck tells you why.
ProfitWell Metrics is the free subscription dashboard everyone runs. Paddle Retain handles failed payments. Neither reads the open-text cancellation reasons that explain why voluntary churn is happening. That signal is invisible to both products by design.
Where RetentionCheck fits in this category
Most churn tools either show revenue metrics or run cancel flows. RetentionCheck turns raw cancellation text into a ranked weekly operator brief with one priority action to ship. 986 cancellation responses analyzed across 21 churn audits to date.
Get your A-F Churn Health Grade in 30 seconds
Paste cancellation feedback. No signup. No demo call.
Try free| RetentionCheck | ProfitWell (Paddle Retain) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Analyzes voluntary churn reasons | MRR dashboard + failed-payment recovery |
| Time to first insight | 30 seconds, paste text | Minutes after billing connect |
| Categorizes open-text cancellation reasons | yes (LLM + severity) | |
| Voluntary vs involuntary split | Voluntary diagnostic | Involuntary recovery + analytics |
| Billing integration required | no, paste text | yes, Stripe / Recurly / Chargebee / Braintree |
| Cost model | Flat $99/mo or $249/mo | Free Metrics / Retain 8-10% of recovered revenue |
| Severity + confidence scoring per driver | ||
| Reads support tickets + Trustpilot reviews | ||
| Standalone (no Paddle dependency) | Paddle Retain wants Paddle billing |
What ProfitWell (Paddle Retain) does
ProfitWell is the subscription-analytics product Paddle acquired in 2022. The Metrics product (free forever) covers MRR, ARR, churn rate, LTV, cohort retention, and customer segmentation across connected billing providers. It is the cheap entry point for subscription analytics, often the first dashboard a founder spins up. Paddle Retain is the renamed Churn Buster / Retain product: dunning + failed-payment recovery priced as a percentage of recovered revenue (typically 8-10%), no monthly fee. Both products operate on billing-event data.
What RetentionCheck does differently
RetentionCheck reads the qualitative cancellation feedback that ProfitWell Metrics never ingests and Paddle Retain never categorizes. You paste exit-survey responses, Stripe cancellation reasons, support tickets, or Trustpilot reviews and get a Churn Health Grade A to F, severity-ranked drivers with confidence scores, verbatim quotes, and one priority action. The input is text, the output is a diagnostic. No billing integration, no Paddle dependency, flat pricing.
When to use ProfitWell (Paddle Retain)
Use ProfitWell Metrics when you need a free quantitative dashboard for MRR + ARR + churn rate + cohort retention across one or more billing providers. The free tier under any scale is generous and there is no upgrade path required for most early-stage SaaS. Use Paddle Retain when you have material failed-payment churn (typically 1-3% of MRR each month from card failures) and want the percentage-of-recovered-revenue model to handle dunning without a monthly fee. Both products fit early-stage SaaS economics cleanly.
When to use RetentionCheck
Use RetentionCheck when ProfitWell shows that voluntary churn (active cancellations, not card failures) is a bigger driver than involuntary churn and you need to know why customers are actively leaving. Paddle Retain handles the failed-payment side. ProfitWell Metrics charts the trend. Neither answers the qualitative "why are people clicking cancel" question. That is RetentionCheck's job.
The verdict
Complementary tools at three different layers of the same churn problem. ProfitWell Metrics tracks the rate. Paddle Retain recovers the involuntary card-failure churn. RetentionCheck diagnoses the voluntary cancellation reasons. The full cheap stack for indie SaaS is all three: ProfitWell free + Paddle Retain on percentage + RetentionCheck Founder $99/mo. Combined monthly run-rate stays under $150/mo for most teams below $200K MRR. None of the three replaces the others.
Get your Churn Health Grade in 30 seconds
Paste cancellation feedback. Get an A-F grade and the top churn drivers ranked by severity. Free. No signup.
Get my A-F churn grade
Founder, RetentionCheck
Founder of RetentionCheck. Solo SaaS builder. Reads cancellation feedback so other founders do not have to.
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