SaaS Churn & Retention Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms you hit when analyzing churn, retention, and subscription economics. 30 terms, updated regularly.
Activation Rate
Percentage of new signups who reach a key product milestone.ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
Total revenue divided by total active customers.ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
MRR multiplied by 12, reported annually.CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Total spend to acquire one new customer.Churn Health Score
RetentionCheck's 0-100 grade of a cancellation feedback corpus.Churn Prediction
Using data to forecast which customers will churn.Churn Rate
The percentage of customers who cancel over a given period.Cohort Retention Analysis
Retention tracked by signup month rather than point-in-time.Customer Churn
Count of customers lost, independent of revenue.Customer Health Score
Composite score predicting a customer's churn risk.Dunning
Process of recovering failed payments.Exit Survey
Question(s) shown during cancellation to capture the reason.Expansion Revenue
Additional revenue from existing customers via upgrades or add-ons.Gross Churn
Total customers or revenue lost, ignoring expansion.GRR (Gross Revenue Retention)
Revenue held from existing customers, ignoring expansion.Involuntary Churn
Subscription ended due to payment failure, not customer choice.LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)
Total revenue expected from a customer over their lifetime.MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Predictable monthly revenue from all active subscriptions.Negative Churn
When expansion revenue exceeds revenue lost to cancellations.Net Churn
Revenue lost minus expansion from existing customers.NRR (Net Revenue Retention)
Revenue from existing customers this period vs. last, including expansion and churn.Payback Period
Months required for a new customer to pay back their CAC.Product-Market Fit (PMF)
Point where your product satisfies strong market demand.Retention Rate
Percentage of customers who stay over a given period.Revenue Churn
MRR lost over a period, regardless of customer count.SaaS Magic Number
Efficiency ratio of revenue growth to sales and marketing spend.SaaS Quick Ratio
Ratio of new+expansion revenue to churn+contraction.Time to Value (TTV)
How long after signup a customer first experiences value.Voluntary Churn
Active cancellation by a customer who chose to leave.Win-back Campaign
Outreach to former customers aimed at reactivation.