SaaS & Subscription Churn Rate Calculator
Calculate your monthly or annual customer attrition rate instantly.
What is Churn Rate?
Churn rate, also known as the rate of attrition, is the percentage of subscribers or customers who stop paying for a service during a specific timeframe. For SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses, churn is the ultimate "silent killer." Even a small monthly churn rate can compound over time, making it nearly impossible to grow if you are losing customers as fast as you acquire them.
How to Calculate Churn Rate
The standard formula for calculating churn rate is straightforward:
For example, if you start the month with 500 customers and 25 of them cancel their subscription before the month ends, your churn rate is (25 / 500) x 100 = 5%.
Why Monitoring Churn is Critical for SEO and Growth
High churn indicates a "leaky bucket" in your business model. From a growth perspective, reducing churn is often more cost-effective than acquiring new customers. A lower churn rate increases your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), allowing you to spend more on marketing and SEO to dominate your niche.
Real-World Example
Company A: Cloud Storage Provider
- Beginning Customers: 2,500
- Lost Customers: 125
- Monthly Subscription: $20
Results: This company has a 5% churn rate. This means they are losing $2,500 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) every single month. To simply stay flat, they must acquire 125 new users every month before they can even think about growth.
3 Tips to Reduce Subscription Churn
- Improve Onboarding: Ensure customers find value in your product within the first 24 hours.
- Identify "At-Risk" Users: Monitor login frequency. If a user hasn't logged in for 10 days, trigger an automated re-engagement email.
- Offer Annual Plans: Customers on annual plans usually have significantly lower churn rates than those on monthly plans.