Quick Answer (TL;DR)
Net Revenue Retention and Day 7 Retention are the two most diagnostic retention metrics. NRR tells you whether your business model works. Day 7 retention tells you whether your onboarding works. Track both.
Why This List Matters
Acquisition is expensive. Retention is where SaaS companies win or lose. A 5% improvement in retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%. These 10 metrics give you a complete view of how well your product keeps users and revenue.
1. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
Best for: Measuring whether existing customers grow their spend over time
NRR above 120% means your product grows significantly from the existing base alone. Below 90% signals a serious retention problem. It is the single metric investors care about most for SaaS. Read the NRR guide.
2. Day 7 Retention
Best for: Evaluating whether new users stick around after the first week
Day 7 is the critical window. If users return after a week, they are likely to stay. If they do not, your onboarding needs work. Benchmark: 20% to 40% for B2B SaaS. Read the Day 7 Retention guide.
3. Customer Churn Rate
Best for: Tracking the percentage of customers who leave each period
Monthly churn above 3% is dangerous for SaaS. Track churn by cohort to see whether improvements stick. Use the Churn Calculator and read the churn rate guide.
4. Day 30 Retention
Best for: Measuring whether users establish a habit with your product
Day 30 retention separates one-time users from regular ones. If Day 7 is strong but Day 30 drops, your product has a habit-formation problem. Guide: Day 30 Retention.
5. Revenue Churn Rate
Best for: Understanding the dollar impact of customer losses
Revenue churn can differ from customer churn when large accounts leave or small accounts stay. Track both. Negative revenue churn (expansion exceeds losses) is the goal. Read the Revenue Churn guide.
6. DAU/MAU Ratio (Stickiness)
Best for: Measuring how frequently users return to your product
A DAU/MAU ratio above 20% indicates strong daily engagement. Social products target 50%+. Enterprise tools are fine at 10% to 15%. This metric reveals whether your product is part of users' routine. Read the Stickiness guide.
7. Cohort Retention Curve
Best for: Visualizing how retention changes over time for each user cohort
The retention curve reveals whether you have a flattening curve (users who stay tend to stay forever) or a continuing decline (everyone eventually leaves). Read the Cohort Retention guide.
8. Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
Best for: Measuring retention without the noise of expansion revenue
GRR strips out upsells and cross-sells to show pure retention. If GRR is below 80%, your core product has a retention problem that expansion cannot mask. Guide: GRR metric.
9. Customer Health Score
Best for: Predicting which customers are at risk before they churn
A composite score combining usage frequency, feature adoption, support tickets, and NPS. Helps CS teams intervene before at-risk customers cancel. Read the Customer Health Score guide.
10. Reactivation Rate
Best for: Measuring how effectively you win back churned users
Some churn is reversible. Reactivation rate tracks the percentage of churned users who return. A high reactivation rate means your product has strong latent demand. Guide: Reactivation Rate.
How We Ranked These
Metrics are ranked by diagnostic power (how quickly they reveal the root cause of retention problems), actionability (whether PMs can directly influence them), and universality (whether they apply across SaaS types). NRR and Day 7 retention rank highest because they are the earliest and clearest signals.