Finding customers and growing
Churn rate
Churn rate is the share of customers, or of revenue, that you lose in a set period, usually counted per month or per year.
Also called churn
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Customer churn, also called logo churn, counts accounts that cancel. Revenue churn counts the money lost, which can differ a lot from customer churn. A business can lose few accounts and still lose a large share of revenue if its biggest customers leave.
What recent High Alpha data says
In High Alpha's 2025 survey, the median SaaS company under 5 million US dollars of ARR (yearly recurring revenue) kept 92% of its revenue from existing customers before upgrades, so it lost about 8% of that revenue a year. This is revenue churn, not a count of customers who left.
- Median gross revenue retention (revenue kept before upgrades), under 1 million and 1 million to 5 million US dollars of ARR: 92% and 92%.
- Top quarter, same two groups: 100% and 95%.
Source: High Alpha, 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Report. More than 800 SaaS companies surveyed, 69% in the US, not all startups. As of 5 November 2026.
When this shows up
Example, not a real founder: new sign-ups grow every month, and the total customer count looks healthy. Underneath, almost as many customers cancel each month as join. The growth was hiding the leak.
What to do next
Count the paying customers you had at the start of last month and how many of those cancelled by the end. Next to each cancellation, write the reason if you know it.
Go deeper
Flat for months. Should you pivot or keep pushing?
A read on whether people find, use, return to and pay for your product, or a note when there is too little to judge.
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