Retention Glossary

Browse 32 retention terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

32 Retention Terms

Churn
The rate at which customers cancel their subscriptions or stop using a product. A SaaS company's most watched (and most dreaded) metric. Customer churn counts...
Churn Rate
The percentage of customers or revenue lost over a given period. Logo churn counts customers lost; revenue churn measures MRR lost. Negative net revenue churn...
Cohort
A group of users or customers segmented by a shared characteristic, often start date or acquisition source, so their behavior can be analyzed over time. Cohort...
cohort analysis
A technique that groups users by a shared characteristic (typically signup date) and tracks their behavior over time. Instead of looking at aggregate metrics...
Cohort Analysis
Analyzing user behavior by grouping users who share a common starting characteristic (sign-up date, acquisition channel, plan type) and tracking their metrics...
Customer Churn
The rate at which customers stop using or paying for a product over a given time period. High customer churn can erase the benefits of strong acquisition.
Customer Health Score
A composite metric used to estimate the likelihood that a customer will retain, expand, or churn based on usage, support patterns, payment status, and other...
Customer Lifetime Value
An estimate of the total revenue or gross profit a customer will generate over the full duration of the relationship. It is a core unit-economics metric when...
Customer Retention
The ability of a business to keep customers over time rather than losing them to churn. Strong customer retention is often a better sign of product-market fit...
Customer Success
The function responsible for helping customers realize value, stay engaged, renew, and often expand over time. In subscription businesses, customer success...
Developer Retention
The ability of an organization to keep developers engaged and employed over time instead of losing them to burnout, frustration, or better opportunities. In...
Dollar Retention
A revenue retention metric showing how recurring revenue from a customer cohort changes over time after accounting for churn, contraction, and sometimes...
Durable Growth
Growth that is likely to persist because it is supported by strong retention, healthy economics, and repeatable demand rather than one-time spikes or...
Exit Interview
An interview conducted when someone is leaving an organization to gather feedback about their experience, reasons for leaving, and possible systemic issues. In...
Expansion Revenue
Additional recurring revenue generated from existing customers through upgrades, added seats, usage growth, or additional products. Expansion revenue is a...
Gross Retention
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from an existing customer base over time, excluding the positive effect of expansion. Gross retention isolates how...
Logo Churn
The rate at which customer accounts or logos are lost over time, regardless of how much revenue each account represented. It differs from revenue churn, which...
Negative Churn
A situation where expansion revenue from existing customers exceeds the revenue lost from churn and contraction, causing recurring revenue from a cohort to...
Net Retention
A measure of how much revenue from an existing customer base is retained over time after accounting for churn, contraction, and expansion. Net retention above...
Net Revenue Retention
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from an existing cohort over time after factoring in churn, downgrades, and expansion. Net revenue retention is a...
NRR
Short for net revenue retention, the percentage of recurring revenue kept from an existing customer base after churn, contraction, and expansion. It is one of...
Re-engagement
The effort to bring inactive or declining users and customers back into meaningful product usage through messaging, incentives, or product changes....
Renewal Rate
The percentage of customers or contracts that renew at the end of a term rather than churn. Renewal rate is especially important in subscription businesses...
Repeat Purchase
An additional purchase made by an existing customer after the initial transaction. Repeat purchase behavior is a strong signal of satisfaction and business...
Retention Cohort
A group of users or customers tracked over time to measure how many remain active or paying after a shared start period. Retention cohorts reveal whether...
Retention Curve
A graph showing how user or customer retention changes over time after signup or purchase. Teams study the shape of the retention curve to see whether the...
Retention Rate
The percentage of users or customers who remain active or paying over a specified period. Retention rate is one of the clearest indicators of product quality...
Revenue Churn
The amount of recurring revenue lost over time from customers leaving or downgrading, usually expressed as a percentage. Revenue churn can look very different...
Stickiness
The tendency of a product to keep users coming back and incorporating it into regular behavior. Stickiness is often visible in frequency, retention, and how...
Subscription Fatigue
The exhaustion or resistance users feel when too many products require ongoing subscriptions, making them less willing to add another recurring charge....
User Retention
The ability of a product to keep users active over time after acquisition or signup. User retention is one of the strongest indicators that the product...
Win-Back
An effort to re-acquire former customers or users who previously churned. Win-back strategies work best when the product or circumstances have genuinely...

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