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Glossary
Product concepts

What is Churn?

Churn is a metric that measures the number of customers or the amount of revenue lost when users cancel their subscriptions or stop using a product. It is typically calculated as a percentage of the total customer base over a defined period, such as a month or year. High churn indicates that a product is failing to retain its users, suggesting issues with value delivery, usability, or customer satisfaction.

When to use it

Teams use churn metrics to assess the long-term viability of their product and the effectiveness of their retention strategies. It is used to identify patterns in user departures, measure the impact of new feature releases, and justify investments in customer success or product improvements. Tracking churn helps product managers understand if they are adding enough value to keep users coming back.

Example

A SaaS team with 1,000 active subscribers loses 50 users over the course of January, resulting in a 5% monthly customer churn rate. After reviewing feedback in their public portal, they realize many users are churning because the onboarding process is too complex. They prioritize simplifying the setup flow in their next sprint to attempt to lower the churn rate to 3% for the following quarter.

How Planet Roadmap helps with Churn

Planet Roadmap includes a public feedback portal and feature voting system that allows teams to capture the specific reasons behind user departures. By identifying highly-requested features or recurring pain points, teams can update their roadmap to address the root causes of churn.

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FAQ

What is the difference between customer churn and revenue churn?
Customer churn measures the number of individual users who leave, while revenue churn (or MRR churn) measures the total dollar value of the lost subscriptions. Revenue churn is often more important for businesses with multiple pricing tiers, as losing one high-value enterprise customer can impact the business more than losing several low-tier users.
What is the difference between voluntary and involuntary churn?
Voluntary churn occurs when a customer makes a conscious decision to cancel their service due to factors like price or lack of features. Involuntary churn happens when a subscription ends due to technical or billing issues, such as a failed credit card payment or an expired billing profile.

Related terms

RetentionCustomer Lifetime Value (LTV)Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)Product-Market FitNet Promoter Score (NPS)CSATActivationCohort AnalysisMonthly Active Users (MAU)Feedback Portal

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