Churn is the rate at which customers stop using or paying for your product over a period. It's the inverse of retention and the quiet killer of early products: growth that leaks out the bottom isn't growth.
Counting lost customers and lost revenue tells two different stories — losing one enterprise account can dwarf ten lost starters.
At MVP stage, churn within the first week usually means an activation problem; churn after a month means the ongoing value is thinner than the first impression. Each points the next iteration somewhere different.
Practical answers
Mature SaaS aims under 2% monthly revenue churn. Early products run far higher — what matters is the direction and what each churned cohort teaches.
Talk to every churned user — at small scale, exit conversations carry more signal than the percentage does.
Related pages
MVP Development
MVP development agency for founders: product scope, UX, engineering, and launch support from €7,000 — without overbuilding the first version.
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Retention explained: cohort curves, why flattening matters, and how retention is the closest thing to a product-market fit measurement.
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Activation rate explained: defining the aha moment, measuring it, and why activation is the first metric an MVP should optimize.
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Product-market fit explained for founders: what it actually feels like, leading indicators to track, and why retention is the test that matters.
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