SaaS Churn Rate Benchmarks: What Is Normal for Small Apps?
A typical SaaS churn rate depends a lot on what you charge, at least in the data we could find. ChartMogul’s analysis of its customers’ data found a median monthly customer churn of 6.1% for products under $25 a month per account, falling to 2.2% above $500 (ChartMogul). So if your app costs $9 to $20 a month, a monthly churn rate near 6% puts you around the median, not in crisis.
The rest of this guide shows where the published benchmarks come from, how to compare your own number fairly, and what to do when yours is above the line. These are published medians from specific samples, not universal standards, and your market can differ. A note on bias: we make Indiehacker Studio, a tool that does this for small apps; the method below works with any tool or a spreadsheet.
What is the average SaaS churn rate?
There is no single average worth trusting, because churn swings with price, customer type and billing interval. The benchmarks below come from named sources with their own data. Each measures something slightly different, so read the “what it measures” column before comparing.
| Source | What it measures | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| ChartMogul, 2022 | Median monthly customer churn, accounts paying under $25 a month | 6.1% |
| ChartMogul, 2022 | Median monthly customer churn, accounts paying over $500 a month | 2.2% |
| ChartMogul, 2022 | Target for the best companies | under 2% a month |
| SaaS Capital, 2025 | Median yearly gross revenue retention, private B2B SaaS with contracts under $250K | about 91% |
| SaaS Capital, 2025 | Median yearly gross revenue retention, contracts above $250K | about 95% |
ChartMogul’s figures are aggregated over November 2021 to January 2022 and published in February 2022. SaaS Capital’s come from its 2025 survey of private B2B SaaS companies. A 91% yearly gross revenue retention means about 9% of revenue lost in a year from churn and downgrades, which is a different scale from a monthly customer churn rate.
Why does price change churn so much?
Our reading (an interpretation, not something the sources measured): low-priced products attract people who try things casually and cancel just as casually. A $9 tool is often bought on a card by one person, with no procurement, no onboarding call and no contract. Nothing stops them leaving when a free tier, a side project ending or a tight month comes along.
Higher-priced products are usually bought by a team, embedded in a workflow and paid yearly. Leaving costs time and a meeting. That would help explain why the ChartMogul median drops from 6.1% to 2.2% as account value rises.
For an indie hacker, the practical reading is: compare yourself with products at your price, not with enterprise SaaS.
How do you compare your churn with a benchmark?
Benchmarks are only useful if you compute your number the same way:
- Match the period. Monthly against monthly, yearly against yearly. Don’t multiply monthly churn by 12; it compounds. For example, 5% a month keeps about 54% of customers after a year (0.95 to the 12th power).
- Match the unit. Customer churn (people) and revenue churn (MRR) are different numbers. ChartMogul’s 6.1% is customer churn. SaaS Capital’s retention figures are revenue.
- Exclude trials. Trials that never convert are not churned customers. See the churn rate formula for the exact counting rules.
- Use enough data. With 30 customers, one cancellation moves you 3.3 points. Look at three months together before reacting.
If you want worked examples to check your arithmetic, the churn rate calculator guide has a table of them.
What is a good churn rate for a small SaaS?
Using the ChartMogul medians as the yardstick:
- Under $25 a month: around 6% monthly customer churn is the median. Below it, you are under the median of that sample; ChartMogul describes under 2% as the target for the best companies.
- $25 to $100 a month: aim to be clearly under the low-price median.
- Yearly plans: churn only happens at renewal, so judge them by renewal rate rather than monthly churn.
Revenue churn matters as much as customer churn. If your churned customers are mostly on your cheapest plan, revenue churn sits below customer churn and the business is healthier than the headline suggests. Track both, and add retention once you have upgrades (churn rate vs retention rate explains the difference).
What can you do if churn is above the benchmark?
Start with what the data can show you, then talk to people:
- Read the timing. Churn in the first month often points to a setup or onboarding gap. Churn after six months often means the job is done or a competitor won. These are rules of thumb, not measured findings.
- Separate failed payments. A card that fails and is never updated looks like churn but is a billing problem. Stripe’s retries and reminder emails recover part of it.
- Ask the people leaving. A short question in the product when someone cancels, or a direct email, tells you more than a dashboard can. An in-app feedback prompt or a chat box on your site gives them a place to answer.
- Offer a yearly plan. It changes when churn can happen and gives customers a reason to stay through a quiet month.
FAQ
Is 5% monthly churn bad?
For a product under $25 a month it is close to the ChartMogul median of 6.1%. For a product at several hundred dollars a month it is high.
Should I use customer or revenue churn for benchmarks?
Use whichever the benchmark uses. ChartMogul’s medians above are customer churn; SaaS Capital reports revenue retention.
How often should I check churn?
Monthly, on a rolling 30-day window, with a three-month view before drawing conclusions.
Do these benchmarks apply to B2C apps?
ChartMogul’s data covers subscription software in general. SaaS Capital’s survey is private B2B SaaS only, so treat it as a B2B reference.
See your churn next to your traffic
Indiehacker Studio connects to Stripe with a read-only restricted key and shows customer churn and revenue churn over the last 30 days for each project, together with MRR, trials and the other SaaS metrics that explain it. The same script gives you cookieless analytics and a support chat, so when churn goes up you can see whether traffic, trials or conversations changed with it. It does not compare you with other companies; read your number against the table above.
Revenue is a Pro feature at $12 a month or $120 a year. See pricing or create a free account.