SaaS churn benchmarks spotlight retention

A new churn benchmark roundup is getting attention because it pulls one of SaaS fundraising’s oldest tricks into the open: blended growth can hide weak retention in specific customer groups. SaaS Ultra published the synthesis on May 20, citing benchmark sources including ChartMogul and Recurly, and framed churn by stage, segment and vertical rather than as a single company-wide number. That matters because investors have spent the past two years pressing software companies harder on net retention, gross retention and expansion quality. The practical result is that founders pitching a multi-segment story now need separate cohort evidence for SMB, consumer and enterprise accounts, not just topline growth. ### Why are founders talking about churn again? ChartMogul said in its retention report that acquiring new customers has become “more complex, time-consuming, and expensive,” pushing SaaS operators toward existing-customer growth. The company said net revenue retention has become “the most vital metric” for sustaining growth, based on analysis of more than 2,500 SaaS businesses. (saasultra.com) Recurly said on January 16, 2025 that subscriber acquisition rates in its data fell to 2.8%, down from 4.1% in 2021, while retention became the “cornerstone” of subscription growth. The billing software company said its annual report drew on data from 67 million subscribers. ### What does the benchmark roundup actually add? SaaS Ultra said the average churn number “varies widely by customer type and deal size,” which is the core reason a blended company-wide figure can mislead. (chartmogul.com) The article grouped churn by company stage, customer segment and software vertical, then linked common causes to defensive moves such as tighter onboarding, better pricing design and stronger customer success motions. (recurly.com) The synthesis is not itself a primary dataset. But its reporting lines up with the underlying benchmark providers it cites: ChartMogul emphasized expansion and retention as growth drivers, and Recurly highlighted personalization, flexible payment options and pause flows as retention tools. ### Which retention numbers matter most in a fundraise? ChartMogul said companies with $15 million to $30 million-plus in annual recurring revenue are now getting 40% of their growth from expansion, up from 30% in early 2021. (saasultra.com) The firm also said the median company with at least 100% net revenue retention grows 48% year over year, or about twice the pace of companies in lower NRR bands. (chartmogul.com) Those figures help explain why investors increasingly ask for retention cuts by segment. A founder selling to SMBs, consumers and enterprises may need to show SMB logo churn by cohort, consumer retention after activation, and enterprise expansion by account vintage, because those motions behave differently even inside one product. That is an inference from the cited benchmark structure and current SaaS reporting norms, not a direct quote from one source. (chartmogul.com) ### Why is segment-level reporting becoming harder to avoid? High Alpha said its 2025 SaaS Benchmarks Report drew responses from more than 800 companies, with customer profiles split across enterprise, mid-market, SMB, micro-business and consumer. That spread underscores how much benchmark context changes once a company serves different buyer types. Recurly’s data also showed that 20% of acquisitions came from returning subscribers and that businesses offering pause options saw 25% of subscribers pause instead of canceling. (saasultra.com) Those are retention mechanics more relevant to consumer-style subscriptions than to enterprise contracts, which is why one aggregate churn figure can blur what is really happening. (highalpha.com) ### What should founders be ready to show next? The next step is not a new universal churn target. The next step is a cleaner data room. Founders heading into fundraising should expect requests for cohort tables, segment-level churn, expansion detail and activation-linked retention views that match how each customer group buys and stays. The benchmark roundup is available on SaaS Ultra, while the underlying retention reports remain on ChartMogul and Recurly for investors who want to check the source data directly. (recurly.com) (saasultra.com)