SaaS retention guide

Monthly Churn vs Annual Churn

Churn timing matters. A monthly churn rate compounds across the year, so annual churn is not always the same as monthly churn multiplied by twelve.

Monthly churn

Monthly churn measures the percentage of customers or recurring revenue lost during one month. Aura Revenue uses monthly revenue churn as a simple public calculator input.

Annual churn

Annual churn measures loss over a year. It is useful for board or annual planning, but it can hide short-term movement if onboarding, pricing, or customer fit changes quickly.

Directional conversion formula

monthly churn = 1 - (1 - annual churn)^(1 / 12)

This conversion treats churn as compounding evenly across the year. Real businesses can be lumpier because renewals, pricing changes, and failed payments do not always happen evenly.

Model churn impact

Test a current churn case, a downside case, and a retention-improvement case. The difference can show whether retention work should come before more acquisition spend.