Gross Churn Vs. Net Churn 

Key takeways:

• Your gross churn, net churn, and net negative churn rates each offer unique insights into how factors like customer retention, expansions, and cancellations are impacting your revenue 
• Gross revenue churn tells you how much revenue you’ve lost in a set period from subscription cancellations or downgrades, while net churn tells you how much revenue you’ve lost from existing customers in a particular period 
• Gross churn is best for getting a clear look at your revenue churn metrics without sugar coating, while net churn can help you track revenue changes from existing customers 
• Tools like Baremetrics can automatically calculate multiple churn metrics and facilitate improved churn analysis for better decision-making 

SaaS churn is one of the most important metrics to track for business success. Customer churn has a massive impact on the primary KPI of subscription-based companies: monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

However, there are many different ways to measure churn, and each calculation can reveal different insights about the health of a subscription business. Understanding where (and why) your revenue is growing and shrinking can have a huge impact on scaling your subscription business.

You can, for example, use customer and revenue churn metrics to assess how your business is growing. There’s also the option to leverage LTV calculations when considering churn. 

Today, however, we’re going to discuss gross churn, net churn, and negative net churn. We’ll cover the differences between these metrics how to calculate churn rates, and when you should use them to analyze the health of your SaaS business.

The Definition of Gross Revenue Churn?

Gross revenue churn is the overall percentage of revenue that you’ve lost in a given period from subscription cancellations or downgrades. Customers might voluntarily cancel or downgrade their subscriptions due to dissatisfaction or end involuntarily due to a failed payment.

When you have a high gross churn rate, it’s a good idea to dig deeper and discover why you’re losing customers or revenue. That way, you can understand whether you need to improve your customer experience or consider a revenue recovery solution to reduce involuntary churn.

How to Calculate Gross Churn

You can calculate gross churn by taking the revenue lost for a given period and dividing it by the revenue at the beginning of the period. Or:

Revenue lost during a set period / Total revenue at the beginning of the period = Gross churn

For example, if you perform this calculation for the last 30 days, you can discover how much MRR you lost. Many companies calculate monthly and annual churn regularly to identify trends.

Customer churn is calculated similarly, focusing on lost customers rather than lost revenue. While customer churn is another great metric to track, it doesn’t factor in the revenue a customer took with them. This makes gross revenue churn more useful for businesses with multiple subscription tiers and add-ons.

The Definition of Net Churn

Net revenue churn is the percentage of revenue lost from existing customers during a period. By subtracting expansion revenue—revenue from subscription upgrades or add-ons—you can better understand the revenue changes from your existing customer base.

How to Calculate Net Churn

The net churn formula is as follows: Subtract the amount of expansion revenue from the revenue lost. Then, divide this by the total revenue at the beginning of the period. Or:

(Revenue lost - Expansion revenue) / Total revenue = Net churn 

A positive net churn rate indicates lost revenue is slowing business growth, while a negative rate suggests your business grows without upselling. If your net churn rate is near zero, churn negates any revenue from upsells.

Gross Churn vs. Net Churn: Key Differences

The primary difference between gross churn and net churn is whether you’re factoring in the impact of expansion revenue"

• Gross churn might give you a more realistic understanding of how much revenue you’re losing without sugarcoating the numbers by including upsells and add-ons 
• Net churn reveals more about the revenue changes you can expect from your existing customer base

There’s a time and place when you can use each metric to effectively reduce churn and boost revenue. Let’s look at each.

When to Use Gross Churn

Gross churn is useful for understanding whether you’re attracting the right customers and providing a high-quality product. When you factor in expansion revenue with net churn, you cannot see how many of your existing customers are dissatisfied. Gross churn is the best metric to track when optimizing your customer experience.

When to Use Net Churn

Net churn helps understand the impact upsells are having on revenue. Although you might have a high gross churn rate, if your net churn is negative, your revenue from existing customers is still growing. That means net churn is a great metric for understanding the revenue growth potential of your existing customers.

For most SaaS startups, net churn is an important indicator of business sustainability. Without a negative or zero net churn rate, the business can’t fully take advantage of new revenue, which can dramatically limit business growth over the long term.

When Should You Use Negative Net Churn?

Negative churn occurs when net revenue churn is negative. While this sounds bad, your expansion revenue exceeds your overall churn rate. This suggests your business will continue growing without new sales if the net churn rate is steady. A negative churn rate is a great metric to showcase to potential investors during fundraising.

Keep in mind that all users who churn may not do so intentionally. Involuntary churn occurs when users fail to retain due to reasons like expired credit cards or missed payments. You can use dunning management platforms like Baremetrics to identify users at risk for churn and intervene proactively.  

Related Reading: How to Reduce Churn for Large Companies

Track Your Churn Metrics With Baremetrics

As you can see, there are many ways to measure churn, and they’re all crucial indicators of business health. However, it can quickly become overwhelming to calculate all these metrics and other important KPIs like MRR and customer lifetime value without an automated subscription analytics solution.

Baremetrics is a metrics, dunning, and engagement platform that automatically tracks 26 key metrics and insights for SaaS and subscription businesses. You can monitor and analyze churn (and other critical metrics) in our simple dashboards to make better decisions that propel your business forward.

Tired of wasting time on spreadsheets? Get a free trial of Baremetrics today!