User Retention Metrics

What Are User Retention Metrics? (Definitions & Core Formulas)

User retention metrics are how you figure out if people actually like your product enough to stick around.

You can pour money into ads and get thousands of signups. But if they all leave after a week? You didn’t build a business. You just rented a crowd. Retention metrics strip away the vanity of acquisition and show you who actually stayed for the party.

Let’s look at the three numbers that matter most.

User Retention Rate

User retention rate is simply the percentage of people who keep using your app or service over a specific period.

Imagine you run a software platform. You started January with 1,000 active users. Over the month, your marketing team brings in 200 new folks. By the end of January, your total user count is 1,100. How many of the original group actually stuck around? 

Here’s the formula:

In this case, ((1,100 – 200) ÷ 1,000) × 100 = 90%. You successfully kept 90% of your base.

Does that mean 90% is the universal gold standard? Not exactly. A  “good” rate depends entirely on what you’re selling. A B2B accounting tool will naturally hold onto people longer than a dating app.

Churn Rate

Churn rate is the exact opposite of retention. Churn is the percentage of users who cancel, delete their account, or just stop logging in.

It’s how fast your bucket is leaking.

Here’s the formula: 

If you start the quarter with 1,000 users and 50 of them bounce, your churn rate is 5%. It’s a painful number to look at, but you have to track it. High churn easily wipes out all the expensive new users your sales team just dragged in.

Product Stickiness (DAU/MAU Ratio)

Do people log in once a month to pay a bill, or are they opening your app every morning over coffee? That’s what product stickiness measures. It compares your daily active users (DAU) to your monthly active users (MAU).

Here’s the formula: 

If you have 10,000 monthly users and 2,000 of them use it every single day, your stickiness is 20%. Engagement guides often point to this ratio as the ultimate test of habit. 

The Bottom Line

Looking at these numbers together gives you a reality check. Retention rate tells you who stays. Churn rate shows you who leaves. And stickiness proves how much they actually care.

Because at the end of the day, growth only matters if it’s sustainable.