What is SaaS Customer Retention Rate?

SaaS customer retention rate (CRR) is the percentage of paying customers a SaaS business keeps over a period, so it can never exceed 100%. SaaS customer retention is the continuous ability of the business to have many long-term paying customers using SaaS business products. This is a critical indicator of SaaS success because the main source of revenue within this business model is derived through subscriptions.

Customer retention rate, or CRR, is another important SaaS metric that calculates the percentage of customers retained for a given period. It is determined using the following formula:

CRR = (Number of customers at the end of a period – Number of customers acquired during the period) / Number of customers at the start of the period * 100

A good customer retention rate is relative and may differ depending on the nature of the business, the market segment chosen, and even the type of product. For SaaS businesses, customer retention is often lower in the initial stages and tends to adjust as the business scales and aligns with product-market fit (ChartMogul).

ChartMogul’s 2025 benchmarks measure revenue rather than customers: the median net revenue retention (NRR) of companies with at least $250k ARR (ChartMogul, December 2025).

B2B SaaS keeps far more of its revenue than consumer SaaS. Price matters within every category too: products selling above $250 a month retain at rates matching classic B2B SaaS (ChartMogul, December 2025 analysis). Median NRR also runs 10 to 20 percentage points higher on annual plans than on monthly ones (ChartMogul retention report).

There is no universal index for SaaS customer retention. What constitutes an ideal CRR will closely depend on your unique situation. The best way to go about it is to monitor your own CRR trend over time and compare it to that of your competitors or industry.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is the percentage of original recurring customer subscription revenue plus upsell/cross-sell revenue retained for a period within a certain time frame. CRR counts customers, so it can never exceed 100% (ChartMogul). Only net revenue retention can, because it adds expansion revenue.

• Focus on customer satisfaction: Achieving maximum customer satisfaction requires creating substantial new value for the target customer.
• Proactive customer engagement: Maintain regular communication with customers and offer support.
• Data-driven decision-making: Measure key metrics regularly and base changes, such as to pricing strategies, on the data.
• Continuous product improvement: Update your product based on customer feedback.
• Invest in customer success: Establish a dedicated team to help customers with their goals when using your product.

Loyal and satisfied customers are the basis of any SaaS enterprise; therefore, customer satisfaction remains a critical factor.