glossary
Churn
The rate at which customers or their revenue leave: logo churn counts the customers lost in a period, revenue churn counts the MRR they take with them.
By The Marketinque TeamReviewed June 2026
Churn is decided earlier than it is recorded. Most cancellations trace back to the first weeks of the relationship, when a customer either reached first value or quietly stalled, which is why the highest-leverage churn work happens in onboarding, months before any cancellation screen.
Measure it by cohort, because a blended rate hides the story: a fast-growing company can show flat churn while every new cohort retains worse than the last. Logo churn and revenue churn also diverge on purpose; losing three small accounts and one anchor account are very different events that a single number averages away.
Small differences compound brutally because churn is exponential, which makes retention the cheapest revenue a company earns. The retention hub covers the win-back and expansion plays, and LTV shows churn’s direct line to what a customer is worth.
formula
logo churn = customers lost in period ÷ customers at period start
worked example
A base of 240 customers loses 7 in a month: 7 ÷ 240 = 2.9% monthly logo churn. Left alone for a year that compounds to roughly 30% of the base gone, which is why a single point of monthly churn is never “just” a point.
Related terms
Sources
- David Skok, SaaS Metrics 2.0 (forEntrepreneurs)
- Fred Reichheld, The Loyalty Effect & the Net Promoter System (Bain & Company)
Compiled by The Marketinque Team to our editorial standards.