The ultimate SaaS metrics cheat sheet

Gross margin

Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold (COGS), which indicates the profitability of business activities.

Churn rate

Percentage of customers or revenue lost during a specific period.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Total predictable revenue generated by customers each month.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

Yearly version of MRR, particularly useful for businesses with annual contracts (for example, Enterprise-level orgs who sell SaaS products).

Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA)

Average revenue generated per account/customer, typically calculated monthly.

Expansion MRR rate

Additional revenue generated from existing customers through upsells, cross-sells, or upgrades.

Quick ratio

Measures a company’s ability to grow its recurring revenue despite churn. It’s calculated as (New MRR + Expansion MRR) / (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR).

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Measures the percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over time, including expansions and contractions.

Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)

Similar to NRR but excludes any upsell or expansion revenue.

Rule of 40

A benchmark stating that a company's growth rate plus profit margin should be equal to or greater than 40%.

Burn rate

The rate at which a company is spending its capital before reaching profitability.

Runway

How long the company can continue operating at its current burn rate before it runs out of money.

Activation rate

Measures the percentage of new users who take a specific action indicating successful developer onboarding.

Engagement rate

Reflects how actively users are engaging with your SaaS product.

Sales and marketing efficiency ratio

Evaluates the efficiency of sales and marketing expenditures in generating new revenue.

Customer support efficiency

Assesses the productivity of the customer support team, often measured by tickets resolved per support staff.

Customer health score

The customer health score is a composite metric that assesses the likelihood of a customer churning or expanding, based on their product usage, satisfaction scores, and support ticket history.

Support ticket volume and resolution time

Tracks the number of support tickets raised by customers and the average time taken to resolve these issues.

Onboarding time

The average time it takes for a new customer to fully onboard and start using the product effectively.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV)

Predicted revenue a customer will generate over the entirety of their relationship with the company.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC

Another important metric on this SaaS metrics cheat sheet. Average cost to acquire a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses.

CAC payback period

Time it takes to earn back the CAC spent on acquiring new customers.

Lead conversion rate

Percentage of leads that convert to paying customers.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking how likely customers are to recommend the product or service.

Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost Ratio (LTV:CAC)

It shows the relationship between the lifetime value of a customer and the cost to acquire that customer.

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)

Measures customer satisfaction with a product, service, or support interaction, usually obtained through surveys.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Assesses how much effort a customer has to expend to get their issue resolved or need met.

Feature request rate

The frequency at which customers request new features, indicating engagement and interest in product development.

EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization)

This metric measures your company's overall financial performance and is used as an alternative to simple earnings or net income.

Free cash flow

This is the cash generated by the company after accounting for cash outflows to support operations and maintain capital assets.

Operating cash flow

The total amount of money a company generates from its daily operating activities.

Debt to equity ratio

Indicates the proportion of equity and debt a company is using to finance its assets.

Total addressable market (TAM)

The overall revenue opportunity available or market demand for the product or service.

Serviceable available market (SAM)

The segment of the TAM targeted by your products and services which is within your geographical reach.

Serviceable obtainable market

The portion of SAM that you can capture.

Market share

The percentage of total sales in the industry generated by your company.

Feature usage rate

This key SaaS metric measures how frequently the specific features of your product are used by your customers.

Daily Active Users (DAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU)

The number of unique users who engage with your product daily or monthly.

Session length and frequency

The average duration and frequency of a developer’s interaction with your product.

API call volume

For SaaS products offering APIs, this metric tracks the volume and frequency of API calls, indicating integration and usage intensity.

Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) conversion rate

The rate at which leads generated by marketing are converted into leads recognized as ready for sales engagement.

Sales pipeline velocity

Measures the speed at which leads move through the sales pipeline and become customers.

Customer referral rate

The frequency at which existing customers refer new clients.

Win rate

The percentage of deals closed successfully out of the total number of deals in the pipeline.

Trial-to-paid conversion rate

The percentage of users who convert from a free trial to a paid subscription.

Upgrade/downgrade rate

Measures the rate at which customers move to higher or lower subscription tiers.

Repeat purchase rate

For SaaS models with additional purchase options, this tracks how often customers make repeat purchases.

User churn intent score

Predictive analytics used to determine the likelihood of a user churning based on their behavior patterns.

Content engagement rate

Measures how users interact with content-based features of the SaaS product.

Click-through rate on in-app messaging

The rate at which users engage with messages or notifications within the app.

Average time to first response

The average time taken for the first response to a user’s inquiry or support ticket.

Session depth

Measures the average number of pages or screens viewed per session by users, indicating engagement level.

Bounce rate

The percentage of visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page, measuring initial engagement quality.

Customer journey completion rate

Tracks the percentage of users completing specific, predefined journeys or tasks within your product or platform.

Product stickiness

Assesses how often and consistently people return to use your product, which is a key indicator of product value.

Release frequency

The frequency at which new updates, features, or versions are released, indicating the pace of your product development.

Bug fix time

The average time taken to resolve bugs or issues, an important aspect of product quality and customer satisfaction.

Feature adoption rate

Measures how quickly and widely new features are adopted by the user base.

Innovation index

A composite metric assessing the rate of innovation in product development, considering factors like feature releases.

Employee turnover rate

Measures how frequently employees leave the organization, an indicator of workplace satisfaction and stability.

Team velocity

In agile development, this measures the amount of work a team can complete in a sprint, something that’s useful for planning and forecasting.

Internal NPS

Net Promoter Score measured among employees to assess internal satisfaction and engagement.

Cross-functional collaboration efficiency

Metrics assessing the effectiveness of collaboration across different departments. They’re vital for SaaS companies with integrated product and go-to-market strategies.