The Ultimate Guide to SaaS KPIs in 2025

Running a SaaS business without tracking the right KPIs is like flying blind. You might feel like you're making progress, but without concrete metrics, you're just guessing.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll cover the 20+ most important KPIs every SaaS founder should track, organized by category.

Revenue Metrics

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

MRR is the heartbeat of any SaaS business. It represents the predictable revenue you can expect each month from active subscriptions.

How to calculate MRR:

MRR = Sum of all active subscription values per month

For example, if you have:

• 10 customers paying $100/month
• 5 customers paying $200/month
• 2 customers paying $500/month

Your MRR = (10 × $100) + (5 × $200) + (2 × $500) = $3,000

Why it matters: MRR gives you a clear picture of your revenue trajectory and helps with forecasting.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

ARR is simply MRR × 12. It's useful for:

• Long-term planning
• Investor discussions
• Comparing against annual goals

Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

NRR measures how much revenue you retain from existing customers, including expansions and contractions.

How to calculate NRR:

NRR = (Starting MRR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn) / Starting MRR × 100

Benchmarks:

• Below 100%: You're losing revenue from existing customers
• 100-110%: Healthy retention
• Above 120%: Exceptional—your existing customers are growing faster than you're losing

Customer Metrics

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC tells you how much you spend to acquire each new customer.

How to calculate CAC:

CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend / Number of New Customers Acquired

Pro tip: Track CAC by channel to identify your most efficient acquisition sources.

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV estimates the total revenue you'll earn from a customer over their entire relationship with your company.

How to calculate LTV:

LTV = Average Revenue Per Account × Customer Lifetime

Or more precisely:

LTV = ARPA × Gross Margin / Monthly Churn Rate

LTV:CAC Ratio

This ratio tells you if your unit economics are healthy.

Benchmarks:

• Below 3:1: You're spending too much to acquire customers
• 3:1 to 5:1: Healthy range
• Above 5:1: You might be underinvesting in growth

Churn Metrics

Customer Churn Rate

Customer churn measures the percentage of customers who cancel their subscription.

How to calculate:

Customer Churn Rate = (Customers Lost / Starting Customers) × 100

Benchmarks by segment:

• SMB: 3-5% monthly churn is common
• Mid-market: 1-2% monthly
• Enterprise: Less than 1% monthly

Revenue Churn Rate

Revenue churn (also called MRR churn) measures the percentage of MRR lost.

Revenue Churn = (MRR Lost / Starting MRR) × 100

Why both matter: You could have low customer churn but high revenue churn if you're losing your biggest customers.

Engagement Metrics

Daily Active Users (DAU)

DAU counts unique users who engage with your product each day.

Monthly Active Users (MAU)

MAU counts unique users who engage at least once per month.

DAU/MAU Ratio (Stickiness)

This ratio indicates how habit-forming your product is.

Benchmarks:

• 10-20%: Average engagement
• 20-30%: Good engagement
• 50%+: Exceptional (think social media apps)

Feature Adoption Rate

Track which features users actually use:

Feature Adoption = (Users Using Feature / Total Active Users) × 100

Growth Metrics

Month-over-Month Growth

MoM Growth = ((This Month MRR - Last Month MRR) / Last Month MRR) × 100

Benchmarks:

• 5-7%: Healthy early-stage growth
• 10%+: Exceptional growth
• 15%+: Hypergrowth (rare)

Quick Ratio

The SaaS Quick Ratio measures growth efficiency:

Quick Ratio = (New MRR + Expansion MRR) / (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR)

Benchmarks:

• Below 1: You're shrinking
• 1-4: Moderate growth
• Above 4: Excellent growth efficiency

Putting It All Together

The key to effective KPI tracking isn't monitoring everything—it's focusing on the metrics that matter most for your stage:

Pre-Product Market Fit:

• Retention/churn
• Engagement (DAU/MAU)
• Feature adoption

Growth Stage:

• MRR/ARR
• CAC and LTV
• Quick Ratio

Scale Stage:

• NRR
• CAC Payback Period
• Gross margin

How KPIStack Helps

KPIStack automatically connects to your Stripe and Firebase accounts to calculate all these metrics in real-time. No spreadsheets, no manual calculations—just accurate data when you need it.

Start your free trial and see all your SaaS metrics in one dashboard.