Track churn

Churn measures the portion of recurring revenue — or recurring members — you lose during a given period. Every membership experiences churn, but monitoring it helps you understand whether your retention is stable or trending in the wrong direction. In this help article, we’ll cover what churn means, how it’s calculated, what affects it, and how to use this metric to maintain a healthier, more resilient membership.

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Where to find this metric

Go to Revenue → Metrics → Churn in your Memberful dashboard.

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What is churn?

Churn represents members or recurring revenue lost during a specific timeframe. This includes:

• Members who cancel (voluntary churn)
• Members whose payments fail and can’t be collected within 30 days (involuntary churn)

To grow your membership, your acquisition should consistently outpace your churn.

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How is churn calculated?

Memberful calculates revenue churn, not subscription count alone. The formula is: (Voluntary churn + Failed payments) / Starting value We compare a member’s recurring payment amount at the start of the month to their value at the end of the month. For example: If a member’s $10 payment drops to$0, we determine whether that happened due to a cancellation or an uncollected payment.

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What affects my churn?

Churn is broken into two categories: MRR churn (revenue) and Paying Members churn (member count).

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MRR churn

These metrics reflect only recurring subscription revenue, not one-time or fixed-term payments.

• Cancellations: Recurring revenue lost when members cancel their subscription
• Failed payments: Recurring revenue lost when renewal payments can’t be collected within 30 days of a failed charge
• Total revenue churn: Total recurring revenue lost from cancellations and failed payments
• Cancellation rate: Percentage of recurring revenue lost from cancellations
• Failed payments rate: Percentage of recurring revenue lost from uncollected renewal payments
• Revenue churn rate: Percentage of starting recurring revenue lost during the month

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Paying members churn

• Cancellations: Members with recurring subscriptions who intentionally end their recurring payments
• Failed payments: Members with recurring subscriptions who lose access because renewal payments couldn’t be collected within 30 days
• Total member churn: Total number of recurring members lost to cancellations or failed payments
• Cancellation rate: Percentage of recurring members who canceled during the month
• Failed payments rate: Percentage of recurring members lost due to uncollected renewal payments within 30 days of a failed charge
• Member churn rate: Percentage of recurring members lost during the month

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How to explore your churn data

The Churn chart shows data across previous months, including the current (partially complete) month. You can switch between the last 3, 6, or 12 months. Hover over any column to see the breakdown for that month or use the table below the chart for a detailed view. We display segment details by calendar month beneath the graph. Click any non-total value to view the individual members that make up the churn for that month. You can export this list.

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How should I use this metric?

Churn is inevitable, but rising churn is a signal that something needs attention — pricing, content cadence, fulfillment, or member experience. The most important question to answer is: “Why are members churning?” Collecting direct feedback from canceling members (through email, surveys, or Memberful’s cancellation reasons) helps reveal patterns you can act on. Common reasons for churn:

• Pricing concerns
• No longer interested
• Not using the membership enough to justify the cost

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Strategies to improve churn

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Offer plans with lower renewal frequencies

Quarterly and annual plans reduce the number of renewal events, lowering the chance of monthly churn. Members are often more sensitive to frequency than price, so longer billing cycles can improve retention while increasing lifetime value.

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Use a referral program

Referral rewards give members an ongoing reason to stay subscribed. Discounted renewals provided through referrals consistently reduce churn over time. Offer referral discounts.

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Win back cancelled members

Retention discounts are an effective way to bring former members back, especially when price was the reason for leaving. Offer retention discounts. Strong win-back performance often indicates pricing friction — a signal that your pricing may need a review.

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Bottom line

Every membership has churn. Your goal is to understand what’s typical for your audience, monitor for changes, and take action when churn rises. Over time, most memberships reach a “baseline” level of churn that stabilizes. Steady churn is healthy churn. Churn that increases — and stays elevated — deserves attention.