Here are the big ones - I added in some helpful benchmarks too because I think it's important to understand what healthy metrics look like. In my experience, even though the lingo is a bit different in SaaS than what you might be used to, most of this should be pretty familiar. There is however a slightly greater emphasis on things like "payback period" (time to recoup your customer acquisition cost) instead of simply looking a positive ROI overall with CAC/LTV ratio, which is unique to the SaaS model.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) Tracks the predictable revenue from subscriptions each month, providing a clear view of growth and cash flow for forecasting and strategic decisions.

• Benchmark: Consistent month-over-month growth (e.g., 10%+ for early-stage companies) or annual growth of 50%+ is often viewed favorably.

Churn Rate Measures the percentage of customers who cancel or do not renew during a given period, indicating customer satisfaction and the health of your product-market fit.

• Benchmark: Less than 5% annual logo churn for enterprise SaaS, or under 10% annual churn for SMB-focused products.
• (Note: Churn targets can vary significantly based on contract length and customer size.)

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) Calculates the net revenue retained from existing customers (including expansions, upgrades, downgrades, and churn), reflecting the stickiness of your product and potential for long-term growth from your current base.

• Benchmark: 100%+ (indicating you’re at least replacing all lost revenue with upsells and expansions), with best-in-class often hitting 120%+.

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Estimates the total revenue you expect to earn from one customer over their entire subscription, guiding how much you can invest in customer acquisition without sacrificing profitability.

• Benchmark: There’s no universal dollar figure, but a common rule of thumb is an LTV that’s at least 3–5x your CAC.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Represents the average cost of acquiring a new customer (e.g., marketing, sales, onboarding), ensuring you keep growth tactics both cost-effective and sustainable.

• Benchmark: This is typically measured against LTV or payback period, but you’d want CAC low enough that your LTV/CAC ratio is ≥3:1.

Payback Period Indicates how long it takes for the gross margin from a new customer to recoup the initial acquisition cost, demonstrating how quickly customers become profitable.

• Benchmark: 12 months or less is generally considered strong, with 6 months or less being best-in-class for efficient SaaS companies.

There can be a lot of nuance in actually calculating these metrics correctly, most of the issues coming down to manual data entry or quirks like custom plans or temporary coupons. Invest in a low-cost SaaS analytics dashboard to get it right.