Is retention the same as retention rate?

No — retention is the concept of keeping customers; retention rate is the number that quantifies it for a cohort and period.

What is the opposite of retention?

Churn — the rate at which customers stop being active or cancel.

Why does retention matter in growth marketing?

Keeping a customer costs far less than acquiring one, so strong retention compounds growth on the base you already have.

Growth Marketing Glossary

Retention

re·ten·tion/ɹiˈtɛnʃən/noun

Keeping the customers you already won — active, engaged, and paying — rather than losing them to churn.

Schematic — retention curve (cohort active over time)

Term: Retention
Part of speech: Noun
Field: Growth & Lifecycle
Also written: Customer retention

Forms & parts of speech

retention · noun

The act of keeping customers, users, or revenue rather than losing them over time.

"Our 90-day retention rose to 62% after we rebuilt onboarding."

retain · verb

To keep a customer or user engaged so they do not leave or cancel.

"Loyalty perks help us retain high-value subscribers through year two."

retained · adjective

Describing a customer or cohort that has stayed active across the measured period.

"Retained users spend roughly three times more than first-month buyers."

Definition in plain terms

Retention measures whether the customers you have already acquired keep coming back — staying subscribed, logging in, or repurchasing — over a defined window such as 30, 90, or 365 days. It is usually expressed as a rate: the share of a cohort still active at the end of the period.

The mechanics

You pick a starting cohort (everyone who signed up or first purchased in a period), define what "active" means for your product, and measure how many remain active at each later point. Plotting that over time gives a retention curve. A curve that flattens means a sticky core of customers found lasting value; a curve that decays toward zero means a leaky bucket no amount of acquisition will fill.

When it matters

Retention is the foundation of efficient, compounding growth. Because it costs far less to keep a customer than to acquire a new one, a business that retains well grows on the base it already has, while one that churns must keep buying replacements just to stay flat. It is also the truest signal of product-market fit: people come back to things that deliver value.

Worked example. A subscription app acquires 1,000 users in January. By day 90, 620 are still active — a 62% 90-day retention rate. If a redesigned onboarding lifts that to 70%, the same acquisition spend now yields 80 more retained users every month, compounding into materially higher lifetime value without a dollar of extra ad budget.

Failure modes to watch. Reading a single blended retention number while newer cohorts quietly retain worse than older ones; confusing logins with genuine value-driven activity; and celebrating top-line growth that is really churn masked by heavy acquisition. Always read retention by cohort.

Formula

Retention Rate = ((E − N) ÷ S) × 100S = customers at start of period · E = customers at end · N = new customers acquired during the period. Net revenue retention and cohort retention use related but distinct formulas.

Benchmarks

Healthy retention varies widely by model, industry, and how "active" is defined, so always compare against your own segment, not a universal number.

B2B SaaS — customers kept per year

~90%+ is considered strong

Consumer subscription — subscribers kept

~60–70%+ is healthy (varies)

Mobile app — still active after 30 days

Varies widely by category

Live, sourced benchmark data

RGM tools & benchmarks →

Ranges are illustrative; every published figure is cited from a named public source or labelled “RGM analysis.”

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

customer retentionstickinessloyaltyrepeat rate

Antonyms

churnattritiondefectionturnover

Origin & history

From the Latin retentio ("a holding back"), from retinēre — re- ("back") plus tenēre ("to hold"). English adopted "retention" in the late 14th century for the act of keeping or holding. Its use as a core business metric grew with SaaS and subscription models in the 2000s–2010s, when recurring-revenue economics made keeping customers as measurable, and as valuable, as winning them.

Etymology: Online Etymology Dictionary.

Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

View interest-over-time on Google Trends →

Common questions

Is retention the same as retention rate?: No — retention is the concept of keeping customers; retention rate is the number that quantifies it for a cohort and period.
What is the opposite of retention?: Churn — the rate at which customers stop being active or cancel.
Why does retention matter in growth marketing?: Keeping a customer costs far less than acquiring one, so strong retention compounds growth on the base you already have.

Related tools & calculators

calculatorChurn rate calculator — the inverse view of retention
calculatorCustomer lifetime value calculator — see how retention drives LTV
calculatorNet revenue retention calculator

Resources & people to follow

bookLean Analytics — Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz (retention as a core metric)
bookThe Cold Start Problem — Andrew Chen (networks, engagement, and staying power)
thought leaderLincoln Murphy — customer success & retention writing
thought leaderBrian Balfour (Reforge) — growth and retention frameworks

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

Related training

moduleSubscription growth — retention-led recurring revenue
moduleEmail & lifecycle marketing — programs that lift retention
moduleMarketing analytics — measuring cohorts and retention

Disciplines

Areas of marketing where retention is a core concern:

Lifecycle marketingGrowth marketingMarketing analyticsSubscription & SaaS