What's an acceptable churn rate for SMB SaaS vs enterprise in 2027?
For enterprise SaaS, an acceptable annual revenue churn is roughly 5% or less, which is a gross retention of 95%, the median SaaS Capital reports for contracts above $250,000. For SMB SaaS, about 10% annual revenue churn (90% gross retention) is the median, and 90% gross retention is the floor SaaS Capital gives for peer-level performance. Below roughly $12,000 in contract value, results spread widely.
No single report splits churn cleanly into SMB, mid-market and enterprise. Sources cut by contract value (ACV), revenue per account (ARPA) or ARR, and they mix monthly and annual rates and logo and revenue churn. SaaS Capital's 2025 survey of more than 1,000 private B2B SaaS companies reports a 91% median gross retention across all companies. ChartMogul's 2023 report on more than 2,100 businesses is the one read here that gives both logo and revenue retention by account size.
The tool descriptions below are vendor-stated. For the expansion side of the equation, see our good NRR for Series B SaaS page.
What the benchmark reports say
Each report uses a different sample, year and definition, so figures are not directly comparable. All were read from the linked pages on November 2, 2026.
- SaaS Capital, 2025 B2B SaaS Retention Benchmarks (revenue churn, annual). Its Research Brief 32 draws on more than 1,000 private B2B SaaS companies, excluding those under $1M ARR. Median gross revenue retention is 91% overall. By ACV, the median is 90% under $12k, 91% for $12k-$25k, 91% for $25k-$50k, 90% for $50k-$100k, 91% for $100k-$250k and 95% above $250k. SaaS Capital's research page describes churn as the complement of gross retention, so 95% gross retention equals 5% churn.
- ChartMogul, SaaS Retention Report (logo and revenue, annual). The 2023 edition, published November 1, 2023, covers more than 2,100 SaaS businesses, with aggregates mostly for 2022. Top-quartile logo retention is 63.1% for ARPA under $10 a month and 85.7% for B2B accounts above $500 a month. Top-quartile gross revenue retention is 60-70% for ARPA under $50 a month and 90%+ above $500 a month. It lists ~95% gross revenue retention as best-in-class for mid-market and enterprise. The page does not split results into SMB and enterprise.
- Recurly network data, July 2026 (subscriber churn, labeled annual). Recurly's churn benchmarks give median churn of 3.22% for SaaS, with 2.16% voluntary and 1.06% involuntary, and 3.60% across all industries. By average monthly revenue per customer it shows 4.29% at $10-$25, 3.15% at $50-$100 and 3.07% above $250. No sample size is stated, and the page gives 3.04% and 3.22% for SaaS in different sections, so treat it as indicative. These rates are far lower than the revenue-retention surveys imply, a gap the page does not explain.
- KeyBanc Capital Markets and Sapphire Ventures (private SaaS survey). The November 2025 press release says gross retention is expected to approach 90% after declining to 86% in 2023 and net retention stays above 100%; it gives no sample size. The October 2024 release reported about 90% gross retention and more than 100 participating companies. Maxio's glossary cites the KeyBanc 2022 survey for median gross dollar churn of 14% and median annual logo churn of 13%.
- Focus Digital, 2026 (secondary, no stated sample). This industry blog tabulates enterprise (1,000+ employees) at 1.2% monthly and 13.6% annual churn, and SMB (10-99 employees) at 6.4% monthly and 57.8% annual. It does not attribute the table to a specific source or give a sample size, so it is shown for context, not as a benchmark.
How churn differs by segment
Segment labels are not standard. SaaS Capital says contract value is the best starting point for benchmarking because companies with similar selling prices are organized, sold and supported similarly. Its gross retention is flat near 90%-91% from under $12k to $250k and steps up to 95% only above $250k, so the enterprise advantage shows at the top of the range, not gradually.
ChartMogul shows a wider spread by account size: top-quartile gross revenue retention of 60-70% for ARPA under $50 a month against 90%+ above $500. These are top-quartile figures, not medians, and only some bands appear in the page text.
SaaS Capital also reports contract length matters: multi-year contracts show 94% median gross retention, annual contracts 90% and month-to-month 89%.
Monthly versus annual, and logo versus revenue churn
A monthly churn rate and an annual one describe the same business differently, and many published SMB figures are monthly. Focus Digital's table pairs 6.4% monthly with 57.8% annual for SMB, which shows how a monthly rate compounds. Logo churn counts customers lost; revenue churn weights them by dollars, so a business that loses mostly small accounts can show high logo churn and modest revenue churn. Recurly says MRR churn and customer churn can diverge significantly. Gross retention, as SaaS Capital defines it, excludes upsells, cross-sells and price increases, so it cannot exceed 100%; net retention includes them.
Tools that measure and reduce churn
These are subscription analytics, customer success and billing products. Descriptions are the companies' own statements (vendor-stated), none has been tested here, and no company is favored.
- ChartMogul: describes itself as a subscription analytics platform trusted by over 3,000 software companies, tracking MRR, ARR, churn, expansion and contraction, and publishes the retention report above. It offers a 14-day Pro trial; pricing is not shown on the home page.
- Baremetrics: describes itself as a subscription analytics platform focused on Stripe users, says more than 900 companies use it, and lists benchmarks, Cancellation Insights and Payment Recovery.
- ChurnZero: describes itself as customer success software with health scoring, renewal forecasting and reporting. Its home page lists results such as a 21% increase in gross revenue retention without naming the customer, period or baseline.
- Maxio: describes itself as billing and financial reporting software for B2B SaaS and AI businesses, trusted by 2,000+ businesses, with 30+ one-click reports and benchmark data from $14B+ in anonymized SaaS data. It says its Utilization agent flags churn and expansion signals and gives no churn figures.
- Recurly: describes itself as subscription management software covering the subscriber lifecycle, and says customers have cut churn by 10% - 40% with a one-click save flow (the page's own wording; vendor-stated, no customers or period named). It also publishes the churn benchmarks above.
What the evidence does and does not show
- Enterprise sits near 5% annual revenue churn. SaaS Capital's 95% gross retention median above $250k ACV is the clearest sourced enterprise figure.
- Most other contract sizes sit near 10%. Medians of 90%-91% gross retention span under $12k to $250k ACV, so the typical SMB median is not far from mid-market.
- Low-price SMB tails are worse. ChartMogul's 60-70% top-quartile gross retention at ARPA under $50 a month points to heavy churn at the bottom of the market.
- No clean monthly benchmark was found in a primary report. Monthly SMB and enterprise figures read here came from secondary blogs without stated samples.
Questions people ask
Is 5% annual churn good for SMB SaaS?
It is better than the 90% gross retention median SaaS Capital reports for contracts under $12k, which implies about 10% churn. ChartMogul's top-quartile gross retention for ARPA under $50 a month is 60-70%, so 5% would be unusually strong for low-priced SMB.
What is an acceptable churn rate for enterprise SaaS?
SaaS Capital's 2025 median gross retention above $250,000 ACV is 95%, or about 5% annual revenue churn. ChartMogul lists ~95% gross revenue retention as best-in-class for mid-market and enterprise.
Is a monthly churn rate of 5% acceptable?
That is a monthly rate, and compounded over a year it is far above the annual medians in the surveys read here. Focus Digital's secondary table, which lacks a stated sample, pairs 6.4% monthly SMB churn with 57.8% annual.
Is logo churn or revenue churn the better measure?
They answer different questions. Logo churn counts customers lost and revenue churn counts dollars lost. Report both, and state whether the rate is monthly or annual before comparing to any benchmark.
Sources
- SaaS Capital: 2025 B2B SaaS Retention Benchmarks (Research Brief 32) · Gross retention by ACV and contract length
- SaaS Capital: Retention benchmarks for private B2B companies · Churn as complement of gross retention
- ChartMogul: SaaS Retention Report · Logo and gross retention by ARPA, 2023 edition
- Recurly: churn rate benchmarks · Median churn by industry and ARPC, July 2026
- Sapphire Ventures: 2025 KeyBanc and Sapphire survey release · Gross retention 86% in 2023
- Sapphire Ventures: KeyBanc and Sapphire private SaaS survey release (Oct 2024) · About 90% gross retention
- Maxio: retention rate vs churn rate · KeyBanc 2022 median churn figures
- Focus Digital: average churn rate by industry SaaS · Secondary SMB vs enterprise table
- ChartMogul · Product description
- Baremetrics · Product description
- ChurnZero · Product description
- Maxio · Product description
- Recurly · Product description
Facts were read from the linked pages on November 2, 2026. Benchmark sources are secondary or vendor-hosted where noted. If a page here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it from a source.
Top photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons