Revenue guides
Plain-English guides for SaaS revenue and unit economics.
Use these guides with the calculators when you need the formula, the interpretation and the planning risk in one place. The guide cluster focuses on SaaS revenue, MRR, ARR, retention, churn, CAC payback and LTV:CAC.
All guides
Start with the metric question you need to answer.
Understand the difference between MRR and ARR, when each SaaS revenue metric matters, and how to calculate both from recurring revenue.
A practical guide to calculating SaaS revenue from starting MRR, new MRR, expansion, contraction, churn and ARR.
A practical checklist of SaaS revenue metrics for founders: MRR, ARR, net new MRR, churn, expansion, CAC, LTV, payback and runway.
Learn how to calculate CAC payback for SaaS using acquisition cost, ARPA, gross margin and monthly contribution profit.
Calculate and interpret LTV:CAC ratio for SaaS using gross margin, churn, average revenue per account and acquisition cost.
Learn how to calculate net revenue retention for SaaS using starting MRR, expansion, contraction and churned revenue.
Learn how to calculate gross revenue retention for SaaS and why GRR reveals retention issues that expansion revenue can hide.
Understand the difference between ARPU and ARPA for SaaS, including formulas, examples and when each metric is more useful.
Compare revenue churn and customer churn for SaaS, with formulas, examples and guidance for account-size differences.
Learn how to calculate MRR growth rate from net new MRR and starting MRR, with examples for SaaS planning.