Calculate retention rate for customers, subscribers, or employees. Free tool with formulas, benchmarks, and improvement strategies.
Retention rate measures the percentage of customers or employees who remain with your organization during a given period. Higher retention means better loyalty and satisfaction.
Enter the number of customers or employees at the start and end of the period, and new additions.
Get our free guide with 25 strategies to improve customer and employee retention.
Retention rate is a key metric for measuring customer loyalty and employee satisfaction. Unlike churn rate (which focuses on losses), retention rate focuses on how many people you keep.
Example 1: SaaS Customer Retention
Start: 1,000 customers | End: 1,050 customers | New: 150 customers
Retained: 1,050 - 150 = 900 customers
Retention Rate = (900 / 1,000) × 100% = 90%
Example 2: Employee Retention
Start: 100 employees | End: 105 employees | Hired: 15 employees
Retained: 105 - 15 = 90 employees
Retention Rate = (90 / 100) × 100% = 90%
A good retention rate depends on your industry and business model. For B2B SaaS, retention above 90% is excellent. For B2C subscription services, 80%+ is good. For employees, 85%+ annual retention is typical. The key is to track retention consistently and work to improve it over time.
How do I calculate customer retention rate in Excel?
Use the formula: =((End_Count - New_Count) / Start_Count) * 100. This gives you the percentage of original customers who stayed.
What is the difference between retention rate and churn rate?
Retention rate and churn rate are complementary: Retention Rate = 100% - Churn Rate. Retention focuses on who stayed, churn focuses on who left.
How to calculate cohort retention?
Cohort retention tracks a specific group of customers over time. For each period, calculate how many from the original cohort are still active. This creates a retention curve showing long-term loyalty.