Launchpad phase two: Churn metrics
Diagnose and minimize subscriber loss by understanding the breakdown between voluntary and involuntary churn. Learn how to calculate churn rates, analyze performance in the Recurly Benchmarks Dashboard, and utilize revenue retention tools like Account Updater and dunning optimization to maximize subscriber loyalty.
Launch · Launchpad Phase Two
Churn metrics
Not all churn is the same — and knowing the difference between voluntary and involuntary churn is what separates reactive businesses from proactive ones. These metrics tell you why subscribers are leaving and what you can do about it.
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Churn metrics
Understanding why subscribers leave
Total churn tells you the size of your retention problem. Voluntary vs. involuntary churn tells you the cause — and each requires a completely different solution. Treating them the same means solving for the wrong problem.
Voluntary churn
Subscribers who actively chose to cancel. This reflects satisfaction, perceived value, and engagement with your product.
Fix with: product improvements, better onboarding, pause options, cancellation save flows, loyalty offers.
Involuntary churn
Subscribers lost due to payment failures — expired cards, insufficient funds, or bank declines. These subscribers didn't want to leave.
Fix with: Account Updater, dunning optimization, Intelligent Retry, clearer payment failure emails.
Trail guide: voluntary & involuntary churn rate
Churn metrics walkthrough
~5 minVoluntary churn rate
The percentage of subscribers who actively cancel each month. High voluntary churn signals a product-value mismatch — subscribers aren't finding enough reason to stay.
How it's calculated
Involuntary churn rate
The percentage of subscribers lost to dunning expiration. This is directly influenced by Account Updater and dunning configuration — if you enabled both in Phase 1, you should expect to see this metric improve over the coming months.
How it's calculated
Deep dive: monitoring the impact of your retention strategy
Fast-forward to the Churn Benchmarking section. CSM Dan Shipley walks through the three churn views — combined, voluntary, and involuntary — to show how to diagnose business health, including a real-world case study on how Account Updater directly lowers involuntary loss.
Watch "Stack up against the competition" on demand →Separate your diagnosis from your treatment
If total churn is high but you don't know the voluntary/involuntary breakdown, you might invest heavily in product improvements when the real problem is simply that Account Updater isn't enabled. The split tells you where to focus.
Connecting churn to your Phase 1 work
The optimizations you completed in Phase 1 directly influence your involuntary churn rate. Here's how to trace the connection.
Account Updater
Refreshes expired or replaced cards before renewals attempt, preventing failures that would otherwise register as involuntary churn.
Dunning optimization
Recovers failed invoices through retry logic and recovery emails before they result in subscriber loss.
Gateway failover
Prevents outage-driven payment failures that would otherwise register as involuntary churn — routing transactions to a backup gateway automatically.