It’s no secret that the SaaS industry is a competitive and saturated market. Many SaaS companies offer similar products, services, and platforms. One differentiating factor that sets top SaaS organizations apart is their commitment to customer success.
By doubling down on customer success and experience, a company can help create loyal clients. Ultimately, the goal is to turn them into a base of recurring and reliable income, a.k.a. revenue retention. But what does that mean and how do you do that? That’s what we are answering in this blog. In particular, we’re going to cover:
Net Revenue Retention vs Net Dollar Retention
Net Revenue Retention vs Net Dollar Retention
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
Other Customer Success Data
How we At Planhat can help your SaaS company level up Customer Success
What is NRR in SaaS?
Net revenue retention is an important metric for SaaS companies. Essentially, it measures the amount of money generated (or lost) from existing customers. It gives you a quantitative snapshot of how successful and loyal your existing customers are by looking beyond current revenue and considering things like expansion revenue (which gross revenue retention does not include) or customer churn. We will break down exactly what goes into the NRR and formulas for calculating it in a little bit, but before we do, let’s spend some time briefly discussing net dollar retention (NDR). Don't just take our word for it, see what the experts in this webinar have to say about it.
What is the difference between NRR And NDR?
Net dollar retention and net revenue retention, mean the same thing. The only difference is likely where you live. In the United States and other countries where the dollar is the primary form of currency, NDR is a commonly used term. Net revenue retention is a more common phrase in parts of the world that don’t use the dollar. It’s worth noting that global and multinational companies will often use net revenue retention as a way to effectively communicate with everyone involved.
What is a Gross Retention Rate?
A gross retention rate, i.e. your gross revenue retention, is similar to net revenue retention. It looks at the recurring revenue from existing customers as well as any lost revenue over the same period of time. What is the difference between net retention and gross retention then? The only difference is that net revenue retention includes any upgrades, upsells, or expansions from your current customers. Gross revenue retention does not. To get a better understanding, let's compare and contrast the GRR and NRR formulas.
How do you calculate Gross and Net Revenue Retention?
To calculate either NRR and GRR, you need to have the following data:
Monthly or Annual Recurring Revenue (MRR or ARR) from existing customer contracts for the period of time you wish to calculate NRR or GRR for
Expansion Revenue from upsells, cross-sells, or upgrades
Contractions from customers downgrading or discarding additional features
Churn from customer turnover
Once you have this information, you simply plug it into the following formulas:
GRR = (Beginning ARR or MRR -Contractions- Churn) / (Beginning ARR or MRR)
NRR = (Beginning ARR or MRR + Expansions - Contractions - Churn) / (Beginning ARR or MRR)
Both of these calculations will produce a revenue retention ratio. To convert the ratio to a percentage, simply multiply it by 100. Let’s take a look at an example company to help explain all of this a bit more clearly.
Imagine AML Ventures, a SaaS platform that helps with digital marketing. They have the following data:
Average monthly revenue per customer = $800
Number of existing customers = 100
Amount of expansion revenue for the current month = $300
Amount of expansion revenue for the year = $5000
Contraction amount for the current month = $120
Contraction amount for the entire year = $2000
Churn for the current month = $50
Churn for the year = $1000
How do we use that data to calculate either NRR or GRR?
To calculate MRR, we multiply $800 x 100 and learn that their MRR is $80,000.
We simply multiply this by 12 to find their ARR, which is $960,000.
Now we start entering data into the NRR or GRR formula. If we want to calculate revenue retention for the current month, we will use MRR. If we want to calculate it for the year, we use ARR. So to find the monthly NRR of AML Ventures we complete the following calculation:
A: (80,000 + 300 - 120 - 50) / (80,000) = 1.002 or 100.2 % monthly net revenue retention
To find Annual gross revenue retention we use ARR and the following calculation:
A: (960,000 -2000- 1000) / (960,000) = .9969 or 99.69% annual gross revenue retention.
Planhat: Empowering Customer Success
Founder
Scaale.io
Jonas is the founder of Scaale.io, a growth partner for B2B tech companies, and brings over a decade of experience across brand, media, and marketing strategy. Previously Director of Brand & Communications at Planhat, he helped shape the company’s global narrative and positioning from the early days. Before that, he ran Make Your Mark, a Stockholm-based agency delivering strategic content for brands like Klarna, Volvo, and Vattenfall. Earlier in his career, Jonas served as Editor in Chief at Aller Media, where he led the digital transformation of Sweden’s iconic lifestyle brand Café.
