Metrics glossary

MRR means Monthly Run Rate

In Summerbase, MRR always means Monthly Run Rate, not Monthly Recurring Revenue as in most other tools. It counts all of a subscription’s revenue, normalized to a month: what it charges on a schedule and what it charges for usage alike. That way a company with usage-based or metered pricing sees all of its revenue in one figure. ARR, Annual Run Rate, works the same way.

To see only one kind, filter a report to recurring or usage-based revenue.

Revenue

MRR, Monthly Run Rate. What your customers’ active subscriptions bring in per month, after discounts and before tax. A price billed yearly or quarterly is converted to its monthly amount: a $1,200 annual plan adds $100. Trials count as zero until they convert. Usage-based prices aren’t counted yet.

ARR, Annual Run Rate. MRR times twelve.

MRR movement. How much MRR changed over a period, split into:

Type	When a customer…
New	Pays for the first time.
Expansion	Pays more than before.
Contraction	Pays less than before, but still something.
Churn	Stops paying.
Reactivation	Pays again after having churned.

These look at everything a customer pays across all their subscriptions. So a customer who swaps a monthly plan for an annual one hasn’t churned.

MRR growth. MRR movement as a percentage of MRR at the start of the period.

Customers

Paying customers. Customers with an active subscription worth more than zero.

ARPA, Average Revenue Per Account. MRR divided by paying customers.

New signups and new leads. Customers who signed up, or first became known to Summerbase, in a period. Conversion is the share of them who have since started paying. Recent periods read low until their signups decide.

Churn and retention

Churn and retention follow the customers who were paying at the start of a period, and look at what they pay at its end. Customers who joined during the period aren’t included, so a fast-growing month doesn’t make your churn look worse.

Churn is read over the last month by default, and retention over the last year.

Customer churn. The share of those customers who pay nothing at the end.

Gross revenue churn. The share of their revenue lost to churn and downgrades.

Net revenue churn. The same, minus what other customers in the group added through upgrades. Negative when upgrades outweigh losses.

Customer retention. The share of those customers who still pay. The opposite of customer churn.

Gross revenue retention (GRR). The share of their revenue you kept, not counting upgrades. Never above 100%.

Net revenue retention (NRR). The share of their revenue you kept, counting upgrades. Above 100% when your existing customers grew.

Lifetime

Customer lifespan. How many months a paying customer stays on average, at your current rate of churn.

LTV, Lifetime Value. ARPA times customer lifespan: what a customer pays you over the time they stay.

Cohorts

A customer’s cohort is when they first paid you. MRR by cohort shows what each group of customers pays you now.