New: Churnkey's second annual State of Retention report
Welcome to Churnkey's second State of Retention report, where we analyzed over $3 billion in subscription revenue from over 1,000 companies across the world.
Our second State of Retention report is live—and it’s a wake‑up call disguised as a data trove.
After tracking:
- $3 billion in subscription revenue
- 15 million live subscriptions
- three million cancellation sessions, and
- six million failed payments...
...we discovered patterns that could change the way you talk about growing your subscription business this year.
A sample of what we found
What's really behind "budget cut" cancellations
Dig into the “why” behind voluntary churn and you’ll see “budget cuts” leading 33 % of exits—but our text analysis shows that line item is often a proxy for product disappointment. Customers reach for the price card because it’s familiar and socially acceptable; the real problem is value mismatch. If your exit survey is flooded with budget complaints, don’t just trim prices—interview users, tighten onboarding, and ship the missing delight they were hunting for.
That being said, infrequent‑usage cancellations climbed three points year‑over‑year. That’s your opportunity to build habit‑forming hooks—usage reminders, lightweight “lite” plans, or calendarized value moments—before the next cohort drifts away.
Which cancellation offers perform best
Cancelling customers respond to well‑timed generosity: discounts persuaded 53 % of would‑be quitters to stay, and pauses rescued another 19 %. The catch is precision. Blanket 20 % coupons cheapen your brand; a three‑month “we’ll grow with you” discount offered only to early‑stage teams signals partnership, not desperation. Likewise, season‑based pauses keep hobbyists on the books without forcing them to re‑enter a credit card every time their busy season returns.
Failing payments are a global puzzle
Involuntary churn hides in plain sight—and it’s often 40 % of your total losses. The good news: our dataset shows 70 % of failed payments are recoverable with the right mix of smart retries and polite nudges. The nuance is geographic. “Insufficient funds” declines explode to 81 % in Australia yet barely touch 29 % in Singapore, revealing that one‑size‑fits‑all retry cadences leave money on the table. Tune your attempt schedule to local payday cycles and you’ll watch ARR reappear without a single marketing dollar spent.
Risk‑management declines now account for up to 30 % of failed charges in markets like the U.S. and Singapore. Tighten your fraud signals or route those payments through alternative processors; otherwise you’re leaving legitimate revenue at the door.
There's more in the full report
The full report unpacks soft‑versus‑hard decline playbooks, showcases heat maps of failure codes by country, and offers ready‑to‑copy retention flows you can drop into Jira today. Share a stat that shocks your CFO, or forward the PDF to product and ask, “What would it take to cut this in half?”
👉 Read and share the State of Retention 2025 now—before your churn does the talking.
