voluntary churn
Customer-initiated cancellation.
churn
Churn is the customer who cancels their subscription. Two types: voluntary (customer chose to leave) and involuntary (payment failed and wasn't recovered). Together they reduce MRR. Healthy SaaS at our scale runs 2-5% monthly customer churn; runaway churn above 7-10% is a product-market-fit signal.
In context.
Porchops separates voluntary and involuntary churn in the audit log. Involuntary churn is recoverable via Lou; voluntary churn is a different problem (product-market fit, support, lifecycle end).
Hank watches for silent churn — customers who haven't cancelled but have stopped using the product. Silent customers often become voluntary churn at the next renewal.
Concrete instances.
Pegasus cancelled because the price increased to $200/month — voluntary churn.
Bramble's card failed, retries didn't recover, subscription auto-cancelled — involuntary churn.
Telos hasn't logged in for 90 days; Hank flags. Six weeks later they cancel — silent churn that became voluntary.
Common questions.
What's a healthy churn rate?
2-5% monthly customer churn for $5K-$500K ARR SaaS. Above 7-10% suggests product-market-fit issues. Below 1.5% is excellent and rare; usually means high tenure and high price.
How do voluntary and involuntary churn differ?
Voluntary = customer chose to cancel. Involuntary = payment failed and wasn't recovered. Different remedies: voluntary churn is a product/support problem; involuntary is a Lou-and-Stripe problem.
How do I calculate churn rate?
(Customers lost in period) / (Customers at start of period) × 100. For a SaaS with 100 customers losing 3 over a month: 3% monthly churn rate. Some companies use revenue-weighted churn; both are valid.