SaaS Metrics Dashboard: KPIs Every Founder Should Track in 2026
Author
ZTABS Team
Date Published
If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. SaaS businesses live and die by their metrics. The right dashboard tells you whether your business is healthy, where the problems are, and what to focus on next.
This guide covers every metric that matters for SaaS, with formulas, benchmarks, and recommendations for building your metrics dashboard.
The SaaS Metrics Hierarchy
Tier 1: Board-level metrics (review monthly)
These are the metrics your investors and board care about:
| Metric | What It Tells You | |--------|-------------------| | ARR / MRR | Revenue scale and growth | | Net Revenue Retention | Existing customer health | | Gross Margin | Unit economics viability | | Burn Rate / Runway | How long until you run out of money | | CAC Payback Period | How quickly customers pay for themselves |
Tier 2: Executive metrics (review weekly)
| Metric | What It Tells You | |--------|-------------------| | Churn rate | Customer losses | | LTV | Long-term customer value | | CAC | Cost to acquire customers | | Activation rate | Onboarding effectiveness | | Lead-to-customer conversion | Sales efficiency |
Tier 3: Operational metrics (review daily)
| Metric | What It Tells You | |--------|-------------------| | Daily active users (DAU) | Product engagement | | Feature adoption | Which features provide value | | Support ticket volume | Product quality issues | | NPS / CSAT | Customer satisfaction | | Pipeline value | Future revenue potential |
Revenue Metrics
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
The foundation of SaaS metrics.
MRR = Sum of all active subscription revenue for the month
MRR components: | Component | Formula | |-----------|---------| | New MRR | Revenue from new customers this month | | Expansion MRR | Revenue increase from existing customers (upgrades) | | Contraction MRR | Revenue decrease from existing customers (downgrades) | | Churned MRR | Revenue lost from cancelled customers | | Net New MRR | New + Expansion - Contraction - Churned |
Benchmark: Healthy SaaS companies grow MRR by 10-20% month-over-month in early stages, 5-10% at scale.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
ARR = MRR × 12
ARR is the standard metric for SaaS companies above $1M in revenue. Below that, use MRR.
Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA)
ARPA = Total MRR / Number of active customers
Benchmark: Track ARPA trend over time. Increasing ARPA indicates successful upselling and pricing power.
Customer Metrics
Customer Churn Rate
The percentage of customers who cancel in a given period.
Monthly Churn Rate = Customers lost this month / Customers at start of month × 100
| Stage | Good Monthly Churn | Great Monthly Churn | |-------|-------------------|---------------------| | SMB SaaS | < 5% | < 3% | | Mid-market SaaS | < 2% | < 1% | | Enterprise SaaS | < 1% | < 0.5% |
Rule: Annual churn should be below 10% for a healthy SaaS business. Above 15% is a serious problem.
Revenue Churn Rate (MRR Churn)
More important than customer churn because it accounts for the value of lost customers.
MRR Churn Rate = Churned MRR this month / MRR at start of month × 100
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
The single most important SaaS metric. NRR measures how much revenue you retain and grow from existing customers, excluding new customer revenue.
NRR = (Starting MRR + Expansion - Contraction - Churn) / Starting MRR × 100
| NRR | Interpretation | |-----|---------------| | 130%+ | Exceptional — expansion significantly exceeds churn (Snowflake, Datadog) | | 110-130% | Excellent — strong upsell motion | | 100-110% | Good — expansion covers churn | | 90-100% | Concerning — losing revenue from existing base | | Below 90% | Critical — churn is destroying growth |
Benchmark: Best-in-class SaaS companies have NRR of 120%+. This means even if you stopped acquiring new customers, revenue would still grow 20% per year.
Unit Economics
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
The total revenue you expect from a customer over their lifetime.
LTV = ARPA / Monthly Churn Rate
Or more precisely:
LTV = ARPA × Gross Margin % / Monthly Churn Rate
Example: ARPA of $200/month, 3% monthly churn, 80% gross margin LTV = $200 × 0.80 / 0.03 = $5,333
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The total cost to acquire one new customer.
CAC = (Sales + Marketing spend in period) / New customers acquired in period
Include: ad spend, sales salaries and commissions, marketing salaries, tools, content creation.
LTV:CAC Ratio
The relationship between customer value and acquisition cost.
LTV:CAC = LTV / CAC
| Ratio | Interpretation | |-------|---------------| | > 5:1 | Under-investing in growth — spend more | | 3:1 to 5:1 | Healthy and efficient | | 1:1 to 3:1 | Potentially unprofitable — improve retention or reduce CAC | | < 1:1 | Losing money on every customer |
Benchmark: Target LTV:CAC of 3:1 or higher.
CAC Payback Period
How many months until a customer's revenue covers their acquisition cost.
CAC Payback = CAC / (ARPA × Gross Margin %)
| Payback | Interpretation | |---------|---------------| | < 6 months | Excellent — capital-efficient growth | | 6-12 months | Good — healthy unit economics | | 12-18 months | Acceptable — common in enterprise SaaS | | > 18 months | Concerning — requires significant capital |
Growth Metrics
Growth Rate
MoM Growth = (MRR this month - MRR last month) / MRR last month × 100
| ARR Stage | Good MoM Growth | T2D3 Benchmark | |-----------|----------------|----------------| | $0-$1M | 15-25% | Triple year over year | | $1M-$5M | 10-15% | Triple year over year | | $5M-$20M | 5-10% | Double year over year | | $20M-$50M | 3-7% | Double year over year | | $50M+ | 2-5% | — |
Quick Ratio (SaaS)
Measures growth efficiency — how much new + expansion revenue for every dollar of lost revenue.
Quick Ratio = (New MRR + Expansion MRR) / (Churned MRR + Contraction MRR)
| Ratio | Interpretation | |-------|---------------| | > 4 | Strong growth, low leakage | | 2-4 | Healthy growth | | 1-2 | Growing, but leaking too much | | < 1 | Shrinking — churn exceeds growth |
Product Metrics
Activation Rate
The percentage of signups who reach the "aha moment."
Activation Rate = Users who completed key action / Total signups × 100
Benchmark: 20-40% for free trials, 40-60% for freemium.
Feature Adoption
Track what percentage of active users use each key feature:
| Feature | Adoption Rate | Action | |---------|-------------|--------| | Core feature A | 85% | Healthy — foundational feature | | Feature B | 45% | Normal for secondary feature | | Feature C | 12% | Investigate — is it discoverable? | | Feature D | 3% | Consider removing or redesigning |
Daily/Monthly Active Users
DAU/MAU Ratio = Daily Active Users / Monthly Active Users
| Ratio | Usage Pattern | Example | |-------|-------------|---------| | 50%+ | Daily-use product | Slack, email | | 20-50% | Regular use | Project management, CRM | | 10-20% | Weekly use | Reporting tools | | < 10% | Occasional use | May indicate low stickiness |
Building Your SaaS Dashboard
Dashboard layout recommendation
Executive dashboard (1 page):
- MRR trend (last 12 months) — top and center
- NRR (trailing 12 months) — key indicator
- MRR waterfall (new, expansion, contraction, churn) — composition view
- CAC payback period — efficiency check
- Active customers trend — growth trajectory
Product dashboard:
- DAU/WAU/MAU trends
- Activation funnel (signup → onboarding → key action)
- Feature adoption rates
- Support ticket volume by category
- NPS score trend
Sales dashboard:
- Pipeline value by stage
- Lead-to-customer conversion by source
- Average deal size trend
- Sales cycle length
- New MRR by sales rep
Tools for SaaS metrics
| Tool | Best For | Price | |------|---------|-------| | Baremetrics | Revenue metrics from Stripe | $50-$250/mo | | ChartMogul | Revenue analytics, cohort analysis | $100-$500/mo | | ProfitWell (Paddle) | Revenue metrics, benchmarks | Free + paid | | Mixpanel | Product analytics | Free - $200+/mo | | Amplitude | Product analytics, experiments | Free - custom | | Metabase | Custom dashboards, SQL-based | Free (open source) | | Looker (Google) | Enterprise analytics | Custom pricing |
Common SaaS Metrics Mistakes
- Tracking too many metrics — focus on 5-8 key metrics, not 50
- Ignoring cohort analysis — averages hide trends. Analyze by signup cohort.
- Vanity metrics — signups and page views don't matter if they don't convert
- Not segmenting — metrics should be viewed by plan, company size, and acquisition channel
- Measuring too infrequently — revenue metrics monthly, product metrics weekly, engagement daily
- No benchmarking — your metrics only make sense in context of your stage and industry
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