All terms

Growth

Logo retention

The percentage of customer accounts (logos) retained over a period, regardless of contract size — counts customers, not dollars.

In plain English

How many of last year's customers still exist as customers today, treating each customer equally whether they pay you $100/month or $100k/month.

Example

100 customers at start of year. 12 cancelled, 88 remain (plus any new wins, which don't count here). Logo retention = 88%. Industry benchmarks: PLG SaaS 75-85%, B2B SaaS 85-95%, enterprise 95%+.

Formula

Logo retention = (Customers at period end from start cohort) / (Customers at start of period) × 100

Why it matters

Logo retention and NRR tell different stories. A company with 80% logo retention but 130% NRR is keeping its big customers and losing small ones (often fine — small customers are a different ICP). A company with 95% logo retention but 95% NRR is keeping everyone but everyone's shrinking (warning sign — product is not earning expansion). Show both in board updates; the gap is the diagnostic.

Common mistakes

  • Reporting logo retention only (hides revenue contraction) — pair with NRR
  • Including paused/trial accounts in the start cohort, inflating the denominator
  • Comparing across radically different ACV segments — segment the metric by tier

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