What is Cohort Analysis?
Also known as: cohort retention, retention cohorts
Cohort Analysis groups customers by a shared start period and tracks how a metric — usually retention or revenue — evolves for each group over time.
What is Cohort Analysis?
Aggregate churn hides the truth; cohort analysis reveals it. It shows whether recent customers retain better than older ones, when churn concentrates, and whether product changes actually moved retention.
How to calculate Cohort Analysis
Worked example
Of customers who joined in January, 100% are active in month 0, 92% in month 3, and 85% in month 6. Comparing that curve to the April cohort shows whether retention is improving.
What's a good Cohort Analysis?
Healthy B2B SaaS cohorts flatten (stop declining) and ideally curve upward as expansion outpaces churn — the visual signature of net revenue retention above 100%.
Frequently asked questions
Why use cohorts instead of overall churn?
Overall churn blends new and old customers and can stay flat while underlying retention worsens. Cohorts isolate each group so you see the real trend.
What's a 'smiling' retention curve?
A revenue-retention cohort that dips then rises above 100% as expansion from survivors outweighs churn — the best-case pattern in SaaS.