Logo retention is the customer-count survival rate — how many logos stick around, independent of how much they pay after renewals.

How it works

Cohort logo retention tracks a group of customers signed in the same month or quarter and asks what share remain active at 6, 12, 24 months. Point-in-time logo retention compares all logos at T0 to T1. Define “active” consistently — paid vs usage threshold.

Benchmarks vary by segment: enterprise should show high logo retention; SMB and PLG tolerate more turnover if economics work.

Why it matters

• Founders: Low logo retention forces constant top-of-funnel spend. Fix product and onboarding before scaling paid acquisition.
• Investors: Diligence asks for cohort curves, not one blended percentage. Logo retention predicts future expansion pool.

Publish cohort charts in board decks — point-in-time retention can hide deterioration in newer cohorts. Target logo retention benchmarks vary: enterprise SaaS often aims for high nineties annual logo retention; SMB may accept lower if unit economics work.

Customer success playbooks should tie explicitly to leading indicators of logo retention: time-to-value, admin adoption, renewal meetings scheduled.

Common mistake

Reporting revenue retention only and skipping logo retention because it looks worse. Investors will calculate it anyway.

Practical takeaway

Invest in onboarding and time-to-value before scaling acquisition — logo retention problems are cheaper to fix at small scale than after a paid growth surge fills the funnel with bad-fit accounts.

Related ideas

• Logo churn
• Logo expansion
• Gross retention vs net revenue retention