Gross vs net churn
Gross churn is the subscribers or revenue lost in a period; net churn subtracts gains from upgrades and expansion.
Publishers with flat pricing usually focus on gross churn as the honest measure of how many subscribers they're losing.
Why it matters for publishers
Net churn can hide a leaking bucket. If upgrades and price rises offset cancellations, revenue looks stable while your subscriber base shrinks — which shows up brutally a year later when there is nobody left to upgrade.
How publishers use it in practice
- Report both: gross subscriber churn for audience health, net revenue churn for financial health.
- Publishers with flat pricing have almost no expansion revenue, so gross churn is the number that matters.
- Negative net revenue churn (expansion exceeding losses) is realistic for B2B multi-seat licences, rarely for consumer titles.
- Never compare your net churn against someone else's gross churn.
Frequently asked questions about gross vs net churn
- Which churn number should I show investors?
- Both, clearly labelled. Showing only net revenue churn invites the question of what the gross number is hiding.