SaaS metrics calculator, free, no signup
Short answer: LTV is monthly revenue per customer divided by monthly churn, so $50 at 5% is $1,000. Move 4 sliders and see LTV, LTV:CAC, CAC payback and an ARR valuation update live.
LTV = ARPU / monthly churn
Healthy retention.
Based on 3.0x ARR multiple · ARR $60,000
ARPU divided by monthly churn.
Your unit economics are solid. Scale spend.
Great cash efficiency.
Your engine is efficient. Pour fuel on the fire. Increase ad spend or hire sales reps immediately.
Automate Your GrowthMediaFast picks the subreddits your buyers already hang out in, out of 4,200+, and drafts posts that fit each sub's rules. The live demo builds a sample plan for your website.
SaaS metrics benchmarks
The lines your calculator results get compared to, with a source for each one.
5% monthly churn-46%Customers gone after 12 months: 1 - 0.95^12.| Metric | Poor | Average | Great |
|---|---|---|---|
| LTV:CAC | Below 3:1 | 3:1 to 5:1 | Above 5:1 |
| Monthly Churn | Above 5% | 3-5% | Below 3% |
| CAC Payback | 18+ months | 12 months | Under 6 months |
| Net Revenue Retention | Below 90% | 100-110% | Above 120% |
| Growth Rate (YoY) | Below 20% | 20-50% | Above 100% |
Rule-of-thumb lines for venture-scale SaaS. Real medians run slower: the KeyBanc and Sapphire 2024 survey put private SaaS at a 20 month CAC payback and 101% net retention. Checked October 2026.
How the calculator works
Four formulas, one worked example: $50 ARPU, 5% monthly churn, $300 CAC.
LTV = ARPU / monthly churn$1,000$50 / 0.05. At 0% churn the calculator caps LTV at 60 months of revenue.
LTV:CAC = LTV / CAC3.3x$1,000 / $300. The HEALTHY pill starts at 3x.
Payback = CAC / ARPU6 months$300 / $50 a month. Over 12 months is flagged as cash flow danger.
Value = revenue x 12 x multiple$600k$10,000 total MRR at 25% growth sits in the 5x tier.
The ARPU box feeds every formula. For LTV, LTV:CAC and payback, enter monthly revenue per customer. The valuation card multiplies the same number by 12 to get ARR, so when you want a company valuation, enter your total MRR and read only the valuation card.
LTV here is revenue, not profit. Versions that multiply ARPU by gross margin first (ARPU x gross margin / churn) give a lower, stricter LTV and a longer payback. Expansion revenue and discounting are left out too. Treat the result as a ceiling, then check it against your real margin.
Use monthly ARPU with monthly churn. Mixing annual revenue with monthly churn inflates LTV 12 times, and entering 30% annual churn as 30% monthly cuts it to a fraction.
Churn is the silent killer
Churn compounds. A small monthly number turns into a big yearly loss, and LTV falls with it.
Retention = (1 - monthly churn)12. LTV = $50 / monthly churn, the same formula the calculator uses. Rounded.
A 5% monthly churn means you lose about 46% of your customers every year (0.95 to the 12th power is 0.54). You are filling a leaky bucket: every new customer first replaces one who left.
The cure for churn is rarely just more features. Community helps: when users feel part of something, on your own subreddit or a Discord, they have more reasons to stay and more ways to get unstuck. When churn is above 5%, the calculator's advice is blunt: stop adding features and talk to 10 customers leaving this month.
The calculator also warns when churn goes above 10%, and its valuation step cuts the multiple by 30% at that level.
LTV:CAC ratio
3:1 is the line most investors quote. Here is what each band means for your next dollar of spend.
Pills match the calculator: HEALTHY at 3x and up, OKAY from 1x, POOR below 1x.
Lower churn, since every point raises LTV
Higher prices or annual plans
Channels that cost time instead of ad spend
Referrals and word of mouth
Paid ads with rising click costs
Discounts that attract quick churners
Counting only ad spend as CAC
Mixing annual and monthly units
Many founders think they can just buy growth. But if your LTV:CAC is below 3, every dollar you spend on ads is burning your runway.
Efficient SaaS companies rarely rely only on paid acquisition. They build organic moats on platforms like Reddit and LinkedIn, where a customer costs time instead of a click bill, which keeps the CAC side of the ratio low. Organic users also tend to arrive with context, because they found you in a discussion they cared about.
For the full benchmark breakdown by stage and model, read what a good LTV to CAC ratio is.
CAC payback period
How long one customer takes to repay what you spent to win them, from best in class to the private SaaS median.
Shorter is better. The calculator divides CAC by monthly ARPU; formulas that use gross margin give a longer, stricter number.
The calculator divides CAC by monthly ARPU and flags anything over 12 months as cash flow danger. A payback period under 12 months is standard for capital efficiency, and under 6 months allows for aggressive bootstrapping.
Raise prices or move customers to annual plans paid upfront. Cut CAC by adding channels that run on your time, not on ad spend. Remove onboarding friction so new customers reach value, and start paying, sooner.
SaaS valuation calculator
The calculator uses growth tiers from 3x to 12x ARR. Public SaaS traded at a 4.2x median on September 30, 2026.
| Annual growth | Base multiple | Churn above 10% | Churn below 2% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% or less | 3x | 2.1x | 3.6x |
| Over 10% | 5x | 3.5x | 6x |
| Over 30% | 8x | 5.6x | 9.6x |
| Over 60% | 12x | 8.4x | 14.4x |
Market figures: SaaS Capital Index, read via this index tracker. Headline 4.2x for September 30, 2026; growth bands from the June 2026 edition. Checked October 2026.
Investors don't just buy revenue. They buy engines. A startup with $10k MRR growing 5% MoM is worth less than one growing 20% MoM.
Premium multiples (10x-15x) need a predictable, scalable growth engine that doesn't rely on you sending manual DMs all day. In 2026 they are rare: the public median sits at 4.2x, and even the 20-30% growth band trades at 5.5x.
So read the calculator's valuation as an optimistic scenario, useful for comparing your own months, not a price a buyer will pay. Private companies usually trade below public ones, and deal terms move the number further.
You calculated your metrics. Now improve them.
The calculator checks churn first, then LTV:CAC. Here is the same logic as a flow, plus where a low-CAC channel fits.
Focus entirely on retention
Stop adding features. Talk to 10 customers leaving this month.
Fix your acquisition funnel
Shift from paid ads to organic channels like Reddit and LinkedIn.
Scale aggressively now
The engine is efficient. Increase ad spend or hire sales reps.
r/SaaS · posted by u/early_founder · 5h
Our LTV:CAC is 1.4x on Google Ads. How did you get your first 50 customers without ads?
46 comments
u/you_the_founder · 3h
We had the same problem. What worked: answer threads like this one with real numbers from our own churn work, no links unless someone asks. Most of our first users came from replies, not posts.
112 · Reply
A useful reply costs time, not ad spend. That is why community channels pull the CAC side of the ratio down.
If your CAC is too high and your LTV is too low, you do not need more ad spend. You need a channel that costs time, not money. The hard part is finding the threads where buyers ask, and tools like MediaFast surface the right subreddits so it fits into about 10 minutes a day.
Reddit marketing costs time instead of ad spend. For SaaS founders with tight margins, organic traffic can bring CAC well below paid channels. How far depends on your niche and how much time you put in, so measure your own number in the calculator.
When acquisition cost falls and LTV stays the same, the ratio climbs. Moving CAC from $300 to $100 at a $1,000 LTV takes you from 3.3x to 10x.
Users who found you in a community discussion already have context on your product. With CAC at $100 and $50 ARPU, payback drops from 6 months to 2.
Your customers are already on Reddit. Go get them.
They are asking for a product like yours on Reddit right now. The only question is whether they find you or your competitor.
Founders already growing with MediaFast
BEST VALUE
What's included:
If we can't help you market on Reddit, we'll refund you. No questions asked.
How to use your metrics
Find the bottleneck, add a cheaper channel, then watch the numbers every week.
01Identify your biggest bottleneck
High CAC, high churn or low LTV? Each has a different fix.
02Add a channel that costs time, not ad spend
Communities like Reddit bring customers without a click bill.
03Track improvements weekly
Re-run the 4 inputs every week and watch the ratio move.
Is it high CAC? High churn? Low LTV? Each problem has a different solution. If CAC is the issue, you need organic channels that do not require ad spend.
Reddit marketing brings in customers without ad spend. It is one of the fastest ways to improve your unit economics without raising prices or cutting product investment. MediaFast picks the subreddits from 4,200+ and drafts rule-aware posts; you post yourself.
Come back to this calculator every week. Watch how adding organic Reddit traffic shifts your LTV:CAC ratio and shortens your payback period. For one metric at a time, use the MRR calculator, the churn rate calculator or the CAC calculator.
Enter your website and MediaFast picks the subreddits your buyers read, out of 4,200+, then drafts the first posts to fit each sub's rules.
Free live demo with your own website, no signup.
Lower CAC, in their words
A channel that runs on time instead of a click bill is how the CAC side of the ratio drops. Here is what it did for a few founders.
Understanding the math behind your startup's success: LTV, LTV:CAC, payback, churn and valuation.
For most SaaS businesses, an LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 is considered the industry benchmark for health. A ratio of 5:1 or higher is excellent and often seen in highly efficient VC-backed startups. If your ratio is below 3, it means you're spending too much to acquire customers relative to their value. David Skok's SaaS Metrics 2.0 puts the best SaaS businesses above 3, sometimes as high as 7 or 8.
In this calculator, we use the formula: LTV = ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) / Monthly Churn Rate. For example, if your ARPU is $50 and your churn is 5%, your LTV is $1,000. If churn is 0, the calculator caps LTV at 60 months of revenue. Versions that multiply ARPU by gross margin first give a lower, stricter LTV.
It's the number of months it takes for a customer to pay back the cost of acquiring them. A payback period under 12 months is standard for capital efficiency. Under 6 months allows for aggressive bootstrapping. Skok notes many of the best SaaS businesses recover CAC in 5-7 months, while the KeyBanc and Sapphire 2024 survey put the private SaaS median at 20 months.
We use a simplified revenue multiple based on your Annual Growth Rate and Churn: 3x ARR at 10% growth or less, 5x above 10%, 8x above 30% and 12x above 60%. Churn above 10% cuts the multiple by 30%, and churn below 2% adds 20%, so the top tier reaches 14.4x. Low growth and high churn can drop multiples to about 2x. ARR here is the revenue box times 12, so enter total MRR when you want a company valuation.
About 46% of your customers. Monthly churn compounds: 0.95 to the 12th power is 0.54, so 54 of every 100 customers are still paying after a year. At 3% monthly churn you keep about 69, at 10% only about 28.
The SaaS Capital Index of public SaaS companies read a 4.2x median ARR multiple on September 30, 2026. In its June 2026 edition, companies growing 20-30% a year traded at 5.5x, 10-20% at 3.1x and under 10% at 1.9x. The calculator's tiers run higher, so read its estimate as an optimistic scenario.
Three common reasons: the revenue box holds total MRR instead of revenue per customer, churn is entered as an annual number instead of monthly, or CAC only counts ad spend. LTV here also ignores gross margin, so it is an upper bound. Use monthly ARPU, monthly churn and full sales and marketing cost per new customer.
