Stripe Active Subscriptions

What Are Active Subscriptions

Active subscriptions refer to the number of paying customers that are currently subscribed to a particular SaaS offering within a given period.
Simply put, It’s the number of active users who have an ongoing commitment to using the software and are paying for the service on a regular basis, typically monthly or annually.

How to Calculate Active Subscriptions

To calculate active subscriptions, you need to first identify these two things:

• Specific time period: Determine the timeframe for which you want to calculate the number of active subscriptions. It could be monthly, quarterly, or annually, depending on your reporting needs.
• The number of active paying customers: Within the chosen time period, identify all the customers who are actively subscribed to your SaaS product and are paying for the service. Exclude customers who have canceled, downgraded their plans, or churned during that period.

With this in mind, here is the formula you can follow:

Active Subscriptions = Number of customers with active subscriptions at the end of the period – Number of new subscriptions added during the period + Number of subscriptions canceled during the period

Let’s say you are calculating active subscriptions for the month of May.

At the beginning of May, you had 500 active subscriptions. During the month, you added 100 new subscriptions and saw 50 customers cancel their subscriptions during the same period.

Active Subscriptions = 500 (initial subscriptions) + 100 (new subscriptions) – 50 (canceled subscriptions)

So, the number of active subscriptions for the month of May is 550.

Remember that this is a simplified example and some calculations could also involve additional factors such as upgrades, downgrades, and reactivations.

What Is a Good Number of Active Subscriptions

Seeing that we’re talking about a concrete number of active subscriptions, there isn’t really any universal figure that all SaaS businesses should aim for.

There are numerous factors that will influence it, with the company stage being at the forefront.

For example, relatively new or early-stage SaaS companies typically aim for a few hundred active subscriptions for a positive start.

On the other hand, establishes SaaS businesses might consider tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of active subscriptions as a healthy achievement. At this stage, it’s crucial to focus on maintaining high customer retention rates and optimizing customer lifetime value.

There’s also some more concrete data we extracted from our Benchmark Groups product.

A good number of active subscriptions in Stripe is around 300 a month, according to Stripe Benchmarks for All Companies.

If you want to stay on top of future trends and be able to instantly compare your performance to companies just like yours (in any given industry), you can join our Benchmark Groups – it’s free for everyone!

How to Increase the Number of Active Subscriptions

Increasing the number of active subscriptions is a critical objective for any modern SaaS organization.

By expanding your customer base and retaining existing customers, you can enhance your revenue streams and establish a strong foundation for long-term sustainability

Here are some expert strategies we found over the years that can help you do just that:

• Get a dedicated account manager to serve customers: While some customers might prefer blogs and content guides for getting familiar with your product, there are many others that may want 1-1 onboarding. In many cases, customers are more likely to subscribe and remain customers if they feel like they have a personal relationship with someone in the company. That’s why getting a dedicated account manager on your team can be such a huge addition.
• Stick to a <25% upsell price: If your upsell conversion rate is not where it’s supposed to be, maybe it’s time to consider a different price. Some of the experts we talked to say that the price of an upsell shouldn’t be more than 25% compared to the product they’re already buying. Remember, the upsell should represent another quick win, not cost an arm and a leg.

More resources to help you improve:

• • Vimeo’s Journey to Full-Service SaaS & One Million Paying Subscribers
  • 18 Tips for Increasing Your Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
  • How Unstack Reduced Involuntary Churn by More Than 50%
  • Overcome Financial Reporting Challenges with These 6 Best Practices
  • 17 Financial KPIs Every Sales and Marketing Team Should Track
  • 6 Ways Experts Choose Their SaaS Financial Model (And You Can Too)