How do I cut subscription churn and failed payments?
Some churn is people leaving. Some is payments failing. Both are fixable in part.
- Subscribers drop every month.
- How much is failed payments?
- Can we stop cancellations?
Separate voluntary churn from involuntary churn, which is failed payments. Turn on billing grace periods and handle the stores' billing retry states so users keep access while payment is retried, and tell them to update payment. For voluntary churn, ask why, offer a downgrade or pause where available, and fix the top reasons. Track churn by plan and cohort.
Two kinds of churn
| Type | Fixes |
|---|---|
| Involuntary (failed payments) | Grace periods, retry handling, update-payment messages |
| Voluntary | Reasons survey, downgrade or pause, product fixes |
How we look at it at ShoutEx
We set up billing state handling, messages and churn reporting. Churn goes deeper.
- No churn split.
- Grace periods off.
- No reasons asked.
- Dark patterns to stop cancelling.
- Churn split by type.
- Grace periods on.
- Reasons tracked.
- Fair save offers.
What developers and the app stores say
Here is what developers say.
Community summaries describe recurring themes in public threads, not individual posts. Vendor pages describe vendor claims, so test them on your own calls.
Read next
Go deeper in the ShoutEx guides, or check the sources behind this answer.
We'll set up billing handling and churn reporting.
Book a call →Follow-up questions
Can we see cancellation reasons?
Apple and Google offer some; add your own survey.
Do annual plans reduce churn?
Usually, with the right price.
What about win-back offers?
Both stores support win-back offers in some form.