Guides
Community benchmarks, compared honestly before you trust any of them
Community benchmarks are only as good as the source behind them, so check who collected the data and how before you trust any ranking or set a target.
What to take away
- Ask who collected a benchmark, from how many communities, and in what year.
- Renewal rate, monthly churn, and cohort retention measure different things; a vendor quoting one cannot be compared with a vendor quoting another.
- Platform-published figures usually describe the platform's own customers, which skews toward communities that already fit that platform.
- Free industry reports often exist to sell a product, so read the methodology page before the headline number.
- Set your own baseline first, then use outside figures only to sanity-check it.
This article provides general membership-community business information, not individualized subscription, negative-option, privacy, tax or legal advice. Rules depend on the offer, renewal path, cancellation method, platform, jurisdiction and data collected. Verify current terms and duties before you launch.
Where community benchmarks come from
A benchmark is a number someone else measured on someone else's members. It is useful only when you know who they measured, how many, and when. Most community benchmarks circulating in 2026 come from four kinds of source, and each has a different failure mode.
The table below compares the named sources and the figures they publish or the typical ranges operators report.
| Source | Measure | Published figure or typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | Involuntary churn and failed-payment recovery | Involuntary churn often 20% to 40% of total churn; dunning can recover up to 70% of failed recurring payments |
| Marketing General Incorporated | Association renewal rate | Median association renewal rate around 84% in recent benchmarking reports |
| Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi, Patreon, Substack | Platform customer retention and churn | No single public cross-platform figure; typical operator-reported monthly churn is 3% to 10%, and annual renewal is 70% to 90% |
| Mark Schaefer Membership Growth Report | Membership growth, retention, and churn | Survey-based; read the current edition for sample size, year, and segment figures |
| Your own cohort data | Renewal, churn, cohort retention | Not a published benchmark; compute month 3, 6, and 12 retention for each signup cohort |
Platform-published benchmarks. Circle, Mighty Networks, Kajabi, Patreon and Substack all publish or discuss retention and churn figures for their own customer base.
These are real numbers, but they describe communities that chose that platform, which is not a random sample. A platform popular with paid newsletters will report retention patterns that do not transfer to a forum built around live events.
Payment-processor data. Stripe publishes aggregate research on involuntary churn, the share of failed renewals caused by expired or declined cards rather than a member choosing to leave. That figure is useful because it is measured at the transaction, not self-reported by an operator.
Stripe's own published guidance puts recovery of failed recurring payments well above zero when a dunning sequence runs. The exact rate depends on your card mix and retry schedule. Treat any single percentage as illustrative. Check Stripe's current documentation.
Member-organization surveys. The Membership Growth Report from Mark Schaefer and the annual association benchmarking published by Marketing General Incorporated survey named organizations and publish sample sizes. These are the closest thing to a citable industry benchmark for dues-based communities, and both disclose how many organizations responded.
Your own cohort data. This is the only benchmark that describes your members. Everything above is a sanity check on it.
The three numbers people confuse
Renewal rate, churn rate and retention rate get quoted interchangeably and are not the same measure.
Three Measures, Three Distortions
Renewal rate
- What it counts
- renewed in window
- Common distortion
- excludes pre-renewal cancels
Monthly churn
- What it counts
- active lost per month
- Common distortion
- annual plans hide churn
Cohort retention
- What it counts
- signup group still active
- Common distortion
- needs long window
| Measure | What it counts | Common distortion |
|---|---|---|
| Renewal rate | Share of members up for renewal who renewed in the window | Excludes members who cancelled before their renewal date |
| Monthly churn | Share of active members lost in a month | Annual plans hide churn until the renewal month |
| Cohort retention | Share of one signup group still active after N months | Needs a long enough window to mean anything |
A community with 80% renewal rate can still lose a third of its members in a year if monthly churn runs high between renewals. Quote the measure, not just the number.
Run the arithmetic yourself. At 5% monthly churn, 1,000 members become about 540 after twelve months with no new signups. At 2% monthly churn, they become about 785. The figures are illustrative, and they show why the measure matters more than the headline.
For the metrics worth tracking monthly, see membership community revenue metrics. For how to read a dashboard without fooling yourself, see how to read membership community audience analytics.
Check the methodology before the number
Four questions separate a usable benchmark from a marketing line.
Four Questions Before Trusting a Benchmark
- Who was surveyed, how many responded?
- What year is the data from?
- How is the measure defined?
- Who paid for the study?
- Who was surveyed, and how many responded? A benchmark built on 40 self-selected communities is a anecdote with a decimal point.
- What year is the data from? A 2021 churn figure predates most current pricing and platform fee changes.
- How is the measure defined? Ask whether "retention" means logo retention, revenue retention or member-count retention.
- Who paid for the study? A platform benchmarking its own customers is not neutral, even when the numbers are honest.
If a source cannot answer all four, use it as a conversation starter, not a target.
Where the compliance side enters
Benchmarks about renewal rates sit next to a harder question: whether your renewal process itself is lawful. The FTC's guidance on negative-option offers is summarized in Time for a ROSCA Recap. It requires clear disclosure of material terms before billing information is collected, express informed consent before charging, and a simple way to stop recurring charges.
State law may add duties on top. Confirm your own disclosure language with qualified counsel and your state attorney general's consumer protection office.
Two checks keep a benchmark honest. The first is the payment process behind it. If members pay by card, the security side of storing and processing that data belongs with your processor's documentation and a security professional. The NIST Small Business Quick-Start Guides give small organizations a practical starting point for that risk assessment.
The second check is the records behind it. The IRS guidance on what kind of records to keep explains that a business may choose a recordkeeping system that clearly shows income and expenses.
Building your own baseline
Before you adopt anyone else's number, compute your own on a comparable basis. Take one signup cohort, pick a fixed window, and track how many of that group are still paying at month 3, month 6 and month 12. Do the same for the next cohort. The trend between your own cohorts is more actionable than any published figure.
Two habits keep that baseline clean. Count paying members at each checkpoint, not signups. Freeze the definition of active before you compare two cohorts, because a mid-year change breaks the comparison.
For market context on where paid communities are growing, see best markets for a membership community business.
For audience-side context, see the membership community audience growth guide.
For how published benchmarks are assembled and where they break down, see the membership community analytics and benchmark guide.
Common questions
Why can't I just use a published churn benchmark as my target?
A platform's churn figure reflects its own customers' pricing, contract length and member mix. Use it to check whether your number is wildly out of range, not as the number you manage to.
Which benchmark source should I trust most?
The one that discloses sample size, survey year, measure definition and funding. Marketing General Incorporated's association benchmarking and the Membership Growth Report both publish methodology. Platform and processor data are useful for transaction-level questions like failed-payment recovery, where the measurement is mechanical rather than self-reported.
How often should I recompute my own benchmark?
Quarterly is usually enough for a small community, and monthly for one with a large annual renewal cluster. Recompute whenever you change pricing, contract length or the renewal process, because those changes break comparability with earlier periods.
Does a higher renewal rate always mean a healthier community?
No. A community that signs members onto annual plans and stops counting anyone who cancels mid-term can post a high renewal rate while shrinking. Track member count and revenue alongside the rate.
