Subscriber churn is the rate at which members leave — the share of subscribers who cancel or lapse over a given period. If you start a month with 100 members and 5 don’t renew, that’s 5% monthly churn.
Churn is the counterweight to growth. You can add new members quickly, but if they leave just as fast, revenue stalls. Keeping churn low is often more valuable than chasing new signups.
Voluntary vs. involuntary churn
It helps to split churn into two kinds, because they have different fixes:
- Voluntary churn — the member chooses to cancel. The fix is value: better content, clearer benefits, the right pricing.
- Involuntary churn — the member didn’t mean to leave, but a payment failed (an expired or declined card). The fix is operational: catch the failure and prompt them to update their card.
Involuntary churn is often the easiest win, because those members wanted to stay — they just need a nudge.
How to reduce it
- Notify members quickly when a payment fails, so they can fix it before losing access.
- Offer annual plans — yearly members renew far less often, so there are fewer chances to churn.
- Keep delivering visible, ongoing value so canceling feels like a loss.
How Members Only approaches it
Members Only helps mainly on the involuntary side: it can send an automatic payment-failed email so members know to update their card before access lapses, plus emails for new subscriptions and successful renewals. Because cancellations take effect at the end of the paid period rather than immediately, members also keep what they paid for — which reduces frustration and refund requests. Offering annual pricing through Stripe is a simple lever to lower churn further.
Next step
See Email Notifications for failed-payment and renewal emails, and Cancel at the End of the Billing Period for how cancellations work.
Related terms: What Is Recurring Billing?, Cancel at the End of the Billing Period, Monthly vs. Annual Memberships