[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"glossary-cohort::en":3,"gloss-cluster-cohort::en":20,"gloss-next-cohort::en":9},{"slug":4,"category":5,"name":6,"definition":7,"meta_desc":8,"faq":9,"schema_markup":9,"related":10},"cohort","saas","Cohort","A cohort, in SaaS product and growth analytics, is a group of users who share a defining starting characteristic — most commonly the calendar period in which they signed up (the \"January 2026 cohort\"), but also usefully defined by acquisition channel, initial plan tier, or first feature used — grouped together specifically so their behavior can be tracked and compared over time. Cohort analysis is the primary technique for answering the question that a simple aggregate metric can't: \"is our product actually getting stickier over time, or does it just look that way because we're growing?\" A classic cohort retention table plots, for each monthly signup cohort, what percentage of that cohort is still active in month 1, month 2, month 3, and so on — and comparing the shape of that retention curve across cohorts (is the March cohort retaining better at month 3 than the January cohort did?) reveals whether recent product or onboarding changes are actually improving long-term stickiness, something a single blended \"active users this month\" number can never show, because it can't distinguish a shrinking base of long-tenured loyal users from a growing base of recently-churned new signups. Cohort analysis is equally central to revenue metrics — a \"revenue cohort\" retention curve (tracking what % of a signup cohort's initial MRR remains, including expansion, months later) is exactly how Net Revenue Retention gets calculated and is one of the most trusted indicators of durable SaaS business health, since it strips out the noise of new-customer growth entirely and isolates whether existing customers are worth more or less over time. Concrete worked example: a SaaS company's product analytics tool shows the cohort of users who signed up in January retained at 65% by month 3, while the cohort who signed up in April — after a redesigned onboarding flow shipped in March — retained at 78% by month 3. Because both cohorts are compared at the exact same relative age (month 3 since signup, not the same calendar month), this is a clean, apples-to-apples signal that the onboarding change genuinely improved retention, rather than an artifact of seasonality or overall company growth. Cohort curves are also the standard way SaaS teams distinguish structural retention problems from temporary ones — a retention curve that keeps declining indefinitely (never flattening) signals customers are leaving faster than the product can retain them long-term, while a curve that drops sharply early but then flattens into a stable plateau suggests a smaller, durable core of genuinely engaged users has emerged, a meaningfully healthier shape even if the absolute retention percentage looks similar at a single point in time.","A cohort is a group of users sharing a start date or trait, tracked together over time to reveal retention and behavior trends.",null,[11,14,17],{"slug":12,"name":13},"activation","Activation",{"slug":15,"name":16},"churn","Churn",{"slug":18,"name":19},"funnel","Funnel",[21,23,27,30,33,36,39,43,46,49,52,55],{"slug":12,"category":5,"name":13,"updated_at":22},"2026-08-24T02:46:36+00:00",{"slug":24,"category":5,"name":25,"updated_at":26},"aha-moment","Aha Moment","2026-08-24T02:46:37+00:00",{"slug":28,"category":5,"name":29,"updated_at":26},"annual-contract-value","Annual Contract Value (ACV)",{"slug":31,"category":5,"name":32,"updated_at":22},"api-first","API-First",{"slug":34,"category":5,"name":35,"updated_at":22},"arpa","Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA)",{"slug":37,"category":5,"name":38,"updated_at":22},"arr","Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)",{"slug":40,"category":5,"name":41,"updated_at":42},"auto-renewal-clause","Auto-Renewal Clause","2026-08-24T02:46:38+00:00",{"slug":44,"category":5,"name":45,"updated_at":42},"build-vs-buy","Build vs. Buy",{"slug":47,"category":5,"name":48,"updated_at":26},"burn-multiple","Burn Multiple",{"slug":50,"category":5,"name":51,"updated_at":42},"burn-rate","Burn Rate",{"slug":53,"category":5,"name":54,"updated_at":22},"cac","Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)",{"slug":56,"category":5,"name":57,"updated_at":22},"cdn","Content Delivery Network (CDN)"]