Day 1/7/30 Retention

Percentage of users who return on specific days after signup. The clearest early signal of product-market fit.

Day N Retention = (Users active on Day N / Users who signed up on Day 0) × 100%

What it measures

Whether users come back after their first experience. Day 1 measures immediate onboarding success; Day 7 indicates early habit formation; Day 30 reflects sustained value delivery. These milestones reveal problems weeks before they show in revenue.

Benchmarks

All apps average: Day 1: 25-26% | Day 7: 11-13% | Day 30: 6-7%
Banking/Fintech: Day 1: 30% | Day 7: 18% | Day 30: 8-9%
Marketplace apps: Day 1: 34% | Day 7: 16% | Day 30: 9%
E-commerce: Day 1: 25% | Day 7: 11% | Day 30: 6%
Gaming: Day 1: 27-33% | Day 7: 13% | Day 30: 5%
Social: Day 1: 26% | Day 7: 9% | Day 30: 3%

What to watch

Strong Day 1, weak Day 7: Users explore but don't form habits. Focus on the first-week experience.
Weak Day 1: Onboarding is failing. Users aren't finding value quickly enough.

In practice

A social app had strong Day 1 (32%) but crashed to 8% by Day 7. Users explored features once but didn't return. Analysis showed most users never added friends. They added a "Find friends from contacts" prompt on Day 2, and Day 7 retention jumped to 18%. The feature existed before, but users needed a nudge at the right moment.