Stickiness, measured as DAU/MAU ratio, shows how often users return to a product within a given month. It answers: “Of all the users active in a month, what percentage engage on a daily basis?”
A higher DAU/MAU indicates that users find ongoing value in the product and keep coming back frequently. It’s one of the most important metrics for SaaS, mobile apps, and consumer platforms to track engagement and retention.
You can calculate stickiness by dividing the Daily Active Users (DAU) by the Monthly Active Users (MAU), then multiplying by 100 to express it as a percentage.
Stickiness (DAU/MAU) = (Average Daily Active Users (DAU) ÷ Monthly Active Users (MAU) ×100
Stickiness benchmarks between 20-30% is generally considered healthy.
Stickiness measures frequency of usage within a month, while retention tracks whether users return at all after a specific period (e.g., Day 7 or Month 3).
Low stickiness suggests users see limited ongoing value in the product. They may log in once but not find enough reason to return regularly.
It’s usually tracked monthly to align with the MAU metric, but monitoring weekly or quarterly trends can provide additional context.