App store installs say how many people tried your app. These metrics say whether they kept it.
Sign-ups
New accounts per day or week, broken down by source and platform. Count accounts, not installs: many installs never open the app twice.
Active users and stickiness
- DAU, WAU, MAU: distinct users who did something meaningful on the day, in the week or in the month.
- Stickiness: DAU ÷ MAU, the share of monthly users who come on a given day.
Read stickiness against how often people need what your app does. A low number for a weekly-use app is fine; for a daily one, it's a warning.
Sessions per active user
Average sessions per active user per week. Send a Session started event when the app comes to the foreground after being away for more than a few minutes, so a quick switch doesn't count as two sessions.
Free-to-paid conversion
Formula. Users who upgraded ÷ users who signed up, in the same cohort, within a fixed window (for example 30 days).
Funnel. Sign-up → core action → paywall seen → upgraded. A low rate at "paywall seen" means people don't reach the moment where paying makes sense.
Retention by cohort
Group users by sign-up week and see what share return in each following week. Most apps lose many users in the first days; the shape of the curve after that matters more. A curve that flattens means a group found lasting value.
The events to send
| Event | Properties |
|---|---|
User signed up | platform, source |
Session started | platform, app_version |
| One event per core action | the action's details |
Paywall viewed | placement |
Subscription started | plan, price, currency |
Send events from the app with an ingest key, and anything to do with money from your server. See sending events and the Swift and Dart examples.