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User Retention Analytics for Mobile Apps & Websites

Retention shows whether the users you work so hard to acquire actually come back. Shakebug turns every session into weekly cohort retention, a retention curve, stickiness and active-user trends — for mobile apps and websites alike, even when users never log in.

Cohort heatmap

How many come back

See what percentage of each weekly cohort returns in week 1, 2, 3 and beyond — a colour-coded heatmap that makes drop-off impossible to miss.

Retention curve

Where it levels off

Watch the average retention curve flatten over time. The point where it stops dropping is your core of loyal, habitual users.

Stickiness & actives

How often they return

Track Week-1 and Week-4 retention, DAU/MAU stickiness and monthly active devices at a glance, so you always know which way engagement is trending.

Cohort retention

See exactly who comes back, week after week

Shakebug groups your users into weekly cohorts by device and shows the share of each cohort still active in the following weeks. The heatmap reveals at a glance where users drop off, and the retention curve shows where engagement settles into your loyal base.

Because it’s measured at the device level, retention works for apps and sites with no login — and it sits right next to your bugs, crashes and session journeys, so you can see whether quality problems are quietly pushing users away.

Shakebug retention dashboard with Week-1 and Week-4 retention, stickiness and monthly active devices above a retention curve and a weekly cohort heatmap

Who uses retention analytics

If you build a product people are meant to come back to, retention is the metric that matters most.

Mobile app teams

iOS, Android, Flutter & React Native

See whether each release improves or hurts retention, and whether crashes and bugs are quietly driving users away — before your store rating does.

Web & SaaS teams

Websites and web apps

Measure whether visitors and trial users actually return. Device-level tracking means you see retention even before someone signs up or logs in.

Founders & product managers

Product-market fit, at a glance

Read product-market fit straight off the curve. Track Week-1 and Week-4 retention as you ship, and prove the product is getting stickier over time.

Growth & marketing

Quality over vanity metrics

Judge campaigns by whether the users they bring in stick around — not by installs or signups alone. Spend where retention, not just acquisition, is strong.

What is user retention?

User retention is the percentage of people who return to your app or website over time after their first visit. Instead of a single number, it’s measured with cohorts — users grouped by the week they first arrived — so you can see what share of each group is still active a week, a month or several months later.

Retention is widely regarded as the truest measure of product value: it’s easy to buy installs or traffic, but only a product people genuinely find useful keeps them coming back. A flat, healthy retention curve is the clearest sign you’ve found product-market fit.

What is mobile app retention analytics?

Mobile app retention analytics helps product teams understand how many users return after installing an app. By measuring Day-1, Day-7, Day-30 and cohort retention, teams can identify churn, improve onboarding and increase long-term engagement.

Shakebug provides mobile app retention analytics for iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native applications with cohort analysis, retention curves and active-user tracking.

Works without a login

Retention analytics without user login

Unlike many analytics platforms that require authenticated users, Shakebug tracks retention at the device level. This makes retention measurement possible for utility apps, games, anonymous visitors and products where users never create an account.

What metrics are included in retention analytics?

  • Week 1 retention
  • Week 4 retention
  • Cohort retention
  • Retention curve
  • Daily active users (DAU)
  • Monthly active users (MAU)
  • Stickiness ratio (DAU/MAU)
  • User churn trends

How does Shakebug calculate retention?

Shakebug groups users into weekly cohorts based on their first recorded session. It then calculates the percentage of users that return in future weeks, producing retention curves, cohort heatmaps and stickiness metrics.

How retention tracking works in Shakebug

Add the Shakebug SDK to your iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native or web app — setup takes a few minutes. From then on, each launch or visit opens a session automatically, tracked at the device level so it works even for users who never log in. Shakebug groups those devices into weekly cohorts and calculates retention, stickiness and active-user trends for you.

Because retention lives in the same dashboard as your bug reports, crash analytics and session journeys, you can connect engagement to quality — and a free plan lets you start on a real product without a credit card.

Shakebug vs Mixpanel, Amplitude & Firebase Analytics

Many teams use Mixpanel, Amplitude or Firebase Analytics to measure retention. Shakebug combines retention analytics, session tracking, crash reporting and bug reporting in one platform — reducing the need to stitch together multiple tools and giving you retention, app quality and user feedback in a single dashboard.

Because Shakebug tracks retention at the device level, it also measures retention for apps and websites where users never log in — something tools that depend on authenticated user IDs cannot do on their own.

Retention FAQs

What is user retention?

User retention measures how many of your users come back to your app or website over time after their first visit. It is tracked with cohorts — groups of users who started in the same week — and shown as the percentage still active in week 1, week 2, week 4 and beyond.

Why does retention matter?

Does Shakebug measure retention for websites as well as mobile apps?

What is a retention cohort?

What is stickiness (DAU/MAU)?

Do users have to log in for retention tracking to work?

How is retention different from analytics and session tracking?

How do I start tracking retention with Shakebug?

Start measuring retention today

Create a free account, add the SDK, and your first retention cohorts appear as soon as users return.

Sign up free

No credit card required