ProfitWell Metrics vs Grid (formerly SaaSGrid)
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Both sides assessedProfitWell Metrics compared with Grid (formerly SaaSGrid)
Grid, formerly SaaSGrid, reports the same retention metrics but aims at the finance function, pulling in CRM, accounting, and headcount data to produce board-grade ARR waterfalls, and it is free under $1M ARR. ProfitWell Metrics is billing-data-only and simpler. Choose Grid if a CFO or a board reporting pack is the driver; choose Metrics if a founder just needs to see churn this afternoon.
Grid (formerly SaaSGrid) compared with ProfitWell Metrics
Both are free at the small end. ProfitWell Metrics is billing-data-only, instant to connect, and better for self-serve subscription businesses that want churn split into voluntary and involuntary today. Grid is slower to set up, pulls accounting and headcount alongside revenue, and produces the more defensible B2B retention numbers. A seed-stage B2B company can reasonably run both, since neither costs anything.
Choose ProfitWell Metrics if
Any subscription company from pre-revenue to roughly $2M ARR that needs trustworthy recurring revenue and churn reporting and has no budget line for analytics, plus larger companies who want a free second opinion on the numbers their billing provider reports.
Choose Grid (formerly SaaSGrid) if
Seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies that need retention and ARR metrics rigorous enough for a board or a diligence process, especially those under $1M ARR who can have the whole thing for free, and finance-led teams who want churn measured on contract data rather than on card charges.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | ProfitWell Metrics | Grid (formerly SaaSGrid) |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retention | Retention |
| Starting price | $0 (free plan available) | $0 for companies under $1M ARR (free plan available) |
| Pricing model | Free product with no seat, revenue, or feature gate. Paddle monetises the surrounding portfolio, principally billing as merchant of record and the paid Retain product. | Free entry plan for companies under $1M ARR, with a quoted Growth plan above it that includes onboarding and a technical consultant. |
| Free plan | The entire product is free, including unlimited users, full historical backfill, segmentation, cohorts, benchmarking, and API access. | Starter is free for companies under $1M ARR and includes ARR and revenue metrics, retention metrics, expense metrics, headcount insights, custom shareable dashboards, unlimited viewers, and the Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero, and file integrations. |
| Free trial | Not applicable; the product itself is free | Not applicable to the Starter plan, which is free indefinitely within its eligibility limit |
| Best for | Any subscription company from pre-revenue to roughly $2M ARR that needs trustworthy recurring revenue and churn reporting and has no budget line for analytics, plus larger companies who want a free second opinion on the numbers their billing provider reports. | Seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies that need retention and ARR metrics rigorous enough for a board or a diligence process, especially those under $1M ARR who can have the whole thing for free, and finance-led teams who want churn measured on contract data rather than on card charges. |
| Setup time | Under thirty minutes for the common case. Create an account, authorise a read-only connection to Stripe or your billing provider, and wait for the historical backfill to complete. Companies with custom billing pushing data through the API should budget a few days of engineering time instead. | A few hours on the free plan: connect Stripe, connect QuickBooks or Xero, upload any contracts that live in a spreadsheet, and review how Grid has classified expansion, contraction, and churn. Growth-tier deployments involving Salesforce, NetSuite, or Sage Intacct come with guided onboarding for a reason and should be planned in weeks. |
| Learning curve | Low for anyone who already knows what MRR and net revenue retention mean, moderate for anyone who does not. The definitions used are standard, which is helpful when your investor asks how a number was calculated. | Moderate. The tool is easy to operate but assumes you care about the difference between bookings, billings, and recognised revenue. Founders without a finance background will learn something, which is arguably part of the value. |
| Platforms | Web application, Email digests, API | Web application, Shareable dashboards |
| Compliance | GDPR, Operated under Paddle's compliance posture as a merchant of record | SOC 2, GDPR |
| Founded | 2012 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom (Paddle); originally Boston, Massachusetts | United States |
| Ownership | Owned by Paddle following the 2022 acquisition of ProfitWell | Venture-backed |
Strengths and limitations
ProfitWell Metrics
Strengths
- Free with no revenue cap, seat limit, or feature gate, which is unique in a category where the analytics tools alone start around $100 a month.
- Full historical backfill on connection means cohort and retention analysis works from day one rather than accruing over months.
- The voluntary versus involuntary churn split is the single most decision-useful number in retention, and this is the cheapest place to get it.
- Broad billing support across Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Recurly, Zuora, and Paddle, plus an API for homegrown billing.
Limitations
- It prevents nothing. There is no dunning, no retry logic, no cancel flow, and no offer engine. Every dollar it identifies as lost stays lost unless you buy something else.
- Owned by Paddle, a merchant of record that competes with Stripe. The product is not compromised by this, but the strategic incentive is real and the free tier carries no guarantee.
- Health scoring and churn prediction are thin next to a real customer success platform, and there is no playbook or task layer to act on what they surface.
- No revenue recognition, deferred revenue, or accounting-grade close support, so finance will still need something else.
Grid (formerly SaaSGrid)
Strengths
- Free for companies under $1M ARR with unlimited viewers, which is exactly the stage that most needs credible retention reporting and least wants a bill.
- Retention metrics are computed on contract data with a proper ARR waterfall, so net and gross dollar retention hold up in diligence rather than needing to be explained away.
- Spreadsheet upload as a first-class source, which is the honest accommodation for B2B companies whose annual contracts do not live in a billing system.
- Built inside Craft Ventures to answer investor questions, which shows in metric definitions that match how sophisticated buyers actually read a business.
Limitations
- It prevents no churn at all. This is reporting, and the entire intervention layer has to be bought elsewhere.
- Growth pricing is unpublished and sold with a consultant attached, so the self-serve experience ends at the $1M ARR line.
- No product usage data, no event instrumentation, and no health scoring based on engagement, so the early warning signals product teams want are absent.
- The metric vocabulary is B2B contract SaaS; consumer subscription and app store businesses are a poor fit.
Pricing compared
ProfitWell Metrics
Free product with no seat, revenue, or feature gate. Paddle monetises the surrounding portfolio, principally billing as merchant of record and the paid Retain product.
- ProfitWell Metrics$0
- Paddle RetainPerformance-based, quoted
On capability per dollar this is unbeatable, because the denominator is zero. Judged more usefully, ProfitWell Metrics delivers roughly seventy percent of what ChartMogul or Baremetrics charge $100 to $400 a month for, and the gaps are in polish, forecasting depth, and the fact that you are inside a competitor's ecosystem rather than a neutral one. For any company under about $2M ARR the correct decision is to run Metrics first and only pay for analytics when you can name the specific report you are missing. The honest caveat is that free analytics do not reduce churn by a single basis point, and a team that buys nothing else has bought a thermometer and called it medicine.
Grid (formerly SaaSGrid)
Free entry plan for companies under $1M ARR, with a quoted Growth plan above it that includes onboarding and a technical consultant.
- Starter$0
- GrowthCustom
Under $1M ARR this is one of the best free products in the category, and it is aimed at a job that ProfitWell Metrics does not do well: contract-based B2B ARR with a defensible waterfall and unlimited board access. Above the free line, value depends entirely on a quote you cannot see in advance, and you should benchmark it against ChartMogul, which publishes prices and covers most of the same retention reporting without the ERP ambitions. The genuine differentiator is provenance. This was built inside a venture firm to answer exactly the questions a venture firm asks, and it shows in how the numbers are constructed.
Editorial verdict on each
ProfitWell Metrics
ProfitWell Metrics is the first thing any subscription company should install, and it is the last thing that will fix your churn. As free measurement it is remarkable: full historical backfill, standard metric definitions, cohort curves, benchmarking, unlimited seats, and no engineering time. The voluntary versus involuntary churn split alone will tell a small team which retention product is worth buying, which is worth more than most of the paid analytics in this category. Just be clear about the boundaries. It is owned by a payments company with an agenda, it has no revenue recognition for finance, and it intervenes in nothing. Install it, read the split, then spend your actual retention budget on the tool that attacks whichever half of your churn is bigger.
Read the full ProfitWell Metrics profileGrid (formerly SaaSGrid)
Grid is the retention metric layer for companies whose churn conversation happens in a board meeting rather than in a cancel flow. The free Starter plan under $1M ARR is genuinely excellent: contract-based ARR, real net and gross dollar retention, cohort curves, unlimited viewers, and a waterfall you can defend line by line, at no cost and with no sales call. Take it at seed stage and never assemble another metrics spreadsheet. Be clear about two things before you go further. Everything above $1M ARR is a quote with a consultant attached, so benchmark it against ChartMogul before assuming, and nothing in this product will save a single customer. Measure here, intervene somewhere else.
Read the full Grid (formerly SaaSGrid) profileProfitWell Metrics profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Grid (formerly SaaSGrid) last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.