Monitoring Your SaaS: What to Track from Day One

You can't improve what you don't measure. Here's what every SaaS should monitor from launch.

Business Metrics

These tell you if your business is healthy:

• MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
• Churn rate — aim for under 5% monthly
• LTV (Lifetime Value)
• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
• LTV:CAC ratio — should be at least 3:1

Product Metrics

These tell you if your product is working:

• DAU/MAU ratio — measures engagement
• Feature adoption rate — are users finding value?
• Time to first value — how quickly do users "get it"?

Technical Metrics

These tell you if your system is reliable:

• Response time — p50, p95, p99
• Error rate — aim for < 0.1%
• Uptime — target 99.9%

Recommended Tools

For a micro SaaS, keep it simple:

• Uptime: UptimeRobot (free tier)
• Errors: Built-in Rails error handling + Sentry free tier
• Metrics: A simple dashboard with your key numbers

Start tracking these from day one. Future you will thank present you.