Monthly recurring revenue

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the most important metric for understanding your app’s financial health and growth trajectory.

One of the most common questions we get at Mantle is about the difference between our MRR numbers and the Earnings report in the Shopify Partner Dashboard. Here’s the key distinction: the Earnings report is a cash flow metric showing money that has actually moved, while MRR is a predictive KPI showing the total value of your active subscription contracts.

Think of MRR like a stack of paper contracts - each one representing a promise of future revenue unless something happens to end that agreement. While Earnings tells you what happened in the past, MRR helps you understand what reliable revenue you can expect going forward. This makes MRR invaluable for planning, forecasting, and measuring the actual growth trajectory of your business.

What this report shows

The MRR report gives you a complete picture of your recurring revenue through four key visualizations under ‘Recurring Revenue’:

Current MRR shows how much you can expect to bill if all your monthly subscriptions renewed today
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) provides the annualized view of your recurring revenue
MRR Growth Rate tracks your month-to-month revenue trajectory
Top Plans by MRR reveals which pricing tiers drive your revenue

Below these, the MRR Changes visualization breaks down exactly what’s driving your MRR movements - from new customers and upgrades to churns and downgrades.

Drilling into MRR changes

When you click on any expansion or contraction in your MRR changes, you’ll see a detailed breakdown panel that shows exactly what happened on that specific date. This panel includes:

Plan - The subscription plan involved in the change
Change - The dollar amount and direction of the MRR impact (+ for increases, - for decreases)
Type - The category of change (New, Upgrade, Downgrade, Churn, etc.)
Customer - The specific customer associated with the change
Occurred On - The date when the event actually happened (e.g., when the customer upgraded)
Effective Date - The date when the charge is expected to start affecting your MRR, typically after any trial period

At the bottom, you’ll see a summary showing the total number of events and net MRR impact for that date. This detailed view helps you understand not just that your MRR changed, but exactly which customers and plans drove those changes.

Understanding your numbers

MRR isn’t just a single number - it’s a story told through various revenue movements. When you’re growing, that growth comes from:

New customers starting their first subscriptions
Previous customers returning after cancellation (reactivation)
Existing customers upgrading to higher-value plans (expansion)
Frozen shops becoming active again (unfrozen)

On the flip side, MRR can decrease through:

Customers canceling their subscriptions (churn)
Customers downgrading to lower-value plans (contraction)
Shops freezing their Shopify accounts (frozen)

What makes the cut

Mantle’s MRR calculations are precise about what counts as recurring revenue. We include:

Active subscriptions at the amount they are billed at the start of each app billing cycle
Annual subscriptions divided by 12 to show monthly impact
Optionally, usage charges based on a trailing 30-day window (e.g., May 20’s usage MRR includes charges from April 19 to May 19)

But we exclude:

Trial subscriptions (until they convert)
Frozen shop subscriptions
One-time charges
Raw annual amounts (we normalize to monthly)

Making the most of this report

Diving deeper

The real power of the MRR report comes from how it connects with other Mantle features. Use filters to slice your data by:

Individual apps or your entire portfolio
Billing providers (Shopify/Stripe)
Custom time ranges
Customer segments

When you spot interesting trends, Mantle’s suite of reports helps you investigate:

High churn? Check the Churn Report for patterns
Slow growth? The Funnel Report shows where prospects drop off
Many frozen shops? Traffic Source Attribution might reveal targeting opportunities
Strong trial numbers? The Trials Report previews potential MRR

Setting up for success

To get the most accurate picture of your MRR, proper configuration is crucial. Take time to set up:

Trial settings - both global defaults and plan-specific variations
Discount tracking - ensure both promotional and custom discounts are captured
Plan billing frequencies - especially important for annual plans
Usage charge preferences - decide if and how to include usage revenue

Pro strategies

The most successful teams use the MRR report as their compass for growth decisions. Here’s how:

Track your positive-to-negative MRR ratio. If new revenue (from new customers, reactivations, and expansions) consistently outpaces losses (from churn, contractions, and frozen shops), you’re on a healthy growth trajectory.

Use segments to understand MRR patterns across different customer groups. This can reveal which types of customers have the highest lifetime value or which are most likely to upgrade.

Monitor your frozen shop rate. A high number of frozen shops might indicate targeting issues - you might be attracting customers who aren’t ready for long-term Shopify success.

The MRR report isn’t just about tracking numbers - it’s about understanding your business’s health and identifying exactly where to focus for sustainable growth.