What are DAU, WAU and MAU?
They count how many unique users are active in a given period.
- DAU: daily active users, unique users in one day.
- WAU: weekly active users, unique users in seven days.
- MAU: monthly active users, unique users in thirty days.
Someone active every day of a month counts once in MAU, not thirty times. That is what makes them different from session counts.
Which one you should use
Match the interval to how often your product is meant to be used. A messaging tool lives or dies on DAU. A payroll product should not expect daily use and measuring it that way produces an alarming chart about nothing.
Picking the interval that flatters the number is the most common misuse of these metrics, and it is obvious to anyone reading the deck.
Stickiness: DAU divided by MAU
Stickiness = DAU Ă· MAU
It tells you what share of your monthly users show up on a given day. 10,000 MAU with 2,000 DAU gives 20%, meaning the average monthly user is active about six days a month.
Above 20% is often treated as good for a daily-use product. For anything not intended for daily use, the number is not meaningful.
What the numbers hide
Active is a definition you choose. Logging in, or doing something that matters? A generous definition inflates every number here and makes comparison with anyone else meaningless.
Stable totals hide churn. Flat MAU can mean a steady base, or heavy churn matched by heavy acquisition. Only cohorts show the difference.
They count presence, not value. A user opening the product daily to check whether a broken thing is fixed is counted the same as a happy one.
How Usersnap adds the missing half
These metrics show what changed and never why. Widgets and micro-surveys ask on the screens where activity dropped, so a movement in the number arrives with an explanation attached. AI-powered automations group the answers by topic. See also user engagement and product adoption.
DAU, WAU and MAU FAQ
How is stickiness calculated?
Divide DAU by MAU. The result is the share of monthly users active on a typical day.
What is a good DAU to MAU ratio?
Above 20% is a common benchmark for products meant to be used daily. For weekly or monthly products the ratio is not a useful measure.
What counts as an active user?
Whatever you define it as, which is why the definition matters more than the number. A meaningful action is a better threshold than a login.
Find out why the number moved. Start free with Usersnap, first 20 feedback items included, no card needed.
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