Financial Glossary
Net Adds (Net Additions)
Net adds, short for net additions, is the net change in a base of customers, subscribers, or units over a period, calculated as gross new additions minus losses such as cancellations or move-outs. A positive figure means the base grew; a negative figure means churn outpaced acquisition. It is a headline growth metric for subscription, membership, and occupancy-driven businesses because it captures expansion and attrition in a single number.
Problem & Application
Campground operators tracking seasonal site reservations, membership-based hospitality businesses, and SaaS startups all live and die by net adds, since gross growth can hide an attrition problem underneath. Watching net adds alongside churn shows whether marketing spend is actually building the base or just replacing customers walking out the back door. Trending it month over month exposes seasonality and the true trajectory of the business.
In Short
Net adds distills growth and churn into one number that tells you whether your customer or occupancy base is genuinely expanding. Pairing it with churn reveals what the headline figure alone can hide.