Monthly Active Users
Introduction
Monthly Active Users (MAU) is a key metric of our pricing model. All our subscription plans (Essentials, Growth & Enterprise) use MAU as the primary pricing metric, allowing us to offer highly flexible pricing tiers that adapt to the needs of our customers.
The MAU metric represents the number of users for which we process any kind of meaningful data in a sliding 30 days time frame. That could be storing a survey response, updating user traits or tracking a event.
Using MAU as the primary metric allows us to provide unlimited survey responses on all our pricing plans.
Calculation method
MAU is the number of user profiles for which we track any meaningful data in a given 30 days time window.
For most of our customers, MAU represents the number of users that logged in to their application in the past 30 days.
If any of the following is true for a user, they’ll be counted as “Active” :
- The user respond to a survey
- You identify a user with our Web-Client, Mobile SDKs or APIs
- You track a user event with our Web-Client, Mobile SDKs or APIs
Less important events, such as “Saw Survey” or “Dismissed Survey”, are not taken into account when flagging a user as “Active”.
Here are a couple of examples according to the type of surveys you are running.
Web App Surveys
When you are using Refiner to launch Web App Surveys, you are identifying users when they are connected to your product. In this setup, MAU corresponds to the number of unique users that are using your product in a rolling 30 days time period
When you install our Web-Client on a public website without identifying your users, we’ll only count users that responded to at least one survey in the last 30 days. In this scenario, we count Pageviews (see below) as a secondary metric for your subscription.
Mobile App Surveys
When you are using Refiner to launch Mobile App Surveys, you are identifying users when they are connected to your product. In this setup, MAU corresponds to the number of unique users that are using your product in a rolling 30 days time period
Email Surveys
All users that responded to at least one Email Survey within a 30 days time period are counted as Active Users.
Unique users are recognized using their email address or another unique identifier to prevent counting them multiple times.
If you run one single survey, the MAU number usually corresponds to the number of survey responses you are collecting.
Survey Pages
All users that respond to a Survey Pages within a 30 days time period are counted as Active Users.
Unique users are recognized either with an identifier provided in the survey URL, or with a Browser Cookie. One single user can respond to multiple surveys without being counted multiple times.
If you have only one single Survey Page, the MAU number usually corresponds to the number of survey responses you are collecting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I find my current MAU number?
You can find your current MAU number by navigating to MY ACCOUNT > SUBSCRIPTION. In the top section of the page, you’ll find the current MAU number. Clicking on the number will reveal additional usage information.
How does using integrations affect the MAU count?
If you are sending user data to your Refiner environment from third party sources (e.g. Segment or Rudderstack), all users for which we receive data within a 30 days time period are counted.
Does the MAU count reset to zero at some point?
The MAU count is a gliding metric that always represents data usage of the past 30 days. The MAU count is updated every couple of minutes. It does not reset to zero when a new billing cycle or a new month starts.
Are survey responses really unlimited?
There is no limitation on the amount of survey responses you can collect. More customer feedback means more insights and learnings. This is why all our paid plans come with unlimited survey responses. We apply a fair usage policy and preserve the right to restrict your account in case of abuse.
Do you count Pageviews?
When you install our web-client on a public website to survey anonymous website traffic, we keep track of the number of Pageviews your website gets.
In the majority of cases, Pageviews are not a limiting factor in our pricing model. All pricing plans include 20 times the MAU in Pageviews (5k MAU plan includes 100k Pageviews, 10k MAU plan 200k Pageviews, …). If you think you need more Pageviews, please contact our support team.
In other words, we count Pageviews as a protective measure to make sure that customers with high traffic websites are not producing too much costs on our end.
Pageviews are only tracked when you install our web-client on your website. You don’t need to worry about Pageviews if you are using our In-Product Surveys, Email Surveys or Survey Links.
Pageviews are counted for all website pages where you’ve installed our web-client, no matter if you are currently running a survey campaign or not. If you want to reduce the number of Pageviews, we recommend to install the web-client only on specific pages or sections of your website.
What happens if I go over the limit?
When you are approaching 90% of the MAUs included in your current subscription, we’ll send you an automated email to inform you about the situation. The email includes a link that you can use to upgrade your subscription to the next higher subscription tier.
We’ll send another email when you are approaching 100% of the MAUs included in your current subscription. You might also receive reminder emails in between.
When you decide to upgrade your subscription, we’ll prorate the remaining time in your current billing cycle. You’ll only pay the difference to the next higher plan for the remaining time in the current billing cycle. Refiner allows you to up- and downgrade monthly subscriptions at any given time to match your current needs.
When you don’t upgrade your subscription, your account will continue running for a certain time but might get blocked after a couple of weeks.
We won’t automatically upgrade your subscription or charge any over usage fees. It’s up to you to upgrade your account or contact our team.
We apply the procedure when you approach your Pageviews limit.