Stickiness (DAU/MAU), PostHog

Stickiness (DAU/MAU) for PostHog stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Analytics

At a glance

Stickiness (DAU/MAU) is a retention gauge tracked from PostHog data. It divides daily active users by monthly active users to show how many days, on average, a monthly user shows up. A stickiness of 30% means the typical monthly user visits about 9 days out of 30. It is a single, elegant read on habit: high stickiness means your store is part of customers’ routine, low stickiness means they come, buy once, and drift away.

What it counts	Daily active users as a percentage of monthly active users.
Sample type	Backend API data from PostHog active-user insights, combined into the DAU/MAU ratio on the standard data refresh.
Why it matters	Stickiness captures habit in one number. It is the bridge between raw audience size and genuine, repeat engagement, and it forecasts retention and lifetime value.
Reading the value	Read the gauge band. Below 20% signals weak habit; the audience is broad but shallow.
Currency	percent
Time window	30D vsP
Alert trigger	<20%
Sentiment key	ph_stickiness
Roles	owner, marketing

Calculation

Calculated automatically from your PostHog data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A representative reading of Stickiness (DAU/MAU) for a typical merchant on PostHog. Suppose DAU averages 9,400 and MAU is 142,000, giving stickiness of about 7%, which is normal for a transactional store where people buy occasionally. A subscription or replenishment brand might run far higher. After a loyalty programme on 01 Apr 26, stickiness rising from 7% to 11% means monthly users are returning more often. If it slipped below the 20% baseline you set for a high-frequency store, the alert would warn that habit is weakening. Cross-reference DAU, MAU, and D30 Retention for context. For deeper investigation, use Vortex Mind to trace upstream causes; for natural-language exploration, ask Ask Viq.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why merchants reach for it
ph_dau	Executive sibling: the numerator.
ph_mau	Executive sibling: the denominator.
ph_retention_d30	Retention sibling: 30-day return rate.
ph_retention_d7	Retention sibling: 7-day return rate.
ph_new_vs_returning	Retention sibling: new-to-returning mix.

Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in PostHog’s own dashboard:

PostHog offers a stickiness insight directly, and the DAU/MAU ratio can also be derived from its active-user trends. Open the stickiness insight and align the window and filters with the Vortex IQ profile. The same identity-stitching effects that touch DAU and MAU flow through to this ratio.

Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction	What to do
Window definition. DAU and MAU windows must match for the ratio to be comparable.	Variable	Confirm both windows.
Identity stitching. Merges adjust DAU and MAU, shifting the ratio.	Variable	Allow for retroactive merges.
Active definition. What counts as “active” (any event vs a specific one) changes both terms.	Variable	Match the active-event definition.

Cross-connector reconciliation: complement with sibling cards in the same category for the full diagnostic picture. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Q: How often does Stickiness (DAU/MAU) update? The card refreshes on the standard data refresh (typically every 30-60 minutes for live integrations). For real-time signals, force a manual refresh from the dashboard.

Q: What is a good stickiness number? It depends entirely on your category. A daily-use app aims high, while a considered-purchase store is naturally low because people do not shop every day. Compare against your own trend, not a universal benchmark.

Q: Why is my stickiness so low? Transactional stores see most customers once or twice a month, which keeps DAU small relative to MAU. That is expected. Watch for a falling trend rather than a low absolute level.

Q: Can I customise the alert threshold? Yes, alert thresholds are configurable per profile in the Alert Rules tab. Adjust to match your business baseline rather than relying on the generic default.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Stickiness (DAU/MAU) is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across PostHog and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

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