Know which step to fix first
Waitlist conversion calculator
A waitlist is a funnel with a few steps: visitors, signups, people you invited, people who activated and people who paid. Enter whichever numbers you have, plus your price. The calculator shows the rate at each step, what the current waitlist is worth at those rates, how many visitors a revenue goal needs, and which step is weakest compared with your own other steps.
You can leave any field empty. Nothing is uploaded or saved, and the calculator uses no industry benchmarks: every result comes from the numbers you type.
Your numbers
Price and goal
Per paying customer, any currency
Used only if Paid is empty. Share of your last entered step before paid.
Optional, same currency
Enter any of the numbers above to see results.
How to use it
- Enter the numbers you have. Fill in any of visitors, waitlist signups, invited, activated and paid. Leave the rest empty. Rates are calculated between the numbers you entered, in funnel order.
- Add price and a goal. Enter your monthly price. If you do not know the paid number yet, enter the share of your last known step that you expect to pay. Add a monthly revenue goal to see the visitors it needs.
- Read the weakest step. The verdict names the step with the lowest rate among the steps you entered. The scenario table shows what improving that step by 10, 25 or 50 percent would do.
- Fix one step and measure again. Change the weakest step first, then re-enter the numbers after the change. Comparing steps only tells you where to look, not why the rate is low.
How the numbers are calculated
Each step rate is the later count divided by the earlier count, using only numbers you entered. If you skip a step, the rate is taken between the two numbers either side of the gap and is labelled so. Visitor to paid is paid divided by visitors; if paid is empty, it is the visitor to signup rate times the signup to paid rate, where that second rate is measured when paid is entered and otherwise comes from your expected conversion applied to the last step you entered before paid.
Projected revenue takes the number of waitlist signups, multiplies by the signup to paid rate, then by your monthly price, and shows the annual figure as twelve months of that. Visitors needed for a goal is the goal divided by the price, rounded up to whole paying customers, divided by the visitor to paid rate and rounded up again. A scenario multiplies the weakest rate by 1.1, 1.25 or 1.5, capped at 100 percent, and scales the overall rate by the same factor.
The weakest step is simply the lowest rate among your own steps, with ties going to the earliest. It is not compared with any outside figure because the right rate depends on your price, audience and how you invite people. A low rate can also be intended, for example when you invite slowly on purpose. The calculator assumes that rates stay constant as numbers grow, which is often not true, and it ignores churn, refunds and tax.
Questions
Why are there no industry benchmarks?
Benchmark figures for waitlists vary widely by price, audience and traffic source, and numbers quoted without a source are guesses. This tool compares your steps with each other so the verdict is based only on your own data.
What counts as the weakest step?
The step with the lowest rate among the steps you entered, for example 5 percent for visitors to signups against 20 percent for invited to activated. Ties go to the earliest step. It tells you where to look first, not why the rate is low.
What do I enter if I have not sold anything yet?
Leave paid empty and enter the share of your last known step that you expect to pay. The projection then uses that share, and the result is labelled as based on an expected rate, not a measured one.
How is the visitors-needed figure worked out?
The monthly goal divided by your price gives the paying customers needed, rounded up. That number divided by your visitor to paid rate gives the visitors needed, rounded up. It needs a price and a visitor to paid rate.
Why does improving a step by 25 percent not mean 25 points?
The scenarios are relative. Raising a 4 percent rate by 25 percent gives 5 percent, not 29 percent. Rates are capped at 100 percent.
Does anything I enter leave my browser?
No. The calculation runs in this page. Nothing is sent to a server or stored.