Monthly active users (MAU)
Definition
Monthly active users is the count of distinct people who take a meaningful action inside a product within a rolling thirty-day window. When an asset has no revenue, MAU is the main number it has, which is exactly why the definition of "meaningful action" has to be checked first.
Monthly active users is the count of distinct people who take a meaningful action inside a product within a rolling thirty-day window. What counts as meaningful is set by whoever built the dashboard, and that is the first thing an acquirer should ask about.
For an asset priced between $10,000 and $50,000 with no revenue, MAU carries the deal. It is the evidence that somebody, somewhere, chose to come back without being billed. Installs, registrations and lifetime signups are records of a decision made once. Monthly actives are a decision made repeatedly, and the ratio between the two says more about a product than either number alone.
Where it bites
In the definition. An app that counts a launch as an active session produces a number several times larger than one that requires a completed action. Before agreeing a price, get the event that defines "active", then get the same figure recomputed on a stricter event and see how far it falls.
It bites again in the shape of the curve. A flat 900 actives for eight months and a declining 900 actives that were 2,400 in January are the same headline figure attached to different businesses. Ask for the monthly series, not the current month.
Worked example
A mobile app at $18,000 with 12,000 lifetime installs and 900 monthly actives. Roughly 7.5% of everyone who ever installed it still uses it, which is unremarkable for a free consumer app and not a reason to walk. The price works out at $20 per monthly active.
The number worth chasing is inside the 900. If 600 of them were also active the previous month, the product has a retained core and a buyer is acquiring a habit. If the overlap is 200 and the rest are fresh installs cycling through, the 900 is a leaky bucket being refilled by store search, and it will drain the month someone stops maintaining the listing.
MAU is the closest thing a pre-revenue asset has to a hard number, which is why it gets presented generously. Treat it as a claim to check rather than a figure to accept, and read the cohort data underneath it before the price is settled.
Related: cost-per-user, churn, traffic-quality, what-to-pay-for-a-pre-revenue-app
See what a business at this level is listed at.
Everything on sale between $50,000 and $150,000, on the same fields.