Ninety-Seven Percent Gross RetentionWide moat

CrowdStrike (CRWD) — moat facet

CrowdStrike kept about 97% of its recurring revenue through the year it crashed millions of customer machines.

The single best number CrowdStrike has published about its moat is dollar-based gross retention: the share of last year's recurring revenue still there after cancellations and downgrades, before any upsell. At the time of the 2019 IPO it was 96% at January 2018 and 98% at January 20191.

Dollar-based gross retention (%)96%Jan 201898%Jan 201997%+Oct 202497%Jan 2025CrowdStrike IPO prospectus; Q3 FY2025 and Q4 FY2025 results releases
Between 96% and 98% whenever it has been published.

The figure survived the worst year in the company's history. In November 2024, four months after the July outage, the company reported "over 97% gross retention"2, and at the end of fiscal 2025 it reported 97%3. A customer base that loses about three cents of every revenue dollar in a year when its vendor crashed millions of machines is a base that finds leaving harder than staying.

The reason is operational rather than contractual. Contracts typically run one to three years and most are non-cancelable4, but contracts expire. What keeps customers is that CrowdStrike's sensor sits on every machine, feeds their security team's daily work and increasingly runs identity and cloud protection too. Replacing it means a migration project, retraining and a period of weaker protection.

There is a gap in the record. The fiscal 2026 10-K does not give an exact figure, saying only that the company maintained high gross retention; the latest release says gross retention "increased" without a number5. The last exact figure is the 97% at January 2025.

The revenue line tells the same story from the other side. In the fiscal year that contained the outage, subscription revenue still rose $890.9 million, or 31%6, which the company attributed mainly to new customers and additional sensors and modules sold to existing ones.

On this measure the moat is wide. The falsifier is any published figure below 95%, which would mean a customer base that stayed through the outage is now finding alternatives, and the gap in disclosure is itself worth watching: a company with good news tends to publish the number.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Gross retention 97% at Jan 2025; 'increased' in Q2 FY2027, no figure.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Dollar-based gross retention, last disclosed
97% (Jan 2025)

The share of revenue that stays before upsell; any published figure below 95% would mean customers are finding alternatives.

Source: CrowdStrike Q4 FY2025 results release ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
Gross Retention Stopped Being a Number
CrowdStrike stopped publishing the exact gross retention figure that best proved its moat.
References
  1. ReportedAt the time of the 2019 IPO it was 96% at January 2018 and 98% at January 2019.
    CrowdStrike IPO prospectus (Form 424B4) - 18,000,000 shares at $34.00, and dollar-based gross retention of 96% and 98% at 31 January 2018 and 2019. — June 2019 · publ. 13 June 2019 · source ↗
  2. ReportedIn November 2024, four months after the July outage, the company reported "over 97% gross retention", and at the end of fiscal 2025 it reported 97%.
    CrowdStrike third-quarter fiscal 2025 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - over 97% gross retention and 20% of customers with eight or more modules. — Q3 FY2025 · publ. 26 November 2024 · source ↗
  3. ReportedIn November 2024, four months after the July outage, the company reported "over 97% gross retention", and at the end of fiscal 2025 it reported 97%.
    CrowdStrike fourth-quarter and fiscal 2025 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - 97% gross retention, module adoption and Falcon Flex deal value. — Q4 FY2025 · publ. 4 March 2025 · source ↗
  4. ReportedContracts typically run one to three years and most are non-cancelable, but contracts expire.
    CrowdStrike Form 10-K for fiscal 2026 (year ended 31 January 2026) - financial statements and notes: contract terms, deferred revenue, remaining performance obligations, backlog, concentration, revisions and commission amortisation. — FY2026 · publ. 5 March 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe fiscal 2026 10-K does not give an exact figure, saying only that the company maintained high gross retention; the latest release says gross retention "increased" without a number.
    CrowdStrike second-quarter fiscal 2027 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - ARR, net new ARR, Falcon Flex, module adoption and retention. — Q2 FY2027 · publ. 26 August 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedIn the fiscal year that contained the outage, subscription revenue still rose $890.9 million, or 31%, which the company attributed mainly to new customers and additional sensors and modules sold to existing ones.
    CrowdStrike Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 - net retention of 112%, RPO of $6.5 billion with 53% due within twelve months, unbilled backlog of $2.8 billion, the Flow Security and Adaptive Shield acquisitions, and revenue and cost changes for fiscal 2025. — FY2025 · publ. March 2025 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 28, 2026