The fintech revolution promised to democratize finance and make money management effortless.
Despite the enormous influx of venture capital and countless fintech startups flooding the market, there is a stark disconnect between industry hype and actual professional adoption: 95% of users abandon fintech apps within 30 days, revealing that massive funding and app proliferation do not translate into real usage among target users.
These numbers should both alarm and educate you.
The fintech reality is that behind the hype of glossy app interfaces and billion-dollar valuations lies a troubling reality: most fintech applications hemorrhage users at a disturbing rate, with retention plummeting to just 4–5% after 30 days.
This stark statistic exposes a fundamental crisis in an industry that raised billions in venture capital but struggles to keep the customers it fights so hard to acquire.
Why is there a FinTech Revolution and So Much Hype?
The financial services industry represents one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the global economy, driving thousands of entrepreneurs to build software solutions for this sector.
The global fintech market was valued at $340.10 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $1.13 trillion by 2032, growing at 16.2% annually. Financial services software revenues exceeded $9.7 billion in 2024 with expectations to reach $16.3 billion by 2030, while fintech revenues are growing nearly three times faster than traditional banking (15% annual growth vs. 6%).
This explosive growth has created an irresistible opportunity for entrepreneurs seeking high-growth, high-margin businesses in the financial services sector.
The venture capital flowing into fintech demonstrates investor confidence in the sector’s profitability. Global fintech funding reached $44.7 billion in the first half of 2025 across 2,216 deals, with Q2 2025 alone recording $11 billion.
The number of fintech startups worldwide grew from approximately 12,000 in 2019 to nearly 30,000 by 2024, with North America hosting over 12,000 fintech companies.
Most compelling for entrepreneurs: 69% of publicly listed fintech companies are now profitable (up from less than half in 2023), with EBITDA margins jumping from 12% to 16%.
The combination of massive market size, accelerating growth rates, abundant capital, and clear profitability creates an exceptionally attractive environment for building scalable fintech software businesses.
But there is a problem with fintech.
The Brutal Reality of Fintech Retention
Multiple industry studies paint a consistent picture of user abandonment.
Most of the software being invented is not user friendly, over hyped, and quickly abandoned.
According to AppsFlyer’s analysis of over 6 billion app installs, fintech apps retain only 4.51% of users by day 30.
Statista data shows marginally better performance at 5.8%, while more recent 2025 benchmarks from blockchain-ads.com indicate finance apps on Android retain just 3% of users after 30 days, with iOS performing slightly better at 3.1%.
CleverTap’s research reveals an even more sobering reality: fintech apps face a 4.5% user retention rate after 30 days coupled with only a 14% activation rate.
This means that out of 10,000 downloads, only 1,400 users ever activate the app, and a mere 450 remain active after one month.
The financial implications are staggering—every unengaged user represents sunk acquisition costs that can range from $7.15 per install in competitive markets.
“Yet, fintech apps currently face substantial challenges, including only a 4.5% user retention rate after 30 days and a 14% activation rate,” states CleverTap’s fintech conversion rate optimization report.
This represents one of the lowest retention benchmarks across all app categories, trailing even notoriously leaky sectors like gaming and entertainment.
While 68% of wealth advisors report prioritizing technology spending and the fintech industry has grown to 30,000 startups worldwide, only 38% of advisors say their firm is “definitely” focused on the right tools, and critically, advisors are adopting tools but failing to use them—about one-third of advisors actively prefer third-party solutions over their firm’s official technology.
This adoption-usage gap exposes a fundamental truth: money and market size do not guarantee that industry professionals will actually adopt and embrace fintech solutions.
The First Week: Where Most Users Disappear
The catastrophic drop-off begins immediately. Industry benchmarks show that only 24.33% to 26.84% of users return the day after installing a fintech app.
By day seven, retention collapses to approximately 12–18%, and by day 30, the vast majority—over 95%—have abandoned the app entirely.
Research from GetStream indicates that fintech apps saw day 1 retention rates drop from 27% in 2023 to 24% in 2024, though day 7 and day 30 rates remained stagnant.
This plateau at historically low levels suggests that the industry has yet to crack the code on sustainable engagement.
The problem extends beyond simple metrics.
Studies reveal that 73% of users abandon new fintech apps within their first week, and a staggering 92% disengage within two years.
Even more concerning, over 70% of fintech app users abandon the app within 30 days of download despite completing the signup process.
The Onboarding Crisis: Where Trust Meets Friction
The primary culprit behind this mass exodus is catastrophically poor onboarding.
According to Plaid’s analysis of their customer data, average drop-off rates in the fintech onboarding process range from 20% to 88% per organization.
In Europe alone, abandoned onboarding wastes €5.7 billion annually, with user abandonment rates jumping from 40% in 2016 to 68% by 2022.
“Users drop off before they even complete onboarding, and in most cases, KYC is to blame. Too many steps, confusing instructions, generic flows, zero follow-ups,” explains a fintech developer who learned this lesson firsthand.
The Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process—requiring document uploads, selfie verification, and identity confirmation—creates friction precisely when users are most vulnerable to abandonment.
The challenge intensifies because financial apps face unique psychological barriers.
Users approach money management differently than social media or entertainment, bringing heightened expectations for security, transparency, and competence.
When onboarding fails to quickly demonstrate value while simultaneously demanding sensitive personal information, users flee.
The Complexity Trap
Financial products are inherently complex, and fintech apps often compound this challenge with confusing interfaces and information overload.
Research shows that 60% of fintech marketplace users drop off before completing a meaningful transaction, primarily due to excessive complexity and insufficient contextual guidance.
“Costly friction, such as slow onboarding, clunky payments, and opaque data, prevents users from embracing even the most clever fintech applications,” reports PanaceaTek’s analysis of essential fintech features for 2025.
The apps that successfully navigate regulatory requirements and security protocols often fail the basic test of user experience.
Major design mistakes compound the problem.
A study examining why users abandon financial apps identifies poor UI design, complicated processes, and security concerns as the primary drivers of the industry’s persistently high churn rates.
When users encounter slow verification times, unreadable identification requirements, or poorly calibrated screening models that generate excessive false positives, they abandon the process—often permanently.
The Economics of Acquisition Versus Retention
The financial implications of poor retention are devastating.
According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer can cost five to 25 times more than retaining an existing one.
Yet fintech companies continue to pour resources into acquisition while allowing their existing user base to evaporate.
Bain & Company’s research indicates that boosting user retention by just 5% can result in a 25% increase in profits.
Despite this compelling business case, the industry remains trapped in a cycle of expensive customer acquisition followed by rapid abandonment.
The problem extends beyond initial download costs.
Only 13.55% of users open a finance app again within 24 hours of install, according to Pushwoosh retention benchmarks.
This means nearly 87% of expensive acquisitions are at immediate risk of churning before companies have had a chance to demonstrate their core features.
Banking Giants Versus Fintech Upstarts
The contrast with traditional banking apps is instructive.
While standalone fintech apps struggle with 4–5% retention after 30 days, established financial institutions report significantly better engagement. Bank of America recorded over 26 billion digital interactions in 2024, a 12% year-over-year increase, with 58 million verified digital clients.
JPMorgan Chase reported more than 45 million active mobile consumers, while their Chase Digital Banking Attitudes survey found that 87% of consumers use their bank’s app at least monthly, with 66% saying they can’t live without it.
McKinsey’s research reveals that mobile banking leaders resolve more than 80% of routine interactions entirely in-app, generate 51% more annual touchpoints, and drive approximately double the mobile-driven sales compared to the global average.
These institutions benefit from established trust, regulatory compliance infrastructure, and the advantage of being customers’ primary financial relationship.
What Industry Leaders Say
Financial industry experts have been sounding alarms about the retention crisis.
Accenture’s Global Consumer Pulse Research study, tracking more than 16,000 bank customers, found that 18% of bank customers switched completely and 27% added new providers, with 80% of consumers who switched due to poor customer service saying they could have been retained.
“Simply ‘being more digital’ – closing down branches and rolling out better mobile and online banking services, for example – will not give banks the differentiation they need to capture the attention of, retain and best serve today’s digital customers,” Accenture’s research concluded.
Bain & Company’s tenth annual study on retail banking reveals that banks are leaking customer business to competitor banks, fintechs, and single-line specialists at alarming rates, with 75% of survey respondents ages 18 to 24 saying they would use a financial product from an established tech company.
“With very high churn rates for financial apps, onboarding experience and demonstrated value-based engagement are key to success in terms of user adoption,” explains Manish Kumar, Head of Product Management & Delivery at Tyl by NatWest, part of NatWest Banking Group.
“Fast onboarding is important but building trust with users to share their personal information and phone access – sometimes even via finer copy or user journey changes – can make or break the deal.”
The Trust Deficit
Trust remains fintech’s most significant barrier.
Despite technological sophistication, users harbor deep concerns about data security, privacy, and the reliability of newcomer platforms.
These fears manifest in abandonment when apps fail to communicate security measures effectively or when users encounter any friction suggesting incompetence or risk.
Studies show that 69% of users consider firms trustworthy only if those firms are transparent about data usage.
Yet many fintech apps bury privacy policies in legal jargon and fail to proactively address security concerns during onboarding.
This missed opportunity to build trust at the critical first-impression moment contributes directly to abandonment.
The Generic Experience Problem
Personalization—or its absence—drives engagement differences.
Research demonstrates that apps using personalized experiences can see retention rates increase by up to 180%, while McKinsey reports that personalization can help increase revenue growth by up to 15%.
Yet most fintech apps deliver one-size-fits-all onboarding that fails to recognize different user segments.
A first-time borrower and a seasoned trader don’t need the same guidance, but most platforms treat them identically, resulting in misalignment, frustration, and churn.
Users feel like the product isn’t built for them—and they leave.
The Path Forward
Leading fintech companies are beginning to address these challenges through targeted interventions.
CleverTap’s Fintech App Engagement Benchmark Report found that 76% of fintech app users convert within 7 days, emphasizing that strong initial impressions are vital to long-term customer success.
Companies focusing on streamlined onboarding, personalized experiences, and proactive engagement are seeing improvements.
Successful retention strategies include progressive onboarding that reveals features contextually rather than overwhelming users upfront, triggered personalized in-app messaging based on user acquisition context, and behavioral automation around meaningful milestones.
Apps that implement these approaches report significantly higher activation and retention metrics.
The most successful fintech platforms are also embracing AI-powered personalization.
A recent study found that 76% of fintech apps now use AI for interface personalization, and time spent on personalized sections is 34% higher than on static ones.
Real-time decisioning, contextual upselling, and financial wellness nudges driven by AI are proving effective at maintaining engagement.
The Bottom Line
The 4–5% retention rate after 30 days isn’t merely a metric—it’s a referendum on fintech’s failure to deliver on its user experience promises.
With customer acquisition costs climbing and competition intensifying, the industry can no longer afford to treat retention as an afterthought.
As Forbes notes in its analysis of why fintech startups fail, “In fintech especially, customer lifetime value compounds slowly, and high churn can undermine even the strongest revenue projections”.
The path to profitability runs through retention, not just acquisition.
The fintech companies that will ultimately succeed are those that recognize retention begins before the first download—in product design, user research, and a fundamental commitment to reducing friction while building trust.
Until the industry solves its retention crisis, billions in venture capital and technological innovation will continue flowing out the digital door, one abandoned user at a time.
SOURCES:
-
https://www.plotline.so/blog/retention-rates-mobile-apps-by-industry
-
https://sendbird.com/blog/app-retention-benchmarks-broken-down-by-industry
-
https://www.nimbleappgenie.com/blogs/user-retention-in-fintech-app/
-
https://dojobusiness.com/blogs/news/mobile-app-retention-rate
-
https://www.alchemer.com/resources/blog/finance-apps-2022-mobile-customer-engagement-benchmarks/
-
https://www.eleken.co/blog-posts/fintech-onboarding-simplification
-
https://merge.rocks/blog/ux-design-best-practices-for-fintech-apps
-
https://www.statista.com/statistics/259329/ios-and-android-app-user-retention-rate/
-
https://www.blockchain-ads.com/post/app-retention-benchmarks
