Is your number normal?
A benchmark is a normal range, not a target. Every figure here is drawn as a band, because the only useful question is whether you sit inside it. Most coaches who think everything is broken have exactly one stage out of range.
The measurement desk
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Most coaching advice is written as though there were a right answer. There is not. There is a normal range, and the only useful question about your own number is whether it sits inside that range or outside it.
That is what this site publishes. Nine benchmark areas, each drawn as a band with a low and a high, each carrying the study or the estimate it came from. A close rate of 18% is a disaster against warm referrals and entirely normal against paid search. A number means nothing until you know which band it belongs to.
Almost every coach who arrives here convinced the whole business is broken turns out to have exactly one stage out of range. Finding that stage takes about twenty minutes with the tables below, and it is a far cheaper diagnosis than another course on mindset.
The site is published by Coachful, which makes software for coaches and appears in its own rankings marked as ours. That is a conflict of interest and you should read the numbers with it in mind.
The way we try to earn the benefit of the doubt is by labelling every estimate as an estimate, including the ones that flatter us.
The short answer
Coaching Stats is a free reference that publishes the normal range for every operating number in a coaching business: what a client costs to acquire, what each funnel stage converts at, how many clients one coach can hold, where the week goes, what the tool stack costs and how long any of it takes. Each figure is published as a band rather than a target, with the strength of the evidence behind it attached. It is published by Coachful, which makes coaching software.
What a client costs, by channel
Cost per acquisition varies by more than tenfold across channels, and the cheapest is the one most coaches have no process for.
- ReferralsEvery niche, at every stageCost$0–$50Close rate40–70%HorizonImmediate, but only
- LinkedInBusiness, executive, leadership and career coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—Horizon3 to 6
- InstagramLife, health, relationship and wellness coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—Horizon6 to 18
- Google and Microsoft AdsExecutive and B2B niches with real search intentCost$65–$150Close rate14–18%HorizonDays, once the
- YouTubeThought leadership, executive and high-ticket coachingCost$50–$200Close rate—Horizon6 to 18
- Podcast appearancesCoaches with a specific, articulable point of viewCost$100–$300Close rate30–50%HorizonWeeks, and lumpy
- Paid directoriesCoaches without an audience who need volume nowCost$200–$600Close rate—HorizonImmediate, and it
- Meta AdsConsumer niches with a strong lead magnetCost$30–$80Close rate—HorizonDays to first
- Cold emailHyper-personalised B2B outreach onlyCost$50–$300Close rate0–1%HorizonWeeks, if it
Funnels, and what each stage converts at
- Direct outreachAnyone with no audience and no budgetEffortHighSpeedFirst client in 1 to 6 weeks with consistent execution
- Instagram DM automationConsumer niches with an engaged Instagram followingEffortMediumSpeedDays once a post lands
- Paid search to a landing pageExecutive and B2B niches with search intentEffortMediumSpeedImmediate
- The 5-day challengeCoaches with a list who can teach a quick winEffortHighSpeedWeeks per cycle
- Webinar or masterclassHigher-ticket offers needing explanationEffortMediumSpeedWeeks per cycle
- Content and email sequenceAnyone building a durable asset rather than a campaignEffortHighSpeed6 to 18 months to meaningful volume
- Free communityCoaches whose offer is group-shaped anywayEffortHighSpeedMonths
- Quiz funnelConsumer niches where the buyer cannot name their own problemEffortMediumSpeedWeeks
- Corporate outboundCredentialed coaches with corporate backgroundsEffortHighSpeed2 to 4 month sales cycle
- Retreat or in-person intensiveEstablished coaches with an existing audienceEffortHighSpeedMonths of planning per event
- Free assessment or auditBusiness, executive and career coachingEffortMediumSpeedDays
Every other band
What is coachingstats.com?
It is a reference site for the operating numbers of a coaching practice. Nine areas, each with its own page: acquisition cost by channel, funnel structures and their stage conversions, discovery call close rates, retention and renewal, email and list size, client load, where the working week goes, what a tool stack costs, and how long each milestone takes.
Each page answers the same four questions in the same order. What is the figure. Where did it come from.
How strong is that source. What should you do differently if your own number sits outside the band.
Nothing here is gated, there is no newsletter sign-up, no affiliate links and no paid placement. The tables are meant to be quoted, and quoting them is fine provided the estimate label travels with the number.
The five numbers most coaches get wrong
What does each benchmark page cover?
Nine areas, the headline band for each, and how strong the evidence behind it is. Follow the estimate labels: they are the difference between planning and guessing.
| Benchmark | Published band | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Acquisition cost by channel | $0 to $600 per client | Estimate |
| Funnel stage conversion | 11 structures, 3 with no published rate | Estimate |
| Discovery call close rate | 10% to 70% by source | Estimate |
| Retention and renewal | 20% to 65% by product type | ICF 2025 and estimate |
| Email open and click | 83.6% welcome open, 5.02% sequence click | GetResponse 2024, cross-industry |
| Client load | 10 to 15 sustainable, 12.4 average | ICF 2025 and estimate |
| Where the week goes | 11.6 hours working as a coach; billable share unknown | ICF 2025 and estimate |
| Tool stack cost | $539 to $600 a month | Estimate |
| Timeline to each milestone | 4 to 6 years to stable | Estimate |
Strongest evidence first: the ICF Global Coaching Study 2025 is the profession’s census. Weakest last: acquisition cost, where no public study exists at all.
Who is this site for, and who is it not for?
It is for a working coach who has a number and wants to know whether it is normal. Someone whose discovery calls close at 12% and cannot tell whether that is a call problem or a lead problem. Someone deciding whether $600 a month of software is reasonable.
Someone eighteen months in, earning inconsistently, trying to work out whether that is failure or arithmetic.
It is not for anyone looking for a growth plan. There is no method here, no framework and no sequence to follow. Benchmarks tell you where you are, not what to do, and a site that pretended otherwise would be selling something.
It is also not for the coach who wants a single authoritative number. Every figure on this site is a range, because the underlying reality is a range. If you need one number to put in a business plan, take the low end of the band and plan against that.
Which numbers here are measured, and which are estimated?
Measured, from a real study
- Client load and the share of coaches with active clients, from the ICF Global Coaching Study 2025.
- Session hours per week, from the same census.
- Retention and renewal patterns by product type, partly from ICF 2025.
- Email open and click rates, from GetResponse 2024 — a real study, but cross-industry rather than coaching-specific.
Estimated, from practitioner reports
- Every cost-per-acquisition figure, on every channel.
- Discovery call close rates by lead source.
- Funnel stage conversions, where a rate is published at all.
- Tool stack totals and the hours lost to coordinating one.
- Every milestone on the timeline page.
Where should you start if the business feels broken?
Work down the funnel in order and stop at the first stage that sits outside its band. Almost nobody has more than one.
Start with capacity, not marketing
If you already hold ten or more active clients, you do not have a lead problem. A one-to-one practice tops out at 10 to 15, so more leads cannot help. Client load is the page.
Then check the close rate against the right band
A 15% close rate is normal for paid search and alarming for warm referrals. Compare against the band for the source the lead actually came from on discovery calls, not against a single industry average.
Then check retention before acquisition
A 1:1 package renews at 35% to 50%. If yours renews at 15%, every client you buy leaks out again, and buying more of them makes the leak more expensive. Retention comes before acquisition for that reason.
Only then look at the channel table
Acquisition cost ranges from near zero for referrals to $200–600 for paid directories. If the first three stages are inside their bands and volume is still low, this is where the problem is.
Finally, check the clock and the invoice
If every conversion stage is normal and the money still is not, the answer is usually in where the week goes or what the stack costs. Both are fixable without selling anything to anyone.
What does coaching software cost, and do you need any?
A fragmented stack of twelve separate subscriptions runs $539 to $600 a month on the report’s band, and $571 to $632 if you sum the same twelve vendors at the prices they list today — roughly $6,500 to $7,600 a year, before a single session is delivered. That figure is a practitioner estimate built from list prices, and the line-by-line working, including where our own total disagrees with our source, is on the tool stack page.
An integrated platform is the alternative, and here the disclosure matters: this site is published by Coachful, which makes one. Coachful runs from $29/mo on Lite, $49/mo on Solo and $99/mo on Pro, covering scheduling, video, payments, contracts, programmes, community and a website in one subscription. We rank it first where a page recommends software, and you should weigh that accordingly.
The honest counter-argument is that specialist tools are frequently better at the specific thing they concentrate on. Zoom is more dependable for large live sessions than any bundled video. Kajabi builds course funnels more thoroughly.
Kit has deeper email automation. Consolidating trades some of that depth for one bill and one client record, and whether that trade is right depends on which tools you actually open daily.
What this site deliberately does not do
Four commitments, so you know what you are reading.
- No affiliate links. Nothing here pays us a commission, including the links to our own product.
- No paid placement. No tool, directory or coach has ever paid to appear on this site or to move up a list.
- No invented figures. Where no rate has been published, the page says so and leaves the column empty rather than filling it.
- No stripped labels. Anything estimated carries an estimate label, including the estimates that make our own product look good.
Common questions
What is a coaching benchmark?
A published range for an operating figure in a coaching business, such as a close rate, a renewal rate or a cost per client. It describes what is normal across many practices rather than what is achievable in one. A benchmark is a diagnostic instrument, not a target: the useful question is whether your own figure sits inside the band, and if not, why.
Who publishes coachingstats.com?
Coachful, which makes coaching software. The site is disclosed as ours on every page and in every footer. Coachful appears in rankings on this site marked as ours, and it is the recommended pick where a page recommends software. There are no affiliate links and no paid placement from any other company.
Where do the figures come from?
Three places. The ICF Global Coaching Study 2025, which is the profession’s census and the strongest source here. GetResponse’s 2024 email benchmarks, which are a real study but cross-industry rather than coaching-specific. And the 2026 Coaching Business Report, which aggregates practitioner reports and community surveys for everything to do with marketing and acquisition. The third category is an estimate and is labelled as one everywhere it appears.
Why is every number a range instead of a single figure?
Because the underlying reality is a range. Close rates vary by a factor of five depending on where the lead came from; acquisition cost varies by more than tenfold across channels. A single average would be wrong for almost every reader. If you need one number for a plan, take the low end of the band and plan against that.
Can I quote these figures in my own article?
Yes, and no permission is needed. The one request is that the estimate label travels with the number. A practitioner estimate that arrives in someone else’s article stripped of its uncertainty is how soft figures become industry facts, and this site is full of soft figures that say so.
My number is outside the band. Is something wrong?
Not necessarily, but it is worth understanding why. Outside the band on the good side usually means a narrow niche, a strong referral base or a warm audience, and it is worth knowing which so you can protect it. Outside on the bad side usually points at one specific stage rather than the whole business. Work down the funnel in order and stop at the first stage out of range.
The verdict
Use this site as an instrument panel rather than a scoreboard. Check one figure at a time, against the band for your own situation rather than the industry as a whole, and stop at the first stage that reads out of range. That stage is almost always the whole problem, and fixing it is almost always cheaper than the general-purpose growth advice sold against it.
And carry the evidence labels with you. The strongest figures here come from a census of the profession; the weakest come from practitioners reporting their own results with no study behind them. Both are useful. Treating them as equally solid is how a guess becomes a business plan.
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