Which product analytics tool should a startup use?
PostHog, for most startups building software: its free allowance renews every month with 1M events and 5K session recordings, and the same script gives you feature flags, A/B tests and error tracking. Pick Mixpanel or Amplitude if your product and growth people live in funnel and retention charts. Mixpanel's free plan covers up to 1M events a month with unlimited seats, and companies under five years old with up to $8M raised get the first year of its Startup plan free. Amplitude's free plan gives 2M events a month with no card, and startups under $10M in funding and 20 people can apply for a free year of Growth. Google Analytics 4 is free and tells you where visitors came from, not what signed-in users do. Rule: choose one tool, track three events (signed up, did the core action, came back), and read them every week before adding more.
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An analytics consultant compares PostHog and Mixpanel feature by feature and price by price, and says which kind of team each one fits.
Reading about instrumenting an event is one thing, watching someone actually set it up and see the data land is what makes it click. This walkthrough takes you from a blank account through capturing events and reading the first charts, so you can copy the steps for your own product. Use it as a practical starting point, then define the one or two events that actually signal a user got value.
A short, opinionated guide to tracking the events that actually matter, your growth events like signup, activation, and purchase, before anything else. It gives naming conventions so your data stays usable as you add more. This is the antidote to instrumenting every click on day one.
A tracking plan is the single document that keeps your analytics from rotting into noise. This guide shows how to define events and properties around your top questions and cap the count so it stays navigable. Read it to keep instrumentation deliberate instead of sprawling.
Mixpanel's pricing page. The free plan covers up to 1M events a month, 10K session replays and unlimited seats; Growth is priced by event volume, and companies under 5 years old with up to $8M raised get their first year free on the Startup plan.
Amplitude's pricing page. The Free plan gives 2M events a month with session replay, experiments and unlimited seats and no card; startups under $10M in funding and fewer than 20 employees can apply for a free year of Growth.
