About 17; min
Product analytics tools reveal how users actually interact with your software. Amplitude and Mixpanel have been the two dominant platforms for product teams that need more depth than Google Analytics provides. Both track user events, build funnels, and analyze retention — but their pricing models, feature depth, and ideal use cases have diverged over the years.
If you’re building a product and want to understand user behavior at the event level, one of these two platforms is likely on your shortlist. Here’s how they compare in 2026.
Quick Pricing Overview
| Plan | Amplitude | Mixpanel |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free (50K MTUs) | Free (20M events/mo) |
| Plus / Growth | $49/mo (Plus) | $28/mo (Growth, 10K MTUs) |
| Growth | Custom | Custom (higher volumes) |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom |
Amplitude Pricing Breakdown
Amplitude’s free Starter plan includes up to 50,000 monthly tracked users (MTUs) with core analytics, unlimited events, basic funnels, retention analysis, and user segments. The Plus plan at $49 per month adds advanced behavioral cohorts, impact analysis, custom formulas, and 1,000 MTUs (additional MTUs cost extra). Growth and Enterprise plans are custom-priced with higher MTU limits, predictive analytics, data governance tools, group analytics for B2B accounts, SSO, and dedicated support. Amplitude also includes Session Replay and a CDP (Customer Data Platform) on higher tiers. The free tier is generous for startups — 50K MTUs covers most early-stage products.
Mixpanel Pricing Breakdown
Mixpanel’s free plan includes 20 million events per month — an extremely generous limit that covers most small and mid-size products. Core analytics, funnels, retention, and flows are all included. The Growth plan starts at $28 per month for 10,000 MTUs and adds unlimited saved reports, advanced filtering, signal analysis (anomaly detection), and group analytics for B2B. Enterprise pricing is custom with SSO, data pipelines, priority support, and advanced governance. Mixpanel charges by either events or MTUs depending on your plan configuration. The free tier’s 20M event limit is significantly more generous than most competitors and is enough for products with hundreds of thousands of monthly users.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Amplitude | Mixpanel |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | 50K MTUs | 20M events/mo |
| Event Tracking | Unlimited events | Unlimited on paid; 20M free |
| Funnels | All plans | All plans |
| Retention Analysis | All plans | All plans |
| User Paths / Flows | All plans (Journeys) | All plans (Flows) |
| Cohort Analysis | Behavioral cohorts (Plus+) | All plans |
| A/B Test Analysis | Experiment (Growth+) | Available (Growth+) |
| Predictive Analytics | Growth plan and above | Not available |
| Session Replay | Growth plan and above | Session replay (add-on) |
| Group Analytics (B2B) | Growth+ (account-level) | Growth+ (group profiles) |
| Data Governance | Growth+ (taxonomy) | Growth+ (Lexicon) |
| Warehouse Integration | Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift | Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks |
| SDK Support | Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter | Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity |
| SSO / SAML | Enterprise | Enterprise |
Cost Scenarios
Early-stage startup (5,000 MAUs)
Both free tiers cover this easily. Amplitude’s free plan supports 50K MTUs. Mixpanel’s free plan supports 20M events per month. At 5,000 MAUs, neither platform costs anything. Both: $0.
Growing SaaS (50,000 MAUs)
Amplitude’s free plan covers exactly 50K MTUs — you’d be at the limit. Crossing that threshold requires the Plus plan at $49 per month or a custom Growth deal. Mixpanel’s free plan handles 50K MAUs comfortably as long as you stay under 20M events per month (roughly 400 events per user). If you exceed events, Growth starts at $28 per month. Amplitude: $0-49/mo. Mixpanel: $0-28/mo.
Scale-up (500,000 MAUs, B2B analytics needed)
Both platforms move to custom pricing at this scale. Amplitude Growth pricing for 500K MTUs typically ranges from $2,000-5,000 per month depending on features. Mixpanel at similar volume runs $1,500-4,000 per month. Both include group analytics for B2B account-level analysis at these tiers. Amplitude: $2,000-5,000/mo. Mixpanel: $1,500-4,000/mo.
Analysis Approach
Amplitude emphasizes behavioral analysis and product intelligence. Its Journeys feature maps actual user paths through your product, showing where users succeed and where they drop off. The Experiment platform lets you analyze A/B test results directly within your analytics data. Predictive analytics on Growth plans use machine learning to forecast which users are likely to convert, churn, or perform specific actions. For product teams running growth experiments, Amplitude’s analysis depth is hard to match.
Mixpanel excels at interactive exploration. The query builder is fast and intuitive — non-technical product managers can build complex analyses without SQL. Signal (anomaly detection) automatically flags unusual changes in your metrics before you notice them. Flows visualization shows the most common paths users take between any two events. Mixpanel’s speed advantage in query execution means answers come back in seconds even on large datasets, which encourages the kind of ad-hoc exploration that leads to product insights.
Who Should Pick What
Pick Amplitude if:
- Predictive analytics and ML-driven insights are part of your product strategy
- Built-in A/B test analysis with your product data saves a separate experimentation tool
- Session replay alongside behavioral analytics provides complete user understanding
- Your team needs Journeys to map complex multi-step user flows
Pick Mixpanel if:
- The most generous free tier (20M events) lets you scale before paying
- Fast, interactive querying supports your team’s ad-hoc analysis culture
- Lower pricing at comparable volumes keeps analytics costs in check
- Signal’s automatic anomaly detection catches issues before your team does
Mixpanel wins on value and accessibility. Its free tier is dramatically more generous, the query interface is faster and more intuitive, and pricing runs lower at comparable scales. Amplitude wins for teams that need predictive analytics, built-in experimentation analysis, and session replay as part of a unified product intelligence platform. Both tools are excellent — the choice depends on whether you value Amplitude’s ML-powered features or Mixpanel’s speed and pricing advantage.
FAQ
What’s the difference between MTUs and events?
MTUs (monthly tracked users) count unique users. Events count individual actions (button click, page view, purchase). A single user might generate hundreds of events per month. Mixpanel’s free tier counts by events (20M), while Amplitude counts by MTUs (50K).
Can non-technical people use these tools?
Yes. Both platforms have visual query builders that don’t require SQL. Mixpanel is generally considered slightly easier for non-technical users due to its faster, more intuitive interface. Amplitude offers more power but with a steeper learning curve.
Do I still need Google Analytics with these tools?
Most teams use both. GA4 handles website traffic analysis (acquisition, channels, demographics) while Amplitude or Mixpanel handles in-product behavioral analysis (funnels, retention, user paths). They serve complementary purposes.
Which integrates better with data warehouses?
Both offer strong warehouse integrations with Snowflake, BigQuery, and Redshift/Databricks. Amplitude’s warehouse-native mode can query your warehouse directly without importing data. Mixpanel supports warehouse connectors for both import and export.
