Amplitude vs Mixpanel

Updated October 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Amplitude

A digital analytics platform for product teams, covering event analytics, replay, experiments and in-app guides.

Free plan + paid

Visit Amplitude Amplitude profile

Mixpanel

Event-based product analytics for funnels, retention and cohorts, now with session replay and feature flags.

Free plan + paid

Visit Mixpanel Mixpanel profile

The short answer

Mixpanel and Amplitude are close rivals in event-based product analytics, and both offer a free plan with unlimited seats. Pick Mixpanel if you want fast, approachable funnel and retention reports that a product manager can build alone. Pick Amplitude if you need deeper behavioural cohorts, paths and impact analysis and will invest in tracking plans. The biggest difference is depth versus ease of getting answers.

Amplitude or Mixpanel: our take

Both tools work the same way underneath: you send events such as sign-ups, purchases and feature use from your app, then analyse them without writing SQL. Mixpanel's strength is speed and approachability. Its funnels, retention curves and flows are quick to build, and it has added session replay, heatmaps, experiments and feature flags so more of the job happens in one place. Amplitude leans further into analytical depth, with behavioural cohorts, user paths and impact analysis on launches, plus experimentation with feature flags, in-app guides, surveys and plain-language AI questions. The advanced charts come with a steeper learning curve.

Pricing follows a similar shape. Mixpanel's free plan covers up to 1M events a month and 10K session replays a month, and its paid Growth plan is billed by event volume. Amplitude's free plan includes 2M events a month, and its Plus plan scales with event volume, with custom Growth and Enterprise contracts above that; those enterprise contracts are the expensive part. Neither charges per seat on any plan, so the bill depends on how much you track rather than how many people look.

Whichever you choose, the answers are only as good as your event taxonomy. Amplitude ships taxonomy and governance tooling for this, which matters most in larger organisations with many teams sending data. Mixpanel also expects a well-planned event scheme but asks less of you to start getting value.

Choose Mixpanel if you are an early or mid-sized product team that wants self-serve answers quickly and a free tier to grow into. Choose Amplitude if you are a larger product organisation that wants deeper behavioural analysis, experiments and guides on one dataset, and has the people to maintain clean instrumentation.

Choose Amplitude if…

Product teams that want deep behavioural analytics and experiments on one platform
Strong behavioural cohorts, paths and retention analysis
Free plan with unlimited seats and a large event allowance

Choose Mixpanel if…

Product and growth teams who want fast self-serve funnels and retention without SQL
Fast, approachable reports for funnels, retention and flows
Free plan includes unlimited seats and a sizeable event allowance

What is Amplitude?

Amplitude is a product analytics platform used by many large consumer and B2B software companies. Its core is event-based analysis: funnels, retention, user paths, behavioural cohorts and impact analysis on feature launches. Around that it has added session replay, an experimentation product with feature flags, in-app guides and surveys, and AI features that answer questions in plain language. It suits product teams that want deep behavioural analysis and are willing to invest in tracking plans and data governance; Amplitude provides taxonomy tooling to help keep event data tidy. Pricing starts with a free plan that includes a monthly event allowance and unlimited seats, then a Plus plan that scales with event volume, and custom Growth and Enterprise contracts for larger companies. It runs in the browser, with SDKs for web, iOS, Android, server languages and warehouse connections. Teams often find it more than they need early on, and enterprise contracts can be expensive.

What is Mixpanel?

Mixpanel is one of the longest-running event analytics products. You send events from your app or website, such as sign-ups, purchases or feature use, and build funnels, retention curves, flows and cohort breakdowns from them without writing SQL. It is aimed at product managers, growth teams and analysts at software companies who want answers quickly rather than a data warehouse project. Over the last few years it has added session replay, heatmaps, experiments and feature flags, so it now covers more of what PostHog and Amplitude offer in one place. The free plan is generous for early products, with unlimited seats and a monthly event allowance; the Growth plan is billed by event volume, and Enterprise adds governance and support. Reports are fast and the interface is approachable, but the quality of the answers depends on planning a clean event taxonomy up front. It runs in the browser, with SDKs for web, mobile and server platforms.

Side by side

Attribute	Amplitude	Mixpanel
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web	Web
Best for	Product teams that want deep behavioural analytics and experiments on one platform	Product and growth teams who want fast self-serve funnels and retention without SQL
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Amplitude	Mixpanel
Free plan	2M events/month	Up to 1M events/month
Seats	Unlimited on every plan	Unlimited on every plan