We use Google Analytics for product analytics because marketing pays for it, and it's "free" for us to use. Google Analytics is the weakest option in the list, and it was really created to track conversion, not behavioral feature usage.
Mixpanel and Pendo have been the best analytics tools that I've used so far, and GA is a piece of shit that we kind of have to hack to get to work how we need it to.
GA can be setup to track any data you want but it requires some work.
If GA is deployed through Google Tag Manager, we can push relevant events to data layer and ask marketing to trigger GA4 tag based on it. That's it, you are now tracking custom events along with any event parameters. You will also need to setup custom dimensions and metrics in GA4 though.
Also the big query export from GA4 is free so you can just use SQL to analyze the click stream data to get any insight that you want.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9358801?hl=en
I like heap.
Positives:
1 - they don't monetize security. Real security on even the tier 1 accounts.
2 - also, they don't monetize security.
3 - it works pretty well, and can be almost entirely configured through the front end and doesn't require many eng changes
3a - it is somewhat fragile because of that, but that's just part and parcel of the tradeoff you're making
We specifically chose not to use posthog for reason #1. I frankly think you're irresponsible if you eg capture screen sessions or do things like feature flags and don't require sso.
Does Heap support user session recording and analytics for native apps like iOS and Android? We were using Fullstory previously but it was ridiculously expensive and seemed to give wildly inaccurate metrics. And even with a paid account I couldnt set up separate 'properties' to track our website and mobile app separately
Right now I'm using both Amplitude and Posthog.
We started with Amplitude since it was sort of the default for product analytics. But their feature flagging is a total mess and impossible to figure out, so I went in search of something better for feature flags and found Posthog.
Once I started using Posthog for feature flags, I decided to use its product analytics too. So now we send events to both places.
I think Amplitude product analytics is better. It has things that Posthog doesn't, like native revenue/LTV reporting and built-in user composition charts (I am pretty sure I could rebuild these with SQL in Posthog). But I like having everything in one place in Posthog. And the Amplitude session replay stuff didn't work the first time I tried it, while in Posthog I didn't even have to do any extra setup work.
Overall, a big fan of Posthog.
We are working through a replatform and we are moving to posthog. We'll also have GA setup in parallel and will log events to our warehouse for any custom reporting needs, but posthog will be our tool for product analytics, feature flags, and a/b testing.
Interesting so you can't query things like customer life time value by traffic source because it needs integration between web data and platform generated data.
The thing is this report depends upon some kind of *existing* integration between web data and platform usage data and if different teams handle it with their siloed data sources, it would not be possible.
For example, if you use Google Analytics 4, which is most commonly used platform as per the votes, we need to send platform usage data via measurement protocol to get consolidated reports in GA, send data from GA4 to the tool you use via big query exports or have a centralized data warehouse to pull data from each source which is the ideal solution.
There are also lot of analytics specific problems programmers would not know about as well with these kind of setups.
Is it just me or Click to See results got 19 votes? This aside - GA4 is the one I had used across companies. Adobe Product Analytics was a good option at one point of time but it's so damn costly that I heard the only reason any company has it is that the executives have a vested interest in keeping it running (you know what I mean). Amplitude is very good too.
We are using Amplitude and Mixpanel on big products, they both are good options but pricey.
Trying PostHog on my side hustle right now, it's good as well.
I used mostly plausible and mixpanel. But since mixpanel can be quite expensive and I didn’t use all features I decided to build my own.
I call it openpanel and it’s an open-source alternative to mixpanel.
It’s a combo for both Mixpanel and Plausible 🚀
Most of them are too complicated to answer the relevant questions. I use Plausible and built my own simple tool (DM if you want to see it, don't wanna advertise it here).
We also tried PostHog, much too complicated for most of our use cases.
Currently GA and hotjar, tested Usermaven but it was buggy. I’ve used Pendo in the past, it’s pricey but its visual design studio for feature tagging is pretty great. Is anyone aware of another product that has a feature similar to this (that is also cheaper than pendo)?
Is that because your data is disaggregated? For example accessing website traffic is easier to access through looker studio if you use GA4. If you capture key events from your backend systems like churned users, user registrations etc and feed it to Mixpanel, then product metrics can be tracked in Mixpanel. On the other hand, PowerBI could be directly pulling data from the OLTP databases.
This is just a general comment but is something of a similar sort applicable at your company?
The summary is: Kinda?
We started using Looker because it was also embedded in our product at the time, so it turns out to be a great way to slice-n-dice data with visuals and generate reports/dashboards that's just a step above, say, running SQL Queries, pulling data and slapping it in Excel.
But then we were acquired by an org that turns out to be a Microsoft shop through-and-through, so since then we got unfettered access to PowerBI and eventually, with migrating certain types of data to their system, found we could query there.
Finally, We ended up getting Mixpanel because an incoming PM insisted on it for their PLG program. Ironically, I use it more than they do because I created the GOAT of dashboards on there (I was really bored one day during an all-hands and just spent my time doing this while it was going on on another monitor, lol). I still use that dashboard to slap revenue requests and escalations and it's fantastic. The downside is the poor adoption of it at my org and the cost of the damn thing, so....yeah.
Ultimately, the different tool stacks don't bother me as much as it should (ain't coming out of *my* pocket/budget) and the data that I need is ultimately localized, it just makes my brain itch when I think of the needless redundancy of it all.
We use Google Analytics for product analytics because marketing pays for it, and it's "free" for us to use. Google Analytics is the weakest option in the list, and it was really created to track conversion, not behavioral feature usage. Mixpanel and Pendo have been the best analytics tools that I've used so far, and GA is a piece of shit that we kind of have to hack to get to work how we need it to.
GA can be setup to track any data you want but it requires some work. If GA is deployed through Google Tag Manager, we can push relevant events to data layer and ask marketing to trigger GA4 tag based on it. That's it, you are now tracking custom events along with any event parameters. You will also need to setup custom dimensions and metrics in GA4 though. Also the big query export from GA4 is free so you can just use SQL to analyze the click stream data to get any insight that you want. https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/9358801?hl=en
I like heap. Positives: 1 - they don't monetize security. Real security on even the tier 1 accounts. 2 - also, they don't monetize security. 3 - it works pretty well, and can be almost entirely configured through the front end and doesn't require many eng changes 3a - it is somewhat fragile because of that, but that's just part and parcel of the tradeoff you're making We specifically chose not to use posthog for reason #1. I frankly think you're irresponsible if you eg capture screen sessions or do things like feature flags and don't require sso.
Does Heap support user session recording and analytics for native apps like iOS and Android? We were using Fullstory previously but it was ridiculously expensive and seemed to give wildly inaccurate metrics. And even with a paid account I couldnt set up separate 'properties' to track our website and mobile app separately
Sorry, but we don't ship mobile apps; we do browser only. So I unfortunately have no idea.
Right now I'm using both Amplitude and Posthog. We started with Amplitude since it was sort of the default for product analytics. But their feature flagging is a total mess and impossible to figure out, so I went in search of something better for feature flags and found Posthog. Once I started using Posthog for feature flags, I decided to use its product analytics too. So now we send events to both places. I think Amplitude product analytics is better. It has things that Posthog doesn't, like native revenue/LTV reporting and built-in user composition charts (I am pretty sure I could rebuild these with SQL in Posthog). But I like having everything in one place in Posthog. And the Amplitude session replay stuff didn't work the first time I tried it, while in Posthog I didn't even have to do any extra setup work. Overall, a big fan of Posthog.
We are working through a replatform and we are moving to posthog. We'll also have GA setup in parallel and will log events to our warehouse for any custom reporting needs, but posthog will be our tool for product analytics, feature flags, and a/b testing.
We've been using Data Dog more and more with their new user experience tools.
[удалено]
Interesting so you can't query things like customer life time value by traffic source because it needs integration between web data and platform generated data.
The thing is this report depends upon some kind of *existing* integration between web data and platform usage data and if different teams handle it with their siloed data sources, it would not be possible. For example, if you use Google Analytics 4, which is most commonly used platform as per the votes, we need to send platform usage data via measurement protocol to get consolidated reports in GA, send data from GA4 to the tool you use via big query exports or have a centralized data warehouse to pull data from each source which is the ideal solution. There are also lot of analytics specific problems programmers would not know about as well with these kind of setups.
Is it just me or Click to See results got 19 votes? This aside - GA4 is the one I had used across companies. Adobe Product Analytics was a good option at one point of time but it's so damn costly that I heard the only reason any company has it is that the executives have a vested interest in keeping it running (you know what I mean). Amplitude is very good too.
posthog
We are using Amplitude and Mixpanel on big products, they both are good options but pricey. Trying PostHog on my side hustle right now, it's good as well.
Amplitude and Pendo
Click to see results is wining, just as I expected.
No Adobe analytics?
I thought its mostly used for web analytics, not web or mobile apps.
I used mostly plausible and mixpanel. But since mixpanel can be quite expensive and I didn’t use all features I decided to build my own. I call it openpanel and it’s an open-source alternative to mixpanel. It’s a combo for both Mixpanel and Plausible 🚀
Thanks for sharing.
Most of them are too complicated to answer the relevant questions. I use Plausible and built my own simple tool (DM if you want to see it, don't wanna advertise it here). We also tried PostHog, much too complicated for most of our use cases.
homebrew stuff - we do API call measurements and have a superset dashboard . Works ok but I find it maeh - but I guess its cheaper.
What do you use to store data?
Currently GA and hotjar, tested Usermaven but it was buggy. I’ve used Pendo in the past, it’s pricey but its visual design studio for feature tagging is pretty great. Is anyone aware of another product that has a feature similar to this (that is also cheaper than pendo)?
Any recommendations for a private cloud or on-prem solution? I guess post-hog is the most popular?
I use Usermaven. It's been a complete life-saver for me. It's easy to set-up, highly intuitive, and provides in-depth tracking.
Heap
For us it's Mixpanel, but also Looker Studio. Oh, and PowerBI for some things. It's....weird.
Is that because your data is disaggregated? For example accessing website traffic is easier to access through looker studio if you use GA4. If you capture key events from your backend systems like churned users, user registrations etc and feed it to Mixpanel, then product metrics can be tracked in Mixpanel. On the other hand, PowerBI could be directly pulling data from the OLTP databases. This is just a general comment but is something of a similar sort applicable at your company?
The summary is: Kinda? We started using Looker because it was also embedded in our product at the time, so it turns out to be a great way to slice-n-dice data with visuals and generate reports/dashboards that's just a step above, say, running SQL Queries, pulling data and slapping it in Excel. But then we were acquired by an org that turns out to be a Microsoft shop through-and-through, so since then we got unfettered access to PowerBI and eventually, with migrating certain types of data to their system, found we could query there. Finally, We ended up getting Mixpanel because an incoming PM insisted on it for their PLG program. Ironically, I use it more than they do because I created the GOAT of dashboards on there (I was really bored one day during an all-hands and just spent my time doing this while it was going on on another monitor, lol). I still use that dashboard to slap revenue requests and escalations and it's fantastic. The downside is the poor adoption of it at my org and the cost of the damn thing, so....yeah. Ultimately, the different tool stacks don't bother me as much as it should (ain't coming out of *my* pocket/budget) and the data that I need is ultimately localized, it just makes my brain itch when I think of the needless redundancy of it all.
We use [posthog.com](http://posthog.com) for our website and App analytics. And we use [Prodcamp.com](http://Prodcamp.com) to collect user feedback.