Project Management by Team · Researched comparison

Best Developer Platform With Self-Serve Analytics

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Key takeaways

  • Mixpanel Growth starts at $140 a month on monthly billing for 1.5M events, while PostHog has a $0 base with usage pricing and a free tier of 1M events a month.
  • All seven tools offer a free plan: Mixpanel to 1M events, Amplitude to 2M events, PostHog to 1M events, Heap to 10,000 sessions, Pendo to 500 MAU, Fullstory to 30,000 sessions and Statsig to 2M events.
  • Heap, Pendo and Fullstory are quote only past the free plan, so budget for a sales conversation; Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Statsig publish entry prices.
  • Event volume decides the bill: Mixpanel reaches $1,176 a month at 10M events, Amplitude $576 a month billed annually at 10M events, and PostHog charges $50 per extra million events.
  • Feature flags and experiments are the split: Statsig and PostHog bundle them in, while Mixpanel caps flags at 50 on Growth and Amplitude sells experimentation as an add-on.

Comparison

How these compare
ToolBest forPrice rangeFree plan
MixpanelProduct teams that want event-based analytics$140 per monthYes
AmplitudeTeams that want a generous free tier$75 per month (billed annually)Yes
PostHogDeveloper-led teams that want one open-source stack$0 per month (usage-based)Yes
HeapTeams that want autocapture without tracking codequote onlyYes
PendoProduct teams that want analytics plus in-app guidesquote onlyYes
FullstoryTeams that want session replay with analyticsquote onlyYes
StatsigTeams that want flags, experiments and analytics$150 per monthYes

How we choose

We compared the vendor pricing pages, plan structures and feature lists for the seven platforms above, checking each page on 11 November 2026. We focused on the entry price, the free plan limits, the billing unit (events, sessions or monthly active users) and the features gated to higher tiers. We did not run hands-on trials or use review scores, because scores vary by source and by date. Prices change, so confirm the figure on the vendor page before you buy.

Our full method

The shortlist

★ Best overall

The best developer platforms with self-serve analytics

2

Mixpanel

Best for Product teams that want event-based analytics with a published price

Website: https://mixpanel.com

Best for: Product teams that want event-based analytics with a published price

Starting price: $140 per month (monthly billing; $120 billed annually)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan covers 1M events a month with no card; Growth includes unlimited saved reports, 20,000 replays a month and 50 feature flags; seats are unlimited on every plan

Cons: Growth price climbs fast with volume, reaching $1,176 a month at 10M events on monthly billing; Group Analytics for company-level reports is a priced add-on

Mixpanel prices by events, not by seats, and the free plan covers 1M events a month with no card required. Growth starts at $0 for the first 1M events, then $140 a month on monthly billing for 1.5M events, or $120 a month billed annually. The price rises with volume: $259 a month at 2M events, $613 at 5M and $1,176 at 10M on monthly billing, with yearly billing about 30 percent lower. Growth includes unlimited saved reports and cohorts, 20,000 session replays a month, 50 feature flags and 5,000 experiment monthly users, and it caps at 20M events a month before Enterprise pricing applies.

The free plan is usable for a young product, with core funnels, flows, retention curves and 10,000 session replays, but it caps saved reports at 5 per user. The main limits are the volume curve and the add-ons: Group Analytics for company-level reporting costs extra, and session replay and feature flags are capped on lower tiers. Mixpanel suits a product team that wants a published price and unlimited seats, and that can forecast its event volume month to month.

3

Amplitude

Best for Teams that want a generous free tier and per-event pricing

Website: https://amplitude.com

Best for: Teams that want a generous free tier and per-event pricing

Starting price: $75 per month (billed annually) for 3M events

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan covers 2M events a month with no time limit and no card; Plus scales to 70M events a month; startup program gives a free year on Growth

Cons: Growth and Enterprise are custom priced with no self-serve path past Plus; per-event billing makes the bill hard to forecast when event volume spikes

Amplitude moved to per-event billing in 2026, and the free Starter plan covers 2M events a month with no time limit. Plus starts at $0 with those 2M events included, then the price follows a slider: $75 a month billed annually for 3M events, $225 for 5M, $576 for 10M and $1,260 for 20M, up to $4,692 for 70M events. Monthly billing costs about 20 percent more than annual billing. Plus includes unlimited product analytics, behavioral cohorts, feature tagging and custom audience syncs, plus 10,000 session replay sessions a month.

The free plan is the most generous here by event count, and Plus is the only priced tier you can buy without a sales conversation. Growth and Enterprise are custom priced, and buyer data puts the median Amplitude contract at about $64,000 a year, far above the Plus list price. Amplitude suits a team that wants to start free at real volume and budget from a public page up to 300,000 monthly tracked users or 25M events, and that does not need experimentation or advanced behavioral analysis at the entry tier.

4

PostHog

Best for Developer-led teams that want analytics, replay and flags in one open-source stack

Website: https://posthog.com

Best for: Developer-led teams that want analytics, replay and flags in one open-source stack

Starting price: $0 per month (usage-based, $50 per extra million events)

Free plan: Yes

Pros: No base fee and no per-seat charge, with 1M free events, 5,000 free recordings and 1M free flag requests every month; self-hosting is available for teams that want full data control

Cons: Costs accumulate per product once you pass the free allowances, and identified events cost about 4 times anonymous events; team security features need a platform package from $250 a month

PostHog has no monthly subscription and no seat pricing. There are two plans, Free and pay-as-you-go, and both start at $0 with the same monthly free allowances: 1M product analytics events, 5,000 web session recordings, 1M feature flag requests, 1,500 survey responses and 100,000 error tracking exceptions. Past the allowance you pay per unit on a sliding scale: analytics events start at $0.00005 each, so the second million events costs $50, and the rate falls to $0.000009 above 250M events a month. Session replay starts at $0.005 per recording and feature flags at $0.0001 per request.

The free tier is genuinely usable: PostHog says 97 percent of companies using it pay nothing, and a small app can run analytics, replay, flags, surveys and error tracking at once and still pay nothing. The costs to watch are identified events, which cost about 4 times anonymous events because person profiles are billed as a separate line item, and the platform packages, Boost at $250 a month, Scale at $750 and Enterprise at $2,000, which buy enforced SSO, SAML, audit logs and access control. PostHog suits a developer-led team that wants one stack and a $0 base, and that can cap each product with a billing limit.

5

Heap

Best for Teams that want autocapture without writing tracking code

Website: https://www.heap.io

Best for: Teams that want autocapture without writing tracking code

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan covers 10,000 sessions a month with core analytics, heatmaps and 6 months of history; autocapture records every interaction without manual instrumentation

Cons: All priced plans need a sales conversation and an annual contract, with no public price; the free tier is capped at 10,000 sessions and 6 months of history

Heap, now owned by Contentsquare, captures user behaviour automatically, so teams can define events retroactively instead of instrumenting each one in advance. The free plan costs $0 for up to 10,000 sessions a month, with core analytics charts, unlimited enrichment sources, guides integrations, heatmaps, journey maps and SSO, plus 6 months of data history. Growth adds Sense AI, unlimited users and reports, chart customization, CSV export and 12 months of history, while Pro adds account analytics and session replay as an add-on, and Premier adds data warehouse integration and region-specific storage.

Every priced tier is quote only, and Heap publishes no number for Growth, Pro or Premier. Third-party reports put Growth near $3,600 a year, but that figure is unconfirmed and should not be used for budgeting. Annual contracts are required for priced plans, and the free tier is small: 10,000 sessions a month and 6 months of history. Heap suits a team that values autocapture and retroactive analysis above price transparency, and that can live inside the free tier or negotiate a contract.

6

Pendo

Best for Product teams that want analytics plus in-app guides in one tool

Website: https://www.pendo.io

Best for: Product teams that want analytics plus in-app guides in one tool

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Free plan covers 500 monthly active users with product analytics, in-app guides and NPS surveys at no cost; no per-seat charges for internal admins

Cons: Base, Core and Ultimate all read custom pricing, so every priced plan needs a sales conversation; the free plan excludes session replay, integrations and the Resource Center

Pendo combines product analytics, in-app guides, session replay and sentiment surveys on one bill, counted against a single monthly active user number. Pendo Free is a permanent $0 tier for up to 500 monthly active users, with product analytics, in-app guides, Pendo-branded roadmaps and Pendo-branded NPS surveys, plus 12 months of event-data history and unlimited internal teammates. There is no credit card required, and the free plan includes retroactive data collection.

The priced tiers are Base, Core and Ultimate, and every one reads custom pricing on the public page, with no calculator and no self-serve checkout. Buyer benchmarks put entry Base contracts near $7,000 to $15,000 a year and Core near $15,000 to $35,000, but those are third-party figures, not Pendo prices. Crossing the free cap does not switch Pendo off: you cannot create new guides, NPS surveys or segments until you upgrade. Pendo suits a team under 500 monthly active users that wants analytics and guides for free, or a larger team ready to negotiate an annual contract.

7

Fullstory

Best for Teams that want session replay with product analytics

Website: https://www.fullstory.com

Best for: Teams that want session replay with product analytics

Starting price: quote only

Free plan: Yes

Pros: FullstoryFree gives 30,000 sessions a month and 12 months of data retention with no card; heatmaps, frustration signals and StoryAI summaries on priced plans

Cons: All three priced plans need a quote, and contracts commonly run $10,000 to $25,000 a year for small teams; mobile analytics is a priced add-on at every tier

Fullstory is a digital experience platform built on session replay, heatmaps, frustration signals and product analytics. FullstoryFree is a permanent version of the platform for individuals and small teams: 30,000 sessions a month, 12 months of data retention, session replay, basic analytics and debugging tools for up to 10 users, with no card required. The priced plans are Business, Advanced and Enterprise, and each one says request pricing and demo, with no public price. Dashboards, StoryAI and anything above 30,000 sessions need a priced plan.

Buyer data puts small teams on the Business tier at $10,000 to $25,000 a year, mid-market teams on Advanced at $30,000 to $70,000, and Enterprise deployments above $80,000 a year, with a median buyer at about $27,872 a year. Recording pauses when you hit your session cap, so underestimating traffic can leave gaps in the data. Fullstory suits a team that wants the most generous free replay tier here and is ready to negotiate once it outgrows 30,000 sessions a month.

8

Statsig

Best for Teams that want feature flags, experiments and analytics together

Website: https://www.statsig.com

Best for: Teams that want feature flags, experiments and analytics together

Starting price: $150 per month

Free plan: Yes

Pros: Developer plan is free with 2M events a month, unlimited flag checks and no card; Pro at $150 a month includes 5M events, 100,000 session replays and change reviews

Cons: Pro is limited to a single project, so multi-project teams need Enterprise; overage at $0.05 per 1,000 events can grow fast at high volume

Statsig is a hosted platform for feature flags, experiments and product analytics, now run by Amplitude after OpenAI acquired the Statsig team in 2025. The Developer plan is free with no card: 2M events a month, 50,000 session replays a month, unlimited flag and config checks, unlimited seats and 1 year of analytics retention. Pro costs $150 a month with 5M events included, then $0.05 per 1,000 events over that, plus 100,000 session replays a month, advanced experimentation, unlimited analytics retention and change reviews. Enterprise is by contract, with warehouse-native deployment, SSO, role-based access, EU hosting and a service level agreement.

The split between flags and analytics is the point: flag and config checks are free and unlimited on every tier, and you pay for analytics events, not for flags. Pro is limited to a single project, so a team running several products needs Enterprise. Statsig suits a team that wants experimentation and flags in the same tool as its analytics, and that can live inside 5M events a month or budget $0.05 per 1,000 events over it.

9

Which platform fits your event volume

What to check before you buy

First, check the billing unit: Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Statsig bill on events, Heap and Fullstory bill on sessions, and Pendo bills on monthly active users, so the same product can cost very different amounts on each. Second, count your monthly events before you pick a tier: Mixpanel Growth reaches $1,176 a month at 10M events, Amplitude Plus reaches $576 a month billed annually at 10M events, and PostHog charges $50 per extra million events. Third, check the free plan limits in writing: Mixpanel caps saved reports at 5 per user, Heap caps history at 6 months, Pendo caps at 500 monthly active users and Fullstory caps at 30,000 sessions. Fourth, check what is gated: Mixpanel Group Analytics is a priced add-on, Amplitude experimentation is an add-on, and PostHog team security needs a platform package from $250 a month. Fifth, check the contract terms: Heap, Pendo and Fullstory need a sales conversation and an annual contract, while Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Statsig can be bought self-serve.

FAQ

Which developer analytics platform is cheapest?

PostHog is cheapest at low volume, because it has a $0 base and a free tier of 1M events, 5,000 recordings and 1M flag requests a month, and you pay only for usage past that. Mixpanel Free and Statsig Developer are also $0 at low volume. Once you pass 1M events, PostHog charges $50 per extra million events, while Mixpanel Growth starts at $140 a month for 1.5M events.

What is the difference between event-based and session-based pricing?

Event-based pricing bills on the actions users take, such as clicks and page views, while session-based pricing bills on visits, with a session capped at 30 minutes of inactivity. Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Statsig bill on events, so a power user who fires 500 events costs more than a light user. Heap and Fullstory bill on sessions, so heavy users inside one visit cost the same as light ones.

Do free plans include session replay?

Yes, on most of these tools, with caps. Mixpanel Free includes 10,000 replays a month and Growth includes 20,000. Amplitude Starter includes 1,000 replay sessions a month. PostHog Free includes 5,000 web recordings a month. FullstoryFree includes replay for up to 30,000 sessions a month. Statsig Developer includes 50,000 replays a month. Heap and Pendo do not include replay on the free plan.

Why are Heap, Pendo and Fullstory quote only?

Each of them sells through a sales conversation because the price depends on volume, tier and contract length, and none of them publishes a rate card. Heap lists Growth, Pro and Premier with no price, Pendo lists Base, Core and Ultimate as custom pricing, and Fullstory lists Business, Advanced and Enterprise as request pricing. The only way to compare them is to request a quote for the same volume and the same term.

Can I self-host a product analytics platform?

Yes, with PostHog, which offers self-hosting for teams that want full data control, and it is the only tool here with an open-source edition. The other six are cloud only. Self-hosting moves the cost from a subscription to your own infrastructure, and you still need to run upgrades, backups and security yourself, so compare the hosting cost against the cloud price before you decide.

Sources we checked

  • Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/pricing
  • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/pricing
  • PostHog: https://posthog.com/pricing
  • Heap: https://www.heap.io/pricing
  • Pendo: https://www.pendo.io/pricing
  • Fullstory: https://www.fullstory.com/pricing
  • Statsig: https://www.statsig.com/pricing
How we score

Need the method behind these picks?

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The best developer platforms with self-serve analytics#1 PICK