Software category guide
Analytics tools turn raw usage and business data into answers. The category spans web analytics (traffic and acquisition), product analytics (what users do inside an app), and business intelligence (dashboards over your own databases). Teams often need one of each rather than a single winner.
This guide groups eight widely used tools by job, mixing commercial services with open-source options you can self-host. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page as checked on the verification date.
Tools, licences and pricing checked against vendor and repository pages on November 7, 2026.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Marketing and acquisition reporting | Free; Analytics 360 is separate, see vendor pricing | Proprietary |
| Mixpanel | Product teams analyzing user behavior | Free plan (1M events/month); Growth plan starts at $0 and bills above 1M events | Proprietary |
| Amplitude | Product and growth teams | Free plan (2M events/month); Plus starts at $0 for first 2M events | Proprietary |
| PostHog | Developer-led teams wanting an all-in-one stack | Free monthly allowance per product; pay-as-you-go above it; self-hosting free | MIT |
| Plausible Analytics | Privacy-friendly website traffic stats | Cloud Starter from $9/month; self-hosting free | AGPL-3.0 |
| Matomo | Self-hosted Google Analytics alternative | Cloud from 29 per month (50,000 hits); On-Premise Community free | GPL-3.0 |
| Metabase | Dashboards on your own database | Open Source free; Starter $100/month; Pro $575/month | AGPL-3.0 |
| Microsoft Power BI | Organizations on the Microsoft stack | Desktop free; Pro $14/user/month; Premium Per User $24/user/month | Proprietary |
Best for: Marketing and acquisition reporting · Free; Analytics 360 is separate, see vendor pricing
Free web and app analytics from Google that tracks the customer journey across devices and platforms and feeds audience lists for marketing. Analytics 360 is a separate advanced offering.
Best for: Product teams analyzing user behavior · Free plan (1M events/month); Growth plan starts at $0 and bills above 1M events
Product analytics for event-based funnels, retention and cohorts, with session replay and feature flags.
Best for: Product and growth teams · Free plan (2M events/month); Plus starts at $0 for first 2M events
Digital analytics platform with product analytics, session replay, experiments and guides.
Best for: Developer-led teams wanting an all-in-one stack · Free monthly allowance per product; pay-as-you-go above it; self-hosting free
Open-source product analytics suite with event analytics, session replay, feature flags and experiments, available as cloud or self-hosted.
Best for: Privacy-friendly website traffic stats · Cloud Starter from $9/month; self-hosting free
Lightweight, privacy-focused web analytics with a single-page dashboard. Code is open source and can be self-hosted.
Best for: Self-hosted Google Analytics alternative · Cloud from 29 per month (50,000 hits); On-Premise Community free
Open-source web analytics platform offering cloud hosting or free on-premise use, with data ownership as a core pitch.
Best for: Dashboards on your own database · Open Source free; Starter $100/month; Pro $575/month
Business intelligence tool that lets teams query databases, build dashboards and share questions, with an open-source edition.
Best for: Organizations on the Microsoft stack · Desktop free; Pro $14/user/month; Premium Per User $24/user/month
Business analytics service with a free desktop authoring tool and per-user cloud licenses for sharing.
One email a week with the tools, launches and releases added to TechLogHub. Unsubscribe in one click.
One email a week: new and trending developer tools, fresh comparisons, and what shipped. Unsubscribe in one click.
| If you need… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Website traffic and acquisition, free | Google Analytics |
| Privacy-first, simple web stats | Plausible or Matomo |
| Funnels and retention in a product | Mixpanel or Amplitude |
| All-in-one, self-hostable product analytics | PostHog |
| Dashboards on your SQL data | Metabase or Power BI |
Quick answers to common questions
Web analytics measures visits and acquisition; product analytics tracks in-app events such as feature use, funnels and retention.
PostHog, Plausible, Matomo and Metabase all offer open-source or on-premise options.
Yes, Google states Google Analytics is free; Analytics 360 is a separate, more advanced offering.
Often yes: for example a web analytics tool for marketing and a product analytics or BI tool for in-app and business data.
Mixpanel offers 1M events per month and Amplitude 2M events per month on their free plans, per their pricing pages.
List it on TechLogHub and we'll review it for this guide.
