TL;DR: PostHog fits product teams that want 1 million product-analytics events free every month and usage-based events after that. Mixpanel and Amplitude fit teams that will live in a dedicated analytics UI and will read the current free/Growth brackets on each vendorβs pricing page. Heap fits buyers who will take a quote for autocapture-led analytics rather than self-serve event maths.
Product analytics is the system that records product events and lets you build funnels, retention and paths. It is not web-session replay as a category (that is a different tool even when Sentry or PostHog sell a replay add-on) and it is not an FP&A suite.
Every entry uses the same fields: published pricing, event or user unit, free allowance, AI/assist posture and the main limitation. The order below is not a quality ranking. The product with the largest printed free event allowance appears first. Quote-led Heap is last.
Product analytics software compared at a glance
| Provider | Published pricing | Unit | Best for | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostHog | 1,000,000 product-analytics events/mo free. Then from $0.0000500 per event, cheaper at scale. Boost package $250/mo and Scale $750/mo sit on top for SSO/projects | Events captured | Teams that want a large free event bucket and optional self-serve overage | Visit β |
| Mixpanel | Free plus paid Growth/Enterprise on mixpanel.com/pricing. Units and allowances are on that page and change; do not copy an old MTU figure | Events or MTU as printed today | Product teams standardised on Mixpanelβs analysis UI | Visit β |
| Amplitude | Starter free plus paid Plus/Organization on amplitude.com/pricing | Events / MTU as printed today | Teams that want Amplitudeβs taxonomy and collaboration model | Visit β |
| Heap | Quote-led on heap.io. Autocapture is the commercial story, not a public event calculator | Contract | Buyers who want autocapture without designing every event first | Visit β |
Read on 14 September 2026. PostHogβs $0.00005 figure is the first paid band after the 1 million free events. Platform packages (Boost $250, Scale $750) are not event charges.
One vendor prints a 1 million free event line. Two vendors print self-serve analytics SKUs. One quotes.
Events are not βusersβ
A pageview, a click and a signup can all be events. Autocapture multiplies volume. Compare vendors on the unit they actually bill β events, monthly tracked users, or a contract β not on dashboard screenshots.
The four providers in detail
1. PostHog
USAGE AFTER A LARGE FREE BUCKET
Best for: product and engineering teams that want product analytics, and often session replay or flags, in one account with a printed event price.
| Published pricing | 1,000,000 product-analytics events free every month. Paid band starts at $0.0000500/event and falls with volume on posthog.com/product-analytics/pricing. Boost $250/mo and Scale $750/mo are platform packages |
| Unit | Events captured (pageviews, clicks, custom, autocapture) |
| Free plan / trial | The free event bucket is monthly and ongoing, not a 14-day demo only |
| AI / assist | Assistive features exist in the platform; they are not a separate public βAI analyticsβ SKU on the event page |
| Main limitation | Autocapture will eat the million faster than a curated event plan. Boost/Scale are extra if you need SSO and unlimited projects |
- Model last monthβs event count before you call it $0 forever.
- Replay, flags and logs have their own free tiers and unit prices β do not assume they ride the analytics million.
- Self-host is a different ops conversation than US-cloud usage.
PostHog product analytics pricing β
2. Mixpanel
DEDICATED ANALYSIS UI
Best for: teams that already think in Mixpanel funnels and will size the current Free vs Growth bracket rather than import an old blogβs MTU number.
| Published pricing | mixpanel.com/pricing lists Free and paid plans. Allowances have moved across years β use the live calculator |
| Unit | Whatever the current page prints (events or MTU). Write that unit into the PO |
| Free plan / trial | A Free plan is published. Production volume usually leaves it |
| AI / assist | Spark / assistants appear in product marketing; treat them as plan-gated unless the pricing grid says otherwise |
| Main limitation | Third-party posts still quote retired MTU caps. That is how budgets miss |
- Export 30 days of events from the current tool and drop them into Mixpanelβs calculator.
- Governance (who may create events) matters as much as the per-unit price.
- Do not run Mixpanel and Amplitude βto compareβ on the same production volume unless you have two budgets.
3. Amplitude
TAXONOMY AND COLLABORATION
Best for: product orgs that want Amplitudeβs taxonomy, charts and audience tools and will pay when they leave Starter.
| Published pricing | Starter free plus paid Plus / Organization / Enterprise on amplitude.com/pricing |
| Unit | Printed on the live page. Do not reuse a 2023 screenshot |
| Free plan / trial | Starter is the $0 row. Feature gates β not vanity dashboards β decide the upgrade |
| AI / assist | Amplitude AI features are edition-gated. Read the current comparison grid |
| Main limitation | Starter is not βAmplitude as used in case studies.β Those stories are paid editions |
- Decide whether you need Amplitude audiences for activation, or only funnels. That picks the edition.
- Warehouse and CDP add-ons are separate conversations.
- If engineering already runs PostHog for flags, adding Amplitude is a second event pipeline.
4. Heap
QUOTE-LED AUTOCAPTURE
Best for: buyers who want autocapture as the default and will sit through a scoped contract.
| Published pricing | Sales-led. heap.io does not give you a PostHog-style public event ladder |
| Unit | Contract. Autocapture volume is the thing to declare in the RFP |
| Free plan / trial | Trials exist; they are not a published 1 million event SKU |
| AI / assist | Marketing features exist; they do not create a public list price |
| Main limitation | You cannot self-qualify year-one cash from the homepage |
- Send Heap the same event-volume scenario you used for PostHog.
- Autocapture without a naming standard becomes a warehouse problem later.
- Do not shortlist Heap to βwin on priceβ against PostHogβs printed $0.00005.
Kurums Match: which one fits your situation
We are under a million product events a month and want $0 software
PostHogβs printed free bucket. Watch autocapture.
We already trained the company on Mixpanel
Stay. Re-read todayβs Growth price rather than last yearβs slide.
We need Amplitude-style audiences and taxonomy
Amplitude paid edition that includes those rows.
We refuse to instrument events up front
Heap quote, or PostHog autocapture with a budget for the extra events.
Buying tip: write one volume scenario (events/month, autocapture on/off) and send it to every vendor. That file is the comparison, not the homepage.
How this comparison was put together
Vendor pricing pages, 14 September 2026. PostHog event bands and Boost/Scale packages are from PostHogβs own pages. Mixpanel and Amplitude allowances were not copied from secondary blogs. No paid placement. Kurums did not instrument a production app on all four.
Order is printed free-event generosity first, then self-serve SKUs, then quote-led. No badge reflects a commercial relationship.
Frequently asked questions
Is PostHog free for production?
Yes, up to the printed 1 million product-analytics events per month, with other products metered separately.
Should we buy Mixpanel and Amplitude?
Almost never on the same event stream. Pick one analysis UI.
Does this include session replay?
Only if you add that product. Replay has its own unit on PostHog and Sentry.
What about Google Analytics?
GA is web analytics with a different data model. It is not in this four-product set.
Did we validate event definitions?
No. Run a tracking plan review before you sign an annual.
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