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Dec 22, 2022

In-depth: PostHog vs Mixpanel

Andy Vandervell
Andy Vandervell

Want to know how PostHog and Mixpanel are different? If you remember nothing else, remember these two points:

  1. Mixpanel is a product analytics tool.

  2. PostHog is an all-in-one Product OS that includes product analytics and a whole bunch more.

How is PostHog different to Mixpanel?

1. PostHog does more than product analytics

Product analytics is a core part of our platform, but it's just one cog in a suite of vital tools for product and data teams. When you adopt PostHog you also get session recording (with console logs), feature flagging, A/B and multivariate testing, and customizable data pipelines – all seamlessly integrated.

2. It's built for engineers

Anyone can use PostHog – just ask our marketing team – but it's designed for engineers first. We believe engineering-led companies are the future of tech and that requires tools that let engineers flex their product muscles.

3. We're an open book

PostHog is built on transparency. Our product is open source and released under an MIT License. You can read our source code, raise your own issues and PRs, and build apps atop PostHog to support custom data flows. Anyone can read or comment on our public roadmap.

This guide compares Mixpanel's self-serve Growth plan with PostHog Cloud. Features available on other plans are marked as such.

Feature comparison

Platform

MixpanelPostHog
Product analyticsTrack events and conversion; analyze user behavior
Session replaysWatch real users use your product; diagnose bugs
Feature flagsRoll out features safely; toggle features for cohorts or individuals
ExperimentsEnterpriseTest changes and analyze their impact
User surveysAsk users for qualitative feedback and gather responses
HeatmapsTrack where users click and why
Event pipelinesPush and pull data to enrich customer profiles
Open sourceBuild your own apps and contribute code
  • Experiments: Mixpanel offers an experiments feature in its Enterprise plan, but it's limited to running simple A/B tests. PostHog's experimentation suite supports A/B and multivariate tests using our integrated feature flagging. Visit our experimentation product page for more info.

  • Feature flagging: Mixpanel doesn't have any built-in feature flag functionality. PostHog Cloud includes unlimited flags for free. Visit our feature flag page for more information.

  • Session replays: PostHog offers 15,000 session replays (with console logs) per month for free. Visit our session replays page for more information.

Further reading: How Mixpanel compares to other PostHog alternatives

Product analytics

MixpanelPostHog
Graphs and trendsBuild custom insights and visualizations
DashboardsCombine insights into shareable dashboards
FunnelsUnderstand conversion between events, pages
CohortsCombine users based on properties and events for group analysis
User pathsTrack user flows and where they drop-off
RetentionAnalyze user and revenue retention
UTM trackingTrack marketing campaigns with UTM tags
Correlation analysisSuggested events and properties that lead to success or failure
Group analyticsUnderstand how organizations use your product
FormulasUse custom formulas to calculate unique insights
Query editorComing Q1 2023Write your own queries in SQL
  • Correlation analysis: When viewing a funnel in PostHog, correlation analysis automatically suggests events and properties that correlate to success or failure. We use transparent, testable statistical models – no phony "AI" here.

  • Query editor: Mixpanel doesn't support SQL queries, instead opting for its own query language, JQL (JavaScript Query Language). PostHog's SQL query editor is currently in development.


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Tracking & SDKs

PostHog and Mixpanel both support a broad range of tracking options and libraries, and manual event instrumentation. But PostHog also supports event autocapture, so you don't have to manually instrument all your events to track them,

MixpanelPostHog
Event trackingTrack manually instrumented events
AutocaptureAutomatically track events without instrumentation
Combined eventsTrack related events as a single trackable action or behavior
Reverse proxy availableSend events from your own domain to capture more data
Cross-domain trackingTrack users across domains and sub-domains
Server-side trackingSend events from your server
Capture APISend events through an API

Why autocapture?

Mixpanel, like Amplitude, forces you to manually instrument every event you want to track. That means you can only create queries based on events you've chosen to track in advance. Every time you think of something new to track, you then need to wait for the data.

Autocapture eliminates this tedious process. Just deploy our snippet and we'll do the hard work. In doing so, you're creating a powerful dataset you can call upon whenever you need it. Autocapture is ideal for fast moving teams who want to ship code product improvements quickly.

Some would have you believe that autocapture generates "too much data" that's hard to deal with. Our answer?

To quote Tony Stark: “An intelligence agency which fears intelligence is, historically, not awesome.”

Client libraries

MixpanelPostHogNotes for PostHog
JavaScriptRecommended for full PostHog functionality
React NativeSession recording not available
FlutterEvent tracking and user identification only
iOS (Swift)Autocapture and session replays not available
iOS (Objective-C)Autocapture and session replays not available
AndroidEvent tracking and user identification only
Unity
  • JavaScript snippet: All client libraries support event tracking and user identification for product analytics, but we recommend using PostHog's JavaScript snippet to enjoy all our features. See our client library documentation for more information.

  • Mobile app session replays: We don't currently support session recording in mobile apps, but it's currently under consideration as a project for our team. See our public roadmap for more info.

  • Unity: We don't have a Unity SDK yet but, as we're open-source, anyone can create one. See our contribution guidelines for more info.

Server libraries

Some PostHog features, such as session replays and autocapture, are only available via our client-side libraries.

MixpanelPostHogNotes for PostHog
Node.jsSupports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
GoSupports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
PythonSupports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
RustAlphaUnder development, not recommended for production
JavaBetaSupport events and user ID
PHPSupports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
RubySupports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
ElixirCommunity maintained

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Integrations

Mixpanel claims over 50 official integrations covering a wide-range of use cases. Given its focus on product analytics alone, many of these integrations connect to third-party tools for A/B testing, feature flag, and marketing use cases.

The PostHog App Store has over 50 apps as well, though not all of these are integrations with external tools. Some are apps that modify data flows or add components to your frontend. PostHog doesn't natively connect with A/B testing or feature flag tools as these features are built into PostHog itself.

Categories:

Data Export

MixpanelPostHog
Export APIExport data via API
Amazon RedshiftExport data to Redshift
Amazon S3Export data to S3 bucket
Azure Blob StorageExport data to Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud StorageExport data to GCS
SnowflakeExport data to Snowflake database
Google BigQueryExport data to BigQuery for analysis
RudderStackSync event and person data
AirbyteExtract and load data to external platforms
FivetranExtract and load data to external platforms

Data Import

MixpanelPostHog
Import APIAPI for importing data
Amazon RedshiftImport data from Redshift for analysis
Amazon S3Ingest data from S3 bucket for analysis
Google Cloud StorageIngest data from GCS bucket for analysis
Google Pub/SubImport events from Pub/Sub topics
SnowflakeImport Snowflake data for analysis
SnowplowIngest events from behavioral data platform
SegmentIngest events tracked in Segment
RudderStackIngest events tracked in RudderStack
HightouchReverse ETL data to multiple platforms
CensusReverse ETL data to multiple platforms

Dev tools & support

As an open source platform designed for technical teams, PostHog integrates with numerous developer tools and platforms. This isn't an area of strong support for Mixpanel.

MixpanelPostHog
BitBucket Release TrackerTrack impact of releases in analytics
GitHub Release TrackerTrack impact of releases in analytics
GitHub Star SyncTrack GitHub star growth
GitLab Release TrackerTrack impact of releases in analytics
SentryConnect errors to individual users
RetoolBuild internal tools using your usage data
ZendeskTrack tickets as events, add context to tickets

Marketing & sales

Both platforms integrate with a wide-range of sales and marketing tools to support automation flows and user data synchronization.

Mixpanel has a specific advantage in connecting to Google and Facebook's advertising platforms directly, enabling in-product tracking of campaign ROI.

It's easy to track marketing conversions in PostHog, but you can't currently connect that directly to campaign spending data.

MixpanelPostHog
Customer.ioSync data and trigger workflows in Customer.io
HubspotSync customer data to and from Hubspot
EngageAutomate onboarding and retention messaging
PaceIdentify enterprise sales leads
SalesforceSync customer data to and from Salesforce
SendgridAutomate email workflows
TwitterTrack Twitter follower growth
VarianceDefine PQLs with real analytics data
Facebook AdsTrack Facebook ad ROI
Google AdsTrack Google ad ROI
MailchimpAutomate marketing emails
IntercomAutomate your product comms

Alerts & automation

Mixpanel and PostHog both support popular messaging apps and automation platforms, though PostHog also supports Discord and the open-source Zapier alternative, n8n.

MixpanelPostHog
SlackSend alerts and reports to Slack
DiscordSend alerts and reports to Discord
Microsoft TeamsSend alerts and reports to Teams
n8nOpen source workflow automation
TwilioAutomate SMS alerts on events
ZapierAutomate workflows on events

Ready to find out more?


Privacy, admin & security

Privacy compliance

MixpanelPostHog
GDPR compliantEU hosting or data residency available
HIPAA compliantSelf-host onlyBusiness Associate Agreement available
Data anonymizationRemove personally identifiable information
Self-hosting optionSelf-host and keep complete control of your data
Cookie-less tracking optionUse analytics without cookie consent banners
  • Self-hosting: While we recommend most customers use PostHog Cloud, PostHog can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure so you keep control of all your data. This is useful for businesses that handle highly sensitive information, such as defense or health data, but it is more expensive than using PostHog Cloud. See: Who should self-host PostHog?

  • HIPAA compliance: Mixpanel will sign a Business Associate Agreement if you require HIPAA compliance. At PostHog, we recommend self-hosting PostHog if you require HIPAA compliance. This ensures all sensitive data never leaves your infrastructure, giving you complete control and simplifying compliance processes.

  • Cookie-less tracking: If you'd rather not serve annoying cookie banners to your users, PostHog can be configured to store data in memory so it doesn't persist beyond a single session. See: How to use PostHog without cookie banners. Note: some types of user analysis aren't possible with this method.

Admin & security

MixpanelPostHog
SOC 2 certificationExternally audited security
SAML/SSOEnterpriseEnterpriseOrganization single sign-on
Access levelsAssign access levels to team members
Multiple organizationsCreate orgs for all your internal teams
Multiple projectsTrack multiple products and domains
Private projectsEnterpriseCreate hidden projects with user permissions
  • PostHog Enterprise: Our Enterprise tier includes single sign-on, private projects, and a dedicated Slack support channel.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to deploy PostHog?

Deploying PostHog Cloud takes mere minutes. All you need to do is include a tracking snippet in your product or website and (thanks to autocapture) you're immediately capturing events. Once up and running, you can enable session recording via your project settings.

See our guide to getting started on PostHog Cloud for more info.

How long does it take to deploy Mixpanel?

Integrating Mixpanel is simple enough – you can embed its snippet within <head> or install via package manager – but the lack of autocapture means you need to invest time and resources to instrument events manually before you can start creating insights.

Does PostHog use cookies?

Yes, PostHog (like Mixpanel) uses cookies. Cookies are necessary to enable common use cases, such as cross-domain tracking and tracking returning visitors.

It is possible, however, to configure PostHog to track users without requiring without cookie banners by storing cookies in memory so it doesn't persist beyond an individual session.

Both Mixpanel and PostHog also support anonymizing data, while the PostHog Property Filter app allows you to limit the types of information collected to protect user privacy.

How much does PostHog cost?

We believe in transparent pricing, which is why our pricing page includes an easy-to-understand pricing calculator.

PostHog Cloud includes a generous 1 million events and 15,000 session replays per month for free, every month with no feature limitations.

A typical, medium-size B2B product with 10,000 monthly active users, who generate:

  • 100 events each per month
  • 5 sessions each per month

Would use:

  • 1 million events per month
  • 50,000 session replays

Discounts for annual contracts are available on application.

How much does Mixpanel cost?

Mixpanel prices based on "Monthly Track Users" (MTUs) and applies a limit of 1,000 events per MTU. A company with 10,000 MTUs would pay $190 per month, or £133 per month if you pay annually.

Mixpanel also offers a free tier with a 100k MTU limit, however it applies numerous feature limits – e.g. you can create but not save cohorts.

How do PostHog and Mixpanel compare to Amplitude?

Amplitude is closer to Mixpanel than PostHog – it doesn't support features session replays or feature flagging, and doesn't offer autocapture. Read our PostHog vs Amplitude comparison for information.


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