In-depth: PostHog vs Mixpanel

Dec 22, 2022

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

Mixpanel is a product analytics tool.
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

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Product analytics Track events and conversion; analyze user behavior	✔	✔
Session replay Watch real users use your product; diagnose bugs	✖	✔
Feature flags Roll out features safely; toggle features for cohorts or individuals	✖	✔
Experiments Test changes and analyze their impact	Enterprise	✔
User surveys Ask users for qualitative feedback and gather responses	✖	✔
Heatmaps Track where users click and why	✖	✔
Event pipelines Push and pull data to enrich customer profiles	✔	✔
Open source Build 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

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Graphs and trends Build custom insights and visualizations	✔	✔
Dashboards Combine insights into shareable dashboards	✔	✔
Funnels Understand conversion between events, pages	✔	✔
Cohorts Combine users based on properties and events for group analysis	✔	✔
User paths Track user flows and where they drop-off	✔	✔
Retention Analyze user and revenue retention	✔	✔
UTM tracking Track marketing campaigns with UTM tags	✔	✔
Correlation analysis Suggested events and properties that lead to success or failure	✖	✔
Group analytics Understand how organizations use your product	✔	✔
Formulas Use custom formulas to calculate unique insights	✔	✔
Query editor Write 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.

Ready to find out more?

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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,

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Event tracking Track manually instrumented events	✔	✔
Autocapture Automatically track events without instrumentation	✖	✔
Combined events Track related events as a single trackable action or behavior	✔	✔
Reverse proxy available Send events from your own domain to capture more data	✔	✔
Cross-domain tracking Track users across domains and sub-domains	✔	✔
Server-side tracking Send events from your server	✔	✔
Capture API Send 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

	Mixpanel	PostHog
JavaScript Recommended for full PostHog functionality	✔	✔
React Native Session recording not available	✔	✔
Flutter Event tracking and user identification only	✔	✔
iOS (Swift) Autocapture and session replays not available	✔	✔
iOS (Objective-C) Autocapture and session replays not available	✔	✔
Android Event 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.

	Mixpanel	PostHog	Notes for PostHog
Node.js	✔	✔	Supports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
Go	✔	✔	Supports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
Python	✔	✔	Supports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
Rust	✖	Alpha	Under development, not recommended for production
Java	✔	Beta	Support events and user ID
PHP	✔	✔	Supports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
Ruby	✔	✔	Supports events, feature flags, user ID, and group analytics
Elixir	✖	✔	Community maintained

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
Data Import
Dev Tools & Support
Marketing & Sales
Alerts & Automation

Data Export

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Export API Export data via API	✔	✔
Amazon Redshift Export data to Redshift	✔	✔
Amazon S3 Export data to S3 bucket	✔	✔
Azure Blob Storage Export data to Microsoft Azure	✔	✔
Google Cloud Storage Export data to GCS	✔	✔
Snowflake Export data to Snowflake database	✔	✔
BigQuery Export data to Google BigQuery for analysis	✔	✔
RudderStack Sync event and person data	✔	✔
Airbyte Extract and load data to external platforms	✔	✔
Fivetran Extract and load data to external platforms	✔	✖

Data Import

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Import API API for importing data	✔	✔
Amazon Redshift Import data from Redshift for analysis	✔	✔
Amazon S3 Ingest data from S3 bucket for analysis	✔	✔
Google Cloud Storage Ingest data from GCS bucket for analysis	✔	✔
Google Pub/Sub Import events from Pub/Sub topics	✔	✔
Snowflake Import Snowflake data for analysis	✔	✔
Snowplow Ingest events from behavioral data platform	✔	✔
Segment Ingest events tracked in Segment	✔	✔
RudderStack Ingest events tracked in RudderStack	✔	✔
Hightouch Reverse ETL data to multiple platforms	✔	✔
Census Reverse 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.

	Mixpanel	PostHog
BitBucket Release Tracker Track impact of releases in analytics	✖	✔
GitHub Release Tracker Track impact of releases in analytics	✖	✔
GitHub Star Sync Track GitHub star growth	✖	✔
GitLab Release Tracker Track impact of releases in analytics	✖	✔
Sentry Connect errors to individual users	✖	✔
Retool Build internal tools using your usage data	✖	✔
Zendesk Track 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.

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Customer.io Sync data and trigger workflows in Customer.io	✔	✔
Hubspot Sync customer data to and from Hubspot	✔	✔
Engage Automate onboarding and retention messaging	✔	✔
Pace Identify enterprise sales leads	✔	✔
Salesforce Sync customer data to and from Salesforce	✔	✔
Sendgrid Automate email workflows	✔	✔
Twitter Track Twitter follower growth	✔	✔
Variance Define PQLs with real analytics data	✔	✔
Facebook Ads Track Facebook ad ROI	✔	✖
Google Ads Track Google ad ROI	✔	✖
Mailchimp Automate marketing emails	✔	✖
Intercom Automate 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.

	Mixpanel	PostHog
Slack Send alerts and reports to Slack	✔	✔
Discord Send alerts and reports to Discord	✖	✔
Microsoft Teams Send alerts and reports to Teams	✔	✔
n8n Open source workflow automation	✖	✔
Twilio Automate SMS alerts on events	✖	✔
Zapier Automate workflows on events	✔	✔

Privacy, admin & security

Privacy compliance

	Mixpanel	PostHog
GDPR compliant EU hosting or data residency available	✔	✔
HIPAA compliant Business Associate Agreement available	✔	Self-host only
Data anonymization Remove personally identifiable information	✔	✔
Self-hosting option Self-host and keep complete control of your data	✖	✔
Cookieless tracking option Use 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

	Mixpanel	PostHog
SOC 2 certification Externally audited security	✔	✔
SAML/SSO Organization single sign-on	Enterprise	Enterprise
Access levels Assign access levels to team members	✔	✔
Multiple organizations Create orgs for all your internal teams	✔	✔
Multiple projects Track multiple products and domains	✔	✔
Private projects Create hidden projects with user permissions	✖	Enterprise

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?
How long does it take to deploy Mixpanel
Does PostHog user cookies?
How much does PostHog cost?
How much does Mixpanel cost?
How do PostHog and Mixpanel compare to Amplitude?

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.

Ready to find out more?

Try PostHog - free Schedule a demo