Amplitude
Why Amplitude
Amplitude is a product analytics platform that tracks user behaviour and engagement across web and mobile applications in detail. It combines event tracking, session replay and experimentation to show what drives retention and conversion. Built for product, growth and data teams optimising product-market fit effectively.
What it does
Amplitude is a product analytics platform. It tracks specific actions users take in your product, such as clicks, feature use and sign-ups, and lets you analyse them through funnels, cohorts and segments. The platform also includes session replay, heatmaps, experimentation and guides and surveys, and it has an AI layer with agents and an MCP server.
Why you would need it
Page views tell you how many people arrived. They do not tell you which step of sign-up they dropped at, which feature the customers who stay all use, or what the users who churned did in their first week.
Amplitude answers those questions. You find where users leave a funnel, group users by what they did, and follow those groups over time to see which behaviour predicts retention.
Where it fits
It sits next to your product and your marketing stack. Your app sends events to it, and it feeds your decisions about onboarding, features and experiments. It does not replace Google Analytics, which is built for website traffic. It goes deeper on what happens inside a product, and it replaces spreadsheet analysis of database exports.
What stands out
- Detailed behaviour tracking, with funnel and cohort analysis built in.
- A free plan without a time limit, and unlimited seats on every plan.
- Analytics, session replay, heatmaps and experiments under one roof.
- A large API surface and an official MCP server that works on every plan, including the free one.
My take
I have spent years with Google Analytics as a head of growth and founder of two agencies. When my focus moved to product behaviour and funnels, Google Analytics did not give me the depth I needed, so I began testing Amplitude on my own funnel. I have not used it extensively yet, and this review also rests on desk research. I plan to update it as I test further.
What I see on paper is a tool that answers the questions I could not answer well in Google Analytics: specific actions, cohorts over time and drop-off in a funnel. The cost is a learning curve. The interface is dense, and setting up tracking takes time.
Verdict
Pick it when you run a product with enough users that behaviour is the question, and someone owns the tracking plan. Skip it when your need is website traffic, because Google Analytics is simpler for that.
Books behind it
Notes
Your note
Before you choose
Tracking needs a plan
The value depends on clean events. Decide which actions matter, name them consistently and document them before you instrument the product. Messy event names are the common way analytics projects stall.
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Learning curve
The interface is dense compared with simpler tools. Expect to invest time in setup and training before you get answers. Start with one funnel and one retention question.
Advanced features sit on paid plans
There is a free plan with no time limit, and the vendor does not offer a trial for that reason. Advanced capabilities need a paid plan, and the usage-based pricing can grow with your event volume. Estimate your event volume before you commit.
Alternatives to compare
Mixpanel is the closest rival. PostHog combines analytics with replay, flags and experiments and can be self-hosted. Heap captures events automatically. Google Analytics is free and fine for traffic.
Startup programme
The vendor runs a programme that gives early-stage companies a free year of a paid plan. Check the criteria before you pay for anything.