Mixpanel vs Google Analytics

by Gralio Feb 26, 2025

Mixpanel and Google Analytics offer distinct approaches to analytics. Mixpanel excels at understanding in-product user behavior, while Google Analytics focuses on website traffic and marketing. Choose Mixpanel if you prioritize improving user experience and engagement within your product. Opt for Google Analytics if you need to track website traffic, marketing campaigns, and overall website performance.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 3746 reviews and 60 websites, saving 21 hours, 18 minutes of reading.

Mixpanel

Website LinkedIn Twitter

Google Analytics

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Mixpanel is a tool that helps you understand how people use your website or app. It tracks user actions, like button clicks and page views, and presents the data in easy-to-understand reports. This helps you see what features are popular, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately make decisions that lead to a better user experience and increased customer satisfaction.

Google Analytics is a free tool that gives you insights into your website and app users. Understand what content is popular, track your marketing campaigns, and see how people behave on your site. Use this data to improve your website, create better content, and make smarter marketing decisions.

Summary

Main difference

Mixpanel is a product analytics platform focused on user behavior and engagement, ideal for understanding how users interact with your product. Google Analytics is a web analytics platform focused on website traffic and marketing campaigns, better suited for understanding website performance and user acquisition.

Relative strengths of Mixpanel (compared to Google Analytics)

Superior user behavior analysis and engagement tracking.
Stronger mobile analytics capabilities.
More intuitive interface for product-focused metrics.

Relative weaknesses of Mixpanel (compared to Google Analytics)

Less comprehensive website traffic analysis.
Limited marketing campaign tracking.
Fewer integrations with other marketing tools.

Who is using Mixpanel and Google Analytics?

No data

Brendan Hufford

SaaS Marketing - Growth through Content, Community & SEO

Connor Gillivan

SEO expert; 7x Founder (Exit in 2019)

Rob Timmerman

Founder of a 20-year-old full-service digital agency

Who should use Mixpanel VS. Google Analytics

Mixpanel helps you understand how people use your product. Track actions, see what's popular, and improve user experience. Users love the easy-to-use interface and powerful analysis but dislike the clunky data export process. Best for small to enterprise companies in E-commerce, Software, and Marketing.

Google Analytics is a free tool offering comprehensive insights into website and app user behavior. Track popular content, marketing campaigns, and user interactions to improve website performance. Users praise detailed reports and seamless Google product integration but find GA4 confusing and customer support lacking. Perfect for businesses aiming to enhance online presence and make data-driven decisions.

Best for small, mid-sized, and enterprise companies.
Ideal for E-commerce, Software, and Marketing companies.

Best for small, medium, and large businesses.
Ideal for various sectors, including e-commerce, retail, manufacturing, and more.

Mixpanel and Google Analytics features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Product Analytics

Supported

Mixpanel provides tools to track user interactions, analyze trends, and measure key metrics.

Supported

Google Analytics 4 supports product analytics by tracking user behavior, analyzing trends, and measuring key product performance metrics.
Group Analytics

Supported

Mixpanel offers group analytics, enabling analysis of user behavior based on shared characteristics.

Supported

Google Analytics supports group analysis via features like content grouping, audience segmentation, and event-based analysis.
Advanced Google Analytics reporting

Partially supported

Mixpanel integrates with Google Analytics via third-party tools, but does not directly support advanced reporting.

Supported

Google Analytics, especially GA4, supports advanced reporting, custom reports, and API integration.
Google Analytics integration

Partially supported

Mixpanel can be integrated with Google Analytics using third-party tools or APIs.

Supported

Google Analytics has a wide range of integrations, including integrations with other Google products.
Conversion tracking

Supported

Mixpanel supports conversion tracking with features like custom events, funnels reports, and lifecycle analysis, allowing tracking of users completing specific goals.

Supported

Google Analytics 4 fully supports conversion tracking using events, allowing you to track actions like purchases and newsletter sign-ups.
Funnel analysis

Supported

Mixpanel fully supports funnel analysis, enabling tracking user progress through defined steps and pinpointing drop-off points for optimization.

Supported

Google Analytics 4 provides a comprehensive funnel analysis tool that allows tracking user progress through steps and identifying drop-off points, as confirmed by the provided sources.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

+0.77

Strongly positive sentiment
Customer Service

No data

-0.04

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Use

No data

+0.42

Rather positive sentiment
Reliability and Performance

No data

+0.27

Neutral sentiment
Ease of Implementation

No data

+0.24

Neutral sentiment
Scalability

No data

+0.08

Neutral sentiment

Mixpanel and Google Analytics Pricing

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for Mixpanel.

No data

User sentiment

Strongly positive

+0.77

We couldn't find a pricing page for Google Analytics.

Mixpanel and Google Analytics review insights

2508 reviews analysed from

Users love

The software process all the hard queries and let you focus on the most important part.
The power of the analysis is incrdibile and the easy of use make it the best tool for a Product Manger or Product Analyst.
Things are very easy UI wise and it is very robust.
Good and acessible price, easy insights and easy implementation

Detailed and comprehensive website traffic data and reports.
Seamless integration with other Google products like Google Ads and Search Console.
User-friendly interface for basic analytics.
Wide range of metrics and customization options for creating reports.

Users dislike

Taking data dumps out of Mixpanel is a pain and not really intuitive
The formatting of dashboards is not very user-friendly
Problem while Searching for particular user id
Flow reports screen looks a bit unorganised. To extract the data is always confusing

GA4 is very confusing to use and less intuitive compared to the previous version.
Real-time data is often delayed or inaccurate.
The transition from Universal Analytics to GA4 is difficult, with data discrepancies and loss of historical information.
Customer support is limited and unhelpful, often with slow response times.

Mixpanel and Google Analytics Ratings

G2

4.6/5

(1107)
Capterra

4.5/5

(125)
TrustPilot

2.4/5

(6)
Glassdoor

3.4/5

(282)

G2

4.5/5

(2516)
Glassdoor

3.5/5

(2)

Company health

Employee growth

3% increase in the last year

No data

Web traffic

3% decrease in the last quarter

No data

Financing

August 2021 - $277M

No data

How do Mixpanel's data filtering capabilities compare to Google Analytics' custom reports?

Mixpanel's data filtering relies on its "Data Views," allowing users to create and save specific data segments for analysis, similar to creating custom reports in Google Analytics. While both tools offer filtering and segmentation, Mixpanel's interface is generally considered more user-friendly for interactive exploration, while Google Analytics provides more extensive customization options, especially within its custom report builder for generating scheduled reports. Ultimately, the best choice depends on the complexity of your reporting needs and your preferred interface style.

Which product offers more intuitive dashboards for visualizing user behavior trends?

Mixpanel offers more intuitive dashboards for visualizing user behavior trends. While Google Analytics provides comprehensive data, user reviews indicate that, especially with the transition to GA4, its interface has become less user-friendly and more confusing. Mixpanel, conversely, is praised for its ease of use and clear data presentation, allowing for more intuitive understanding of user behavior.

What are the advantages of Mixpanel?

Mixpanel's advantage lies in its dedicated focus on product analytics, providing in-depth insights into user behavior within web and mobile applications. Features like group analytics and easy-to-understand reports empower product teams to identify areas for improvement and optimize user experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction. Users praise Mixpanel's powerful analysis capabilities and ease of use.

What are the disadvantages of Mixpanel?

Mixpanel users report difficulties in extracting data and navigating the dashboard's formatting. Some find the flow reports screen disorganized and the process of locating specific user IDs problematic.

Alternatives to Mixpanel and Google Analytics

PostHog

PostHog is an all-in-one product development platform. It helps you understand user behavior, run A/B tests, and manage features. With tools like session recording and product analytics, PostHog helps you build better products. It's open-source, scalable for any size team, and offers a generous free tier.

Stream Chat

Stream Chat is a platform that helps you add chat, video calls, and activity feeds to your app. It provides the building blocks for these features, like pre-made components and code libraries, so you don't have to build everything from scratch. This saves your developers time and lets them focus on your app's unique features. Stream Chat is designed to handle a lot of users and messages, making it suitable for medium to large companies. They prioritize making integration easy for developers and ensuring the final product is reliable and scalable for businesses.

Heap | by Contentsquare

Heap | by Contentsquare is a digital insights platform that helps businesses understand their customers' online journeys. It provides data on customer behavior, such as where users struggle or abandon their experience. Heap offers session replay, allowing you to see exactly what your customers see, and helps identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach helps businesses optimize their websites and apps to enhance customer experience, improve conversion rates, and make better product decisions. Heap caters to a range of businesses, from SaaS companies to e-commerce and financial institutions.

Semrush

Semrush is an online visibility and marketing platform that helps businesses improve their online presence. It offers a wide range of tools for SEO, content marketing, competitor analysis, social media management, and paid advertising. With a massive database, Semrush provides insights into keywords, backlinks, website traffic, and competitor strategies, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions to enhance their online visibility and achieve marketing goals. Many Fortune 500 companies utilize Semrush's comprehensive suite of digital marketing tools.

Amplitude Analytics

Amplitude Analytics is a digital analytics platform that helps businesses understand how people use their websites and mobile apps. It offers tools to track user behavior, visualize data, and run experiments to improve user engagement and retention. Amplitude is particularly useful for product and growth teams who need to make data-driven decisions about their digital products. Its strengths include real-time analytics, detailed behavioral insights, and the ability to track users across different platforms. Many well-known companies use Amplitude to optimize their digital products and drive business growth.

Chrome OS

Chrome OS is Google's operating system. It's known for being simple, fast, and secure, running on laptops called Chromebooks. It's particularly well-suited to businesses because it offers centralized management features, making it easy for IT departments to control and secure devices. Chrome OS is designed to work primarily with web-based applications and cloud storage, making it a good option for businesses looking to reduce reliance on traditional software.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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