Comparison · Web analytics
GA4 vs Mixpanel: web analytics vs product analytics
The short answer
GA4 is free web analytics built around acquisition: which channels and campaigns bring visitors who convert, with native Google Ads integration. Mixpanel is product analytics built around users: funnels, retention, flows and cohorts for signed-in people over months, free up to 1 million events a month. Most marketing sites need GA4; SaaS and app teams asking why users do or do not stick add Mixpanel, often running both.
On this page 5 sections
Side by side
| GA4 | Mixpanel | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Traffic sources, campaigns, conversions, Google Ads | User behaviour in a product: funnels, retention, flows |
| Free tier | Free standard property (GA4 360 is paid) | Free up to 1M events a month |
| Paid | GA4 360, sold through Google or resellers | Growth from $0, priced by events (e.g. 2M events $185 per month billed yearly) |
| Data retention | Event-level data 2 or 14 months on standard properties (Explorations) | Default 2 years |
| Identity | Device and Google signals; user ID optional | User ID at the centre; group analytics as a paid add-on |
| Session replay | No | 10K replays a month on Free, 20K on Growth |
| Raw data export | Free BigQuery export (daily limit on standard properties) | Data pipelines and warehouse connectors |
When GA4 fits better
- The questions are about channels, campaigns, landing pages and leads.
- You buy Google Ads and want conversions and audiences to flow both ways.
- You want free analytics an agency already knows.
When Mixpanel fits better
- You have signed-in users and want to know which behaviours predict retention.
- Product managers need self-serve funnels and cohorts without writing SQL.
- You need event data kept for more than 14 months in the reporting tool itself.
Running both
A common split: GA4 on the marketing site for acquisition, Mixpanel inside the app from signup onwards, joined by sending the same user ID and the UTM source captured at signup into both. Keep event names the same where you can, and decide which one is the source of truth for signups before two dashboards disagree. Background: product analytics vs web analytics and cohort analysis explained.
More choices: best product analytics tools and GA4 alternatives. Self-hosting instead: self-host Matomo or Plausible.
Based on each vendor’s published features as of October 2026. We have not tested these products in a live account. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
Questions
- Is Mixpanel free?
- Mixpanel's Free plan covered up to 1 million events a month with no credit card in October 2026. Above that, Growth pricing scales with events, for example $185 per month billed yearly for 2 million.
- How long does GA4 keep data?
- Standard GA4 properties keep event-level data used in Explorations for 2 months by default, or 14 months if you change the setting; aggregated standard reports are not affected. The setting is not retroactive.