Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Mixpanel vs Google Analytics 4 vs Microsoft Clarity

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Mixpanel (mixpanel)
- URL: https://mixpanel.com
- Category: Product analytics
- Cost: mixed — Free: 1M events/mo plus 10K session replays, unlimited seats. Growth: $0.28 per 1K events above the free 1M, so 5M events lands near $1,120/mo.
- What it is: A mature product-analytics tool built around funnels, retention curves, cohorts and user flows rather than pageviews. The free plan covers 1M monthly events with unlimited seats and 10K session replays. There is no self-hosted version; EU data residency is an account setting.
- Why builders pick it: When the question is 'where in the signup flow do people drop off', Mixpanel's funnel and retention reports are still sharper than anything a privacy-first pageview counter can show you.
- Trap: The per-event price is a cliff rather than a slope: about $1,120/mo at 5M events and about $2,520/mo at 10M. Instrument sparingly, and check the Startup Program for a free first year if you qualify.
- Wiring: npm i mixpanel-browser
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/mixpanel

## Google Analytics 4 (google-analytics-4)
- URL: https://analytics.google.com
- Category: Product analytics
- Cost: free — Free for standard properties at essentially any volume. GA4 360 historically starts around $50,000/yr.
- What it is: Google's event-based analytics platform, free for standard properties, with audiences, attribution modelling, Search Console linking and a daily BigQuery export capped at 1M events. Standard properties allow 50 event-scoped custom dimensions and 30 key events. Cloud-only, with no self-hosted equivalent.
- Why builders pick it: It costs nothing at any traffic level and it is still what advertisers, SEO tools and clients expect to see, so it often ends up running alongside a nicer tool rather than instead of one.
- Trap: Retention maxes at 14 months (default 2) and explorations sample above 10M events per query. EU traffic needs a consent banner plus Consent Mode v2, and several EU regulators have ruled plain GA deployments unlawful without extra safeguards.
- Wiring: npm i @next/third-parties
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/google-analytics-4

## Microsoft Clarity (microsoft-clarity)
- URL: https://clarity.microsoft.com
- Category: Product analytics
- Cost: free — Free forever with no traffic limits and no paid tier.
- What it is: Microsoft's free behavioural analytics tool offering unlimited session recordings, click and scroll heatmaps, rage-click and dead-click detection, and AI summaries of sessions. There are no traffic caps and no paid upgrade path. Cloud-only, with an optional Google Analytics integration.
- Why builders pick it: Unlimited free session replay is unmatched at any price. Watching ten real people fumble your onboarding teaches you more in an hour than a month of staring at funnel charts.
- Trap: It sets the _clck and _clsk cookies, and since 31 October 2025 Clarity requires a valid consent signal for EEA, UK and Swiss visitors, so without a CMP those sessions will not record. Recordings can capture PII unless you mask fields.
- Wiring: npm i @microsoft/clarity
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/microsoft-clarity

## Quick read

- Free with no card: Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity.

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=mixpanel,google-analytics-4,microsoft-clarity