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Analytics Tools: Amplitude vs Mixpanel Comparison

Both Amplitude and Mixpanel are popular tools for tracking how users interact with websites and apps. They help developers understand user behavior by collecting data about clicks, page views, and other actions users take. While both tools serve similar purposes, Amplitude is often praised for its user-friendly interface and advanced analytics, while Mixpanel is known for its real-time data processing and marketing features.

User Analytics and Trackinganalyticsuser-trackingmetricsuser-behaviordata-collection

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Similar Packages

posthog-js

95%

An open-source analytics platform that's like a combination of Amplitude and Mixpanel. Lets you track user behavior and create funnels to understand how people use your product.

PostHog is great because you can host it yourself or use their cloud version. It has most features from Amplitude/Mixpanel but gives you more control over your data.

Analytics

google-analytics-4

90%

The official Google Analytics 4 tracking package for websites. Helps you track how users interact with your website, including page views, clicks, and custom events.

Like Amplitude and Mixpanel, it's a complete analytics solution that's free to use. It's backed by Google and is the most widely used analytics tool, making it easy to find help and resources.

Analytics

heap-analytics

90%

Automatically captures all user interactions without requiring manual tracking setup. Records clicks, form submissions, and page views out of the box.

Similar feature set to Amplitude/Mixpanel but with automatic event tracking, making it easier for beginners. You don't need to write tracking code for every event.

Analytics

matomo-tracker

80%

Open-source analytics platform that focuses on data privacy and ownership. Provides detailed visitor tracking and analysis tools similar to Google Analytics.

Great alternative if you want full control over your analytics data and care about privacy. Has most features from Amplitude/Mixpanel but can be self-hosted.

Analytics

plausible-tracker

70%

A simple, lightweight, and privacy-friendly alternative to complex analytics tools. Tracks basic website stats without collecting personal data.

Perfect for projects that need basic analytics without the complexity of Amplitude/Mixpanel. It's privacy-focused and doesn't require cookie notices.

Analytics

amplitude

Node CI Known Vulnerabilities

Server side implementation of Amplitude's HTTP API.

Amplitude SSL Issue

As of 2020-05-30, Amplitude reported issues with their SSL certificate, so they set up an endpoint and alternate endpoint at https://api2.amplitude.com. Read about it on Amplitude's Status Page and affected devices here.

As of v5.1.0+, you can use the alternative endpoint by setting the environment variable:

AMPLITUDE_TOKEN_ENDPOINT = 'https://api2.amplitude.com'

Or in the constructor:

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { tokenEndpoint: 'https://api2.amplitude.com' })

Version 5+ Note

For amplitude@5+, it uses Amplitude's V2 HTTP API, which replaces the deprecated V1 HTTP API. This only affects the .track method. The only potential breaking change is by default user_id and device_id require a minimum of 5 characters.

Install

npm install amplitude --save

Basic Initialization

const Amplitude = require('amplitude') // The only required field is the api token const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token')

See the examples/ directory for further usage.

Track an event

Pass in any keys listed on the Amplitude V2 HTTP API. The only required keys are event_type and either user_id or device_id. If you initialized the Amplitude object with a user/device id, they can be ignored when calling the track method. Note: the user_id and device_id must be 5 or more characters if passed.

const data = { event_type: 'some value', // required user_id: 'some-user-id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some-device-id', // only required if user id is not passed in session_id: 1492789357923, // must be unix timestamp in ms, not required event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } } try { await amplitude.track(data) } catch (err) { console.error(err) }

You can also pass an array of event objects:

const data = [ { event_type: 'some value', // required user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } }, { event_type: 'another value', // required user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } } ] amplitude.track(data).then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

Identify API

The identify method allows you to make changes to a user without sending an analytics event.

const data = { user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } } amplitude.identify(data).then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

You can also pass an array of identify objects:

const data = [ { user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } }, { user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in event_properties: { //... }, user_properties: { //... } } ] amplitude.identify(data).then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

With this method, you can also modify user properties using property operations.

const data = { user_id: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in device_id: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in user_properties: { $set: { //... }, $add: { //... }, $append: { //... } } } amplitude.identify(data).then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

Note the limitation of mixing user property operations with top level properties. If you use any property operations ($add, $append, etc.), and you want to set a user property, it must be done using the $set operation.

CamelCase Data

If you prefer camelCase variables, you can pass in the camelCase version instead to the track and identify methods:

const data = { eventType: 'some value', // required userId: 'some id', // only required if device id is not passed in deviceId: 'some id', // only required if user id is not passed in sessionId: 1492789357923, // must be unix timestamp in ms, not required eventProperties: { //... }, userProperties: { //... } } amplitude.track(data).then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

This is the full list of properties that will be automatically transformed:

userId -> user_id
deviceId -> device_id
sessionId -> session_id
eventType -> event_type
eventProperties -> event_properties
userProperties -> user_properties
appVersion -> app_version
osName -> os_name
osVersion -> os_version
deviceBrand -> device_brand
deviceManufacturer -> device_manufacturer
deviceModel -> device_model
locationLat -> location_lat
locationLng -> location_lng

User/Device/Session ID

If the user/device/session id will always be the same, you can initialize the object with it. Passing a user id or device id in the track and identify methods will override the default value set at initialization.

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { user_id: 'some-user-id' }) // or const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { device_id: 'some-device-id' }) // or const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { session_id: 1492789357923 }) try { await amplitude.track({ event_type: 'some value' }) } catch (err) { console.error(err) } // Or... amplitude .track({ event_type: 'some value', user_id: 'will-override-the-default-id' }) .then(res => { console.log('Amplitude response', res) })

Promises

All methods return a Promise.

amplitude .track(data) .then(function(result) { //... do something }) .catch(function(error) { //... do something }) // Or.. try { const result = await amplitude.track({ event_type: 'some value' }) //... do something with result } catch (error) { console.error(error) //... do something with the error }

Dashboard API

Export your data

The export method requires your secret key to be added when initializing the amplitude object. This method uses the export api and requires a start and end string in the format YYYYMMDDTHH.

The method returns a stream.

const fs = require('fs') const stream = fs.createWriteStream('./may-2016-export.zip') const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { secretKey: 'secret' }) amplitude .export({ start: '20160501T20', end: '20160601T20' }) .pipe(stream)

User Search

The user search method requires your secret key to be added when initializing the amplitude object. This method uses the dashboard api.

Search for a user with a specified Amplitude ID, Device ID, User ID, or User ID prefix.

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { secretKey: 'secret' }) amplitude.userSearch('user/device/amplitude id or user id prefix').then(res => { const matches = res.matches // Array of matches // How the match was made // If exact match was made with user id or device id, type === 'match_user_or_device_id' // If exact match was made with Amplitude ID, type === 'match_amplitude_id' // If a partial match was made with a user id prefix, type === 'match_user_prefix' // If no match was made, type === 'nomatch' const type = res.type })

User Activity

The user activity method requires your secret key to be added when initializing the amplitude object. This method uses the dashboard api.

Get a user summary and their recent events. This method requires an Amplitude ID. You can use the user search method to find that.

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { secretKey: 'secret' }) amplitude.userActivity('Amplitude ID').then(function(res) { const userData = res.userData // data about the user const events = res.events // an array of events associated with the user })

If there is nothing found for the passed Amplitude ID, the Promise will still resolve. The userData object will contain empty values and the events array will be empty:

{ userData: { num_sessions: 0, purchases: 0, revenue: 0, merged_amplitude_ids: [], num_events: 0, canonical_amplitude_id: 1, user_id: null, last_location: null, usage_time: 0, last_device_id: null, device_ids: [] }, events: [] }

If you do not know the Amplitude ID, you can use the userSearch method to find it.

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { secretKey: 'secret' }) amplitude .userSearch('user-id') .then(function(res) { // If you're using a prefix, you may get multiple matches and // you may need to handle the case where there is not a match const match = res.matches[0] return amplitude.userActivity(match.amplitude_id) }) .then(function(res) { const userData = res.userData // data about the user const events = res.events // an array of events associated with the user })

Event Segmentation

The event segmentation method requires your secret key to be added when initializing the amplitude object. This method uses the dashboard api.

Get metrics for an event with segmentation.

const amplitude = new Amplitude('api-token', { secretKey: 'secret' }) amplitude .eventSegmentation({ e: { event_type: 'event_name' }, start: '20170104', end: '20170117' }) .then(res => { const segmentationData = res.data })

Example response:

{ series: [ [ 2, 25, 3, 1, 0, 0, 2, 3, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0 ] ], seriesLabels: [ 0 ], xValues: [ '2017-01-04', '2017-01-05', '2017-01-06', '2017-01-07', '2017-01-08', '2017-01-09', '2017-01-10', '2017-01-11', '2017-01-12', '2017-01-13', '2017-01-14', '2017-01-15', '2017-01-16', '2017-01-17' ] }

If the event does not exist, Amplitude will throw a 400 error.

Changelog

View the CHANGELOG for changes in each version.

<!--- Do not change anything below this comment. It is generated automatically. ------>

Contributors

  • Erki Esken
  • Matthew Keesan
  • Geoff Dutton
  • Matt Pardee
  • Chase Seibert
  • filip

Mixpanel-node

Build Status

This library provides many of the features in the official JavaScript mixpanel library. It is easy to use, and fully async. It is intended to be used on the server (it is not a client module). The in-browser client library is available at https://github.com/mixpanel/mixpanel-js.

Installation

npm install mixpanel

Quick Start

// grab the Mixpanel factory var Mixpanel = require('mixpanel'); // create an instance of the mixpanel client var mixpanel = Mixpanel.init('<YOUR_TOKEN>'); // initialize mixpanel client configured to communicate over http instead of https var mixpanel = Mixpanel.init('<YOUR_TOKEN>', { protocol: 'http', }); // turn off keepAlive (reestablish connection on each request) var mixpanel = Mixpanel.init('<YOUR_TOKEN>', { keepAlive: false, }); // pass the custom logger (default is console) var mixpanel = Mixpanel.init('<YOUR_TOKEN>', { debug: true, logger: pinoLogger, // or bunyan, or any other logger that implements the same interface }); // track an event with optional properties mixpanel.track('my event', { distinct_id: 'some unique client id', as: 'many', properties: 'as', you: 'want' }); mixpanel.track('played_game'); // set an IP address to get automatic geolocation info mixpanel.track('my event', {ip: '127.0.0.1'}); // track an event with a specific timestamp (up to 5 days old; // use mixpanel.import() for older events) mixpanel.track('timed event', {time: new Date()}); // create or update a user in Mixpanel Engage mixpanel.people.set('billybob', { $first_name: 'Billy', $last_name: 'Bob', $created: (new Date('jan 1 2013')).toISOString(), plan: 'premium', games_played: 1, points: 0 }); // create or update a user in Mixpanel Engage without altering $last_seen // - pass option $ignore_time: true to prevent the $last_seen property from being updated mixpanel.people.set('billybob', { plan: 'premium', games_played: 1 }, { $ignore_time: true }); // set a user profile's IP address to get automatic geolocation info mixpanel.people.set('billybob', { plan: 'premium', games_played: 1 }, { $ip: '127.0.0.1' }); // set a user profile's latitude and longitude to get automatic geolocation info mixpanel.people.set('billybob', { plan: 'premium', games_played: 1 }, { $latitude: 40.7127753, $longitude: -74.0059728 }); // set a single property on a user mixpanel.people.set('billybob', 'plan', 'free'); // set a single property on a user, don't override mixpanel.people.set_once('billybob', 'first_game_play', (new Date('jan 1 2013')).toISOString()); // increment a numeric property mixpanel.people.increment('billybob', 'games_played'); // increment a numeric property by a different amount mixpanel.people.increment('billybob', 'points', 15); // increment multiple properties mixpanel.people.increment('billybob', {'points': 10, 'games_played': 1}); // append value to a list mixpanel.people.append('billybob', 'awards', 'Great Player'); // append multiple values to a list mixpanel.people.append('billybob', {'awards': 'Great Player', 'levels_finished': 'Level 4'}); // merge value to a list (ignoring duplicates) mixpanel.people.union('billybob', {'browsers': 'ie'}); // merge multiple values to a list (ignoring duplicates) mixpanel.people.union('billybob', {'browsers': ['ie', 'chrome']}); // record a transaction for revenue analytics mixpanel.people.track_charge('billybob', 39.99); // clear a users transaction history mixpanel.people.clear_charges('billybob'); // delete a user mixpanel.people.delete_user('billybob'); // delete a user in Mixpanel Engage without altering $last_seen or resolving aliases // - pass option $ignore_time: true to prevent the $last_seen property from being updated // (useful if you subsequently re-import data for the same distinct ID) mixpanel.people.delete_user('billybob', {$ignore_time: true, $ignore_alias: true}); // Create an alias for an existing distinct id mixpanel.alias('distinct_id', 'your_alias'); // all functions that send data to mixpanel take an optional // callback as the last argument mixpanel.track('test', function(err) { if (err) throw err; }); // track multiple events at once mixpanel.track_batch([ { event: 'recent event', properties: { time: new Date(), distinct_id: 'billybob', gender: 'male' } }, { event: 'another recent event', properties: { distinct_id: 'billybob', color: 'red' } } ]); // import an old event var mixpanel_importer = Mixpanel.init('valid mixpanel token', { secret: 'valid api secret for project' }); // needs to be in the system once for it to show up in the interface mixpanel_importer.track('old event', { gender: '' }); mixpanel_importer.import('old event', new Date(2012, 4, 20, 12, 34, 56), { distinct_id: 'billybob', gender: 'male' }); // import multiple events at once mixpanel_importer.import_batch([ { event: 'old event', properties: { time: new Date(2012, 4, 20, 12, 34, 56), distinct_id: 'billybob', gender: 'male' } }, { event: 'another old event', properties: { time: new Date(2012, 4, 21, 11, 33, 55), distinct_id: 'billybob', color: 'red' } } ]);

FAQ

Where is mixpanel.identify()?

mixpanel-node is a server-side library, optimized for stateless shared usage; e.g., in a web application, the same mixpanel instance is used across requests for all users. Rather than setting a distinct_id through identify() calls like Mixpanel client-side libraries (where a single Mixpanel instance is tied to a single user), this library requires you to pass the distinct_id with every tracking call. See https://github.com/mixpanel/mixpanel-node/issues/13.

How do I get or set superproperties?

See the previous answer: the library does not maintain user state internally and so has no concept of superproperties for individual users. If you wish to preserve properties for users between requests, you will need to load these properties from a source specific to your app (e.g., your session store or database) and pass them explicitly with each tracking call.

Tests

# in the mixpanel directory
npm install
npm test

Alternative Clients and Related Tools

  • Mixpanel-CLI - CLI for Mixpanel API (currently only supports tracking functions)
  • Mixpanel Data Export - Supports various query and data-management APIs; runs in both Node.js and browser
  • Mixpanel Data Export (strawbrary) - Fork of previous library, optimized for Node.js with support for streaming large raw exports

Attribution/Credits

Heavily inspired by the original js library copyright Mixpanel, Inc. (http://mixpanel.com/)

Copyright (c) 2014-21 Mixpanel Original Library Copyright (c) 2012-14 Carl Sverre

Contributions from:

  • Andres Gottlieb
  • Ken Perkins
  • Nathan Rajlich
  • Thomas Watson Steen
  • Gabor Ratky
  • wwlinx
  • PierrickP
  • lukapril
  • sandinmyjoints
  • Jyrki Laurila
  • Zeevl
  • Tobias Baunbæk
  • Eduardo Sorribas
  • Nick Chang
  • Michael G
  • Tejas Manohar
  • Eelke Boezeman
  • Jim Thomas
  • Frank Chiang
  • Morgan Croney
  • Cole Furfaro-Strode
  • Jonas Hermsmeier
  • Marko Klopets
  • Cameron Diver
  • veerabio
  • Will Neild
  • Elijah Insua
  • Arsal Imam
  • Aleksei Iatsiuk
  • Vincent Giersch

License

Released under the MIT license. See file called LICENSE for more details.

Dependencies Comparison

amplitude

Dependencies

axios^0.26.0

Dev Dependencies

@types/chai^4.3.0
@types/eslint^8.4.1
@types/mocha^9.1.0
@types/node^17.0.18
@types/sinon^10.0.11
@types/sinon-chai^3.2.8
@typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin^5.12.0
@typescript-eslint/parser^5.12.0
chai^4.3.6
codecov^3.8.3
eslint^8.9.0
eslint-config-prettier^8.3.0
eslint-plugin-prettier^4.0.0
glob^7.2.0
husky^7.0.4
lint-staged^12.3.4
lodash^4.17.21
mocha^9.2.0
nock^13.2.4
nyc^15.1.0
prettier^1.19.1
sinon^13.0.1
sinon-chai^3.7.0
ts-node^10.5.0
typescript^4.5.5

Peer Dependencies

mixpanel

Dependencies

https-proxy-agent5.0.0

Dev Dependencies

@vitest/coverage-v8^1.6.0
proxyquire^1.7.11
vitest^1.6.0

Peer Dependencies

StarsIssuesVersionUpdatedⓘLast publish dateCreatedⓘPackage creation dateSizeⓘMinified + Gzipped size
A
amplitude
7136.0.03 years ago10 years agoinstall size 8.0 KB
M
mixpanel
477660.18.12 months ago14 years agoinstall size 8.5 KB

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