FINDING 01·B2B SaaS founders and product managers·1 source
No single tool covers all core analytics needs (support, session recording, flexible events)
Users consistently find that no single product analytics tool satisfies all their requirements simultaneously — good customer support, session recordings, and flexible event/insight creation. This forces them to evaluate and juggle multiple tools without finding a satisfactory fit.
Source
“Tried out Posthog, June, Amplitude, Logsnag and none of them satisfy the conditions.”
FINDING 02·Data engineers and analytics engineers at data-mature companies·1 source
No self-serve product analytics directly on top of cloud data warehouses
Users want to run product analytics (funnels, retention, etc.) directly on their existing cloud data warehouse without having to extract and pipe data into a separate SaaS tool. The lack of such a solution forces costly and complex reverse-ETL pipelines.
Source
“Why is there no self serve product analytics tool on top cloud datawarehouse, where I don't have to pull the data out.”
FINDING 03·Indie hackers and side-project builders·1 source
Free tiers of analytics tools lack meaningful behavioral/visualization insights
Indie developers and side-project builders using free tiers (e.g. PostHog's free plan) find they don't get actionable visualizations of where users spend time or drop off — limiting their ability to make product improvements without paying for premium plans.
Source
“I have posthog for perfectsystemdesign.com but the free plan doesn't offer clear insights into where users are spending time or drifting off. For instance, if they visit my pricing page and browse away, I'd like to track that.”
FINDING 04·Data analysts and product analysts at growth-stage companies·2 sources
Dedicated analytics tools can't handle advanced or custom SQL queries
Users of tools like Amplitude and Mixpanel hit hard limits when trying to run complex queries — such as conversion funnels grouped by later-identified user properties, highly specific cohort retention, or automated reporting. They feel forced to learn SQL or find workarounds. This pain was expressed in 2022 and remains structurally relevant.
Source
“Lately there's some queries that I just can't get out of it. - Conversion funnels, grouped by user properties identified later in the funnel. - Highly specific cohort retention - Automating reporting into Google Sheets across weekly/monthly/quarterly. Feels like I finally need to bite the bullet and learn SQL after pushing it off for a decade.”
Source
“It bothers me that we have to use separate tools for product analytics. We do our transformations, BI work, and ad-hoc queries in SQL, but when it's time to look at funnels and flows, we have to use (and procure) a separate platform like Mixpanel or Amplitude.”
FINDING 05·Product managers and analysts at transactional/e-commerce products·1 source
Event-based analytics tools are ill-suited for raw database / transactional data analysis
Users who want to run retention or cohort analysis on raw transactional data (e.g. from their own database) find that event-logging tools like Mixpanel are designed for UX/funnel analysis and don't accommodate this use case well.
Source
“I am not looking for an event-logging based tool (say, MixPanel) which I feel are more suitable for UX conversion funnel analysis, but want to use raw data (core action in product, like a final completed transaction) from my database to do this analysis.”
FINDING 06·Early-stage SaaS founders and indie hackers·1 source
Google Analytics is too bloated and overwhelming for early-stage SaaS builders
Newly launched SaaS founders find Google Analytics overly complex and not well-suited for their needs, while Google Search Console only covers search traffic — leaving a gap for a simpler, purpose-built tool for indie/early-stage SaaS monitoring. This pain appears in a 2026 discussion, indicating it remains current.
Source
“Google Analytics feels a bit too bloated and overwhelming for a launch, and Google Search Console only covers search traffic. I would love to know if there is something simpler, lighter, or just better suited for indie hackers starting out.”
FINDING 07·Early-stage startups and indie SaaS builders·2 sources
Fragmented analytics stack — multiple tools that don't talk to each other
Startups end up paying for 5+ separate analytics tools (traffic, heatmaps, session replay, uptime, etc.) with no integration between them, forcing manual work (e.g. spreadsheets) to connect the dots. This is a recurring frustration across multiple discussions.
Source
“Google Analytics for traffic, Hotjar for heatmaps, a separate uptime monitor, something for session replays, and then a spreadsheet trying to connect the dots. Five subscriptions, five dashboards, zero connection between them.”
Source
“Selecting analytics solutions for the startup I'm working at has proven to be more daunting than I imagined. There are many services to choose from and it's not immediately obvious how you should choose from the many offerings to get not only complete analytics coverage but also do so in a way where you can integrate them all to get a complete picture without any mismatch.”