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Evidence report

Product analytics tools

Last updated · Updated weekly

01Evidence summary
30
most relevant discussions, read end-to-end.

Cited from

news.ycombinator.comreddit.com

Pain intensity across 30 scored postsHow intense the frustration is across the analyzed posts, bucketed from each post’s pain score. This is the signal we cluster on — not whether a post “sounds” positive or negative.

Low1653%
Medium1033%
High413%

Tools mentionedEvery tool name detected across the analyzed posts — including ones mentioned in passing (e.g. Slack, Zoom). This is broader than the Competitors section, which lists only the alternatives the analysis judged relevant to this market.

Plausible2
Baremetrics1

Who's talking

product managers2
B2B product managers1
Data-warehouse users / Analytics teams1
e-commerce business owners1
E-commerce developers1
early-stage SaaS founder1
Pain over time
02Pain points
FINDING 01·B2B SaaS product teams·1 source

No single B2B product analytics tool satisfies support quality, session recordings, and flexible insights together

Teams evaluating B2B product analytics tools in 2023 report that no single tool adequately combines good customer support, session recordings, and semi-flexible event/insight creation. Multiple tools were tried and found lacking across these dimensions simultaneously.

7/9
High
Source

Looking for something that has - good customer support (I think this is the most difficult one) - Session recordings - Semi flexible in terms of events and insights creation Tried out Posthog, June, Amplitude, Logsnag and none of them satisfy the conditions.

FINDING 02·Data-savvy product and engineering teams·1 source

No self-serve product analytics directly on top of cloud data warehouses

Users are frustrated that existing product analytics tools require data to be extracted and sent to a third-party platform rather than querying it in place within their cloud data warehouse. This creates unnecessary data movement, pipeline complexity, and reliance on reverse ETL. Raised in mid-2022.

6/9
High
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·Product managers and analysts at SaaS companies·1 source

Inability to query analytics data with SQL or custom logic

Users of mainstream product analytics tools like Amplitude and Mixpanel frequently hit walls when trying to perform complex, custom queries — such as conversion funnels grouped by later-identified user properties, highly specific cohort retention, or automated reporting. They are forced to consider learning SQL from scratch or stitching together workarounds. This pain appears consistently across 2022 discussions.

5/9
Medium
Source

I've always used Amplitude / Mixpanel, but 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.

FINDING 04·Product managers and founders without dedicated data engineers·1 source

Event-based tools poorly suited for database-driven retention analysis

Some users explicitly do not want event-logging-based tools like Mixpanel for retention analysis. They want to feed raw transactional data (e.g. from a database or CSV) directly into a tool and get cohort retention metrics — a use case that existing tools handle poorly. This pain was raised in 2018 and may still be relevant for data-warehouse-first teams.

5/9
Medium
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 05·Small e-commerce store owners and early-stage SaaS founders·2 sources

Analytics dashboards show data but don't prescribe actions

E-commerce and SaaS owners report that analytics tools surface data and charts but fail to translate insights into concrete next steps. Users are left asking 'what do I do now?' after reviewing dashboards. This is a recurring theme in 2025–2026 discussions, driving demand for AI-generated recommendations.

5/9
Medium
Source

Most e-commerce owners I talk to have the same problem: They look at dashboards, graphs, 'analytics'… and at the end they think: 'Okay, but what do I do now?'

reddit.com#1mtyw2h12 months ago
Source

Been running a Shopify store and got tired of staring at dashboards that showed me data but never told me what to DO with it.

reddit.com#1u50ozq2 months ago
FINDING 06·Small Shopify store owners and early-stage startups·1 source

High cost of established product analytics tools is prohibitive for small teams

Pricing of leading tools like Triple Whale is cited as a blocker for small stores and early-stage startups, pushing them toward cheaper or self-built alternatives. This is a live pain as of 2026 discussions.

5/9
Medium
Source

Tools like Triple Whale solve this but at $129/mo it's too steep for small stores.

reddit.com#1u50ozq2 months ago
03Product gaps
Warehouse-native product analytics (no data extraction required)
There is no mainstream self-serve product analytics tool that operates directly on top of a cloud data warehouse without requiring data to be pulled out via reverse ETL. A tool that queries in-place warehouse data with a product analytics UX would address a clear unmet need.
SQL query generation for common product analytics patterns
Users need a tool that, given a schema, auto-generates SQL for standard product analytics queries (funnels, cohort retention, segmentation). No accessible, non-enterprise tool fills this gap — existing BI tools are too heavyweight and generic.
Actionable recommendations, not just dashboards
Analytics tools surface data but leave users without clear next steps. There is a strong opportunity for tools that translate metrics into prioritized, plain-language action plans — especially for small e-commerce and SaaS operators without analysts.
Affordable, full-featured analytics for small teams and stores
The gap between free/lightweight tools (Plausible, PostHog free tier) and full-featured platforms (Triple Whale at $129/mo, Amplitude) is large. Small teams need mid-tier tools that combine actionable insights, session replay, and retention analysis at accessible price points.
04Competitors mentionedAlternatives the analysis judged relevant to this market, each with what users say about it. Narrower than the Tools mentioned list in the evidence summary, which counts every tool named — even ones cited only in passing. These are drawn from all the discussions analyzed, not only the posts cited in the pain points above — so a competitor here may come from a discussion that didn’t surface its own finding.

Generated by AI from a limited set of public discussions. It can be incomplete or wrong — check the cited sources before making a decision.