With the growth and complexity of the mobile app landscape, we've come to appreciate the power and necessity of robust analytics tools. But in today’s time, your tech stack also has to be cost-effective.
Given this, we've decided to put together this comprehensive guide on free mobile app analytics tools. Whether you're a developer, product manager, or UX designer, having the right analytics tool in your arsenal can make all the difference. It can provide you with invaluable insights, drive your decision-making process, and ultimately, lead to the creation of an app that resonates with your users.
In this guide, we'll explore how to choose the right tool and provide a review of some of the most popular options available.
Ready to dive in? Let's get started.
Selecting the right mobile app analytics tool can significantly influence your app's trajectory and success. But with a myriad of options available, how do you know which one aligns best with your needs? Consider these critical factors:
There's no one-size-fits-all solution when choosing a mobile app analytics tool. However, keeping these factors in mind will guide you toward a more informed and beneficial decision.
Up next, we'll delve into some of the most popular mobile app analytics tools on the market today, analyzing their strengths and capabilities.
The tools we'll explore next are handpicked based on their reputation, features, and the value they provide to developers, marketers, and product managers. They each have unique strengths and weaknesses, and understanding these will help you choose the right tool for your needs.
Review sites such as Trustradius or G2 are the source of the following insights.
Founded in 2013, UXCam is a user behavior analytics tool designed to help you understand user behavior and improve your mobile app UX. It captures in-app interactions and provides qualitative and quantitative analytics to empower you to make data-informed decisions.
Strengths
Tagless Autocapture: This feature allows for the automation of data tracking, reducing the need for manual input and potentially minimizing error.
Product Analytics: UXCam's product analytics provides a suite of tools designed to track and improve product success metrics in mobile apps. Key features include dashboards, funnel analytics, user journey tracking and event analytics.
Experience (UX) Analytics: UXCam's experience analytics offers a set of qualitative analytics tools aimed at enhancing the user experience in mobile apps. The features include session replays to observe natural user behavior, heatmaps to visualize user habits and issue analytics to effectively resolve issues.
Weaknesses
Product managers and product teams in medium to large organizations. UXCam’s product and qualitative UX analytics make it especially useful for teams that need insights to inform product decisions.
Find out more about UXCam here.
Flurry is a mobile analytics platform founded in 2005. Flurry Analytics is a free-to-use service and has been widely popular due to its early presence in the mobile analytics field. Flurry was acquired by Yahoo! In 2014.
Strengths
Unique Retention Analysis: Flurry offers a rolling retention analysis. This provides a new and effective way to review app retention, which is not based on the actual day after install but overall days of use.
Comprehensive Revenue Analysis: Flurry offers thorough revenue analysis options that allow users to dig into all the data they need. This can be particularly useful for businesses that need to track and optimize their revenue streams.
Easy Integration and Excellent Documentation: Incorporating Flurry Analytics into an iOS app is straightforward. You just need to register your app, download the SDK, and incorporate the header and library into your project. Additionally, Flurry's documentation is very well written, providing several examples of the use of different method calls in code, which can make the integration process even easier for developers.
Weaknesses
Founders of early-stage start-ups. Flurry is a solid analytics tool, which you’ll be happy with as long as you don’t need flexibility or customization.
Find out more about Flurry here.
Firebase is a mobile and web app development platform developed by Firebase Inc. in 2011, and was later acquired by Google in 2014. Firebase provides tools for tracking analytics, reporting and fixing app crashes, creating marketing and product experimentations, among other features.
Strengths
Comprehensive and Free Reporting: Firebase Analytics offers unlimited reporting of hundreds of events for free. It provides insight into app performance and allows monitoring of how users fulfill the events.
Event-Based Data Model: Firebase uses an event-based data model, focusing on user completion of events. It allows registration of up to 50 custom event parameters and monitors every user action from the moment they open the app until the end, including updates, notifications, actions, etc.
Integration and Compatibility: Firebase Analytics is compatible with all iOS, Android, and Unity setups. It also allows tracking and accommodating metrics with its 52 partners, including Google Ads, AdMob, Liftoff, and AdActive, enhancing its ability to improve user retention and engagement rates.
Weaknesses
Developers and development teams in small to large organizations. Firebase offers a lot of features that are catered to developers - in addition to its analytics package you can also host data with Firebase.
Find out more about Firebase here.
Amplitude is a product analytics platform that helps companies understand user behavior, allowing them to make data-driven decisions. It was founded in 2012 by Spenser Skates and Curtis Liu, two MIT graduates. Amplitude provides insights into user engagement, retention, and revenue using behavioral reports, user segmentation, and funnel analysis.
Strengths
Behavioral Analytics: Amplitude goes beyond basic metrics like monthly active users or screen views to reveal how engagement with your product impacts your main KPIs. It provides the necessary features to test which user actions lead to growth and success, contributing to increased retention, lifetime value, conversion rates, and revenue.
Conversion Drivers: Amplitude's analysis tools help you understand your conversion paths better, particularly where drop-offs occur. Its "Conversion Drivers" feature works with the funnels that you set up, allowing you to see what your users or customers are doing between funnel steps.
Collaboration and Integration: Amplitude prioritizes collaboration with features like "Team Spaces" for individual departments, teams, and projects, "TV Mode" for broadcasting dashboards across the organization, and the ability to share data and insights easily (e.g., via Slack).
Weaknesses
Analysts at organizations of all sizes. Amplitude’s strong point is its quantitative analytics, which allows you to deep dive into all details.
Find out more about Amplitude here.
Each of these tools offers unique features and capabilities that can provide valuable insights into your app's performance and user behavior.
However, and I might be biased because I work for UXCam, when it comes to a comprehensive understanding of user behavior, UXCam stands out with its robust features and user-centric approach to analytics. By combining both quantitative and qualitative data, UXCam delivers a holistic view of the user experience, enabling you to optimize your app based on precise, user-centric data.