The open-source Firebase Analytics alternative
Firebase Analytics is free and already in your app — but it caps you at 500 event names, reports on Google’s schedule, and keeps your raw events in Google’s cloud. Pug is open source and self-hostable, with a first-class Flutter SDK. Here’s the honest comparison, including where Firebase still wins.
- Your app is Flutter and you want to own the raw events
- You’ve hit the 500-event ceiling, or you can see it coming
- You want one profile spanning your app and your website
- You also need Crashlytics, Remote Config, or experiments
- Your app is native iOS, Android, Unity, or C++ today
- You want zero infrastructure and Google Ads attribution
Pug vs Firebase Analytics, feature by feature
The short version: choose Pug to own and self-host focused product analytics. Firebase Analytics may be the better fit depending on what you need — the honest detail is below.
| Capability | Pug this page | Firebase Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership & privacy | ||
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Raw events stay on your servers | Yes | No |
| Not processed by an ad platform | Yes | No |
| The analytics model | ||
| Trends, funnels, retention | Yes | Yes |
| Distinct event names | Unlimited | 500 per app |
| Properties per event | Unlimited | 25 params |
| Raw event access | Direct, in your database | Via BigQuery export |
| Report freshness | Live | Up to 24h |
| Per-person profile timeline | Yes | Limited |
| Mobile & SDKs | ||
| Flutter SDK | Yes | Yes |
| Native iOS & Android SDKs | In development | Yes |
| Web SDK | Yes | Yes |
| Unity & C++ SDKs | Not in Pug | Yes |
| Server-side events | Node SDK | Measurement Protocol |
| Beyond analytics | ||
| Crash reporting | Not in Pug | Yes |
| Remote config & feature flags | Not in Pug | Yes |
| A/B experiments | Not in Pug | Yes |
| Auth, database, and hosting | Not in Pug | Yes |
| Maturity | Open beta | Mature |
Last updated August 2026. Firebase Analytics capabilities reflect its publicly documented product; verify the latest on the vendor’s site.
Why look for a Firebase Analytics alternative
No 500-event ceiling
Firebase caps an app at 500 distinct event names with 25 parameters each, so teams start renaming and packing values into params. Pug has no such cap — track any event kind with any properties, and filter every insight by them.
Reports that keep up with your release
Firebase Analytics processes standard reports on its own schedule — often hours behind, with DebugView the only live view. Pug queries raw events as they land, so the funnel you ship in the morning is readable the same day.
Raw events without the BigQuery detour
Getting your own event-level data out of Firebase means wiring up a BigQuery export and paying for what you query. Self-hosted Pug stores every event in your own ClickHouse, unsampled and queryable from day one.
Where Firebase Analytics is still the better choice
Pug is a focused tool, not a platform. If your team needs any of the following, Firebase Analytics is the better fit — these don’t ship in Pug:
- Free at any event volume, with no infrastructure to run
- Crashlytics, Remote Config, A/B testing, and Cloud Messaging in one console
- Native iOS, Android, Unity, and C++ SDKs, not just Flutter
- Free BigQuery export of raw event data
- Google Ads and Play Console attribution built in
- Auth, Firestore, Functions, and hosting behind the same project
Focused product analytics, fully yours
Everything below ships today and runs the same whether you self-host or use the free cloud.
Autocapture out of the box
Page views, clicks, scrolls, form submits, plus rage and dead clicks — captured after one init(), then enriched with geo, device, and UTM on ingest.
Six insight types
Trends, Funnels, Retention cohorts, Segmentation, User-flow Sankey, and Top-K — all over raw events, filterable by any property.
Unified profiles
Anonymous events merge into one person on identify(). Traits like plan or email live on the profile and filter every insight, across devices.
Dashboards
KPI, line, area, bar, table, and Sankey tiles on one shared time window, with period-over-period comparison and threshold coloring.
Moving from Firebase Analytics to Pug
Pug’s model is straightforward: events with properties, a person per user via identify(), and traits that filter every insight.
SDKs available today are Web (TypeScript), Flutter (Dart), and Node, with native Android, iOS, and React Native SDKs in active development — landing by launch while Pug is in open beta. Point your tracking calls at Pug, identify users where you already identify them in Firebase Analytics, and anonymous history merges into a single profile. For setup steps and the API, see the SDKs page and the docs.
Analytics history doesn’t transfer between tools — Pug starts collecting the day you add the SDK, so most teams run it alongside Firebase Analytics during cutover and switch once the dashboards they rely on are covered. There’s no rip-and-replace, and your raw events are exportable from day one.
Firebase Analytics alternative — your questions
Is Pug a Firebase Analytics alternative?
For product analytics, yes. Pug covers what teams actually open the Firebase console for — trends, funnels, retention cohorts, user flows, and a profile per person — as open source you can self-host. It is not a replacement for the rest of Firebase: Crashlytics, Remote Config, Auth, and Firestore have no Pug equivalent.
Does Pug work with Flutter?
Yes — Flutter is one of Pug’s three shipping SDKs. Run flutter pub add pug_flutter, await Pug.init() before runApp(), and lifecycle tracking starts immediately; add PugRouteObserver to your navigator observers for screen views. Events are queued locally and sent in batches, so a flaky connection doesn’t lose them.
What about native iOS and Android?
Native Android, iOS, and React Native SDKs are in active development and landing by launch. Today, mobile is covered by the Flutter SDK — a native app can send events to the same backend over the HTTP API in the meantime.
Does Pug have Firebase’s 500-event limit?
No. Pug ships a catalog of well-known event kinds with typed methods, and any event name you invent is equally valid, with as many properties as you want. Nothing is dropped once you pass a count.
Can I keep Firebase and add Pug?
Yes, and most teams should during a cutover. Keep Firebase for crash reporting, Remote Config, and messaging, and send the same events to Pug for product analytics. Analytics history never transfers between tools, so running both while your dashboards fill in is the low-risk path.
Does Pug replace Firebase Cloud Messaging?
No. The Flutter SDK registers a device token so your existing FCM setup keeps working alongside Pug, but Pug does not send messages — that isn’t part of the dashboard today.
Is self-hosting Pug really free?
Yes. Pug is AGPL-3.0 and self-hosts on your own infrastructure for free, forever — you provide the servers. The cloud is free during open beta. Firebase Analytics is free too; its cost is that the data lives in Google’s cloud on Google’s terms.
Other Pug comparisons
Own your product analytics.
Open source, easy to self-host on a single Go binary, and free during open beta. Start a project and see live events in minutes.
Questions? Email [email protected]