Analytics Cost Calculator
See what usage-based analytics tools cost at your event volume, next to Pug Cloud's published rates and self-hosted Pug, which has no license fee.
Rough estimates from public list pricing (June 2026): a free tier plus a flat overage rate. Real vendor pricing is tiered and negotiable, so verify your own quote. Pug Cloud is computed from its published per-tier rates. Self-hosted Pug has no license fee; you pay only for the server you run it on.
Why usage-based analytics gets expensive
Event-priced tools are cheap to start and costly to scale, the bill grows with your product's success. A feature that fires a few events per user multiplies fast across millions of sessions, and the line items you most want (data retention, extra seats, advanced features) are often add-ons on top.
The self-host alternative
Open-source analytics removes the per-event meter. Pug runs as a single Go binary backed by ClickHouse; you host it, you own the data, and there is no license fee no matter how many events you send. For privacy-sensitive teams that is also a compliance win, the data never leaves your infrastructure.
Estimate, then confirm
Treat the numbers above as orders of magnitude to frame a build-vs-buy decision, not as quotes. When you're ready, see Pug's pricing: free to self-host, and free in the cloud up to 100k events a month, with every rate past that published.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Mixpanel or Amplitude cost?
- Usage-based analytics tools bill on event volume (or monthly tracked users) above a free tier. Costs climb quickly as you grow: millions of events a month often run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars. Enter your volume above for an estimate.
- Are these exact prices?
- No. They are rough estimates from public list pricing (June 2026), modelled as a free tier plus a flat overage rate. Real pricing is tiered, negotiable, and changes often. Use this to compare orders of magnitude, then confirm with each vendor.
- How is self-hosting free?
- Pug is open-source under AGPL-3.0. There is no per-event license fee: you run it on your own infrastructure, so your only cost is the server (often a few dollars a month for small-to-mid volume on a single Go binary + ClickHouse).
- What about the cloud version of Pug?
- Pug Cloud is free up to 100,000 events a month. Past that, Pay as you go is a $1.00 monthly fee plus $40 per million events, falling to $7 per million past 250M. Unlike the estimates above it, the Pug Cloud row uses those exact rates, and the pricing page breaks a bill down tier by tier. Self-hosting stays $0 in license fees.
Own your data for $0 in license fees.
Pug is open-source product analytics: self-host under AGPL-3.0, or use Pug Cloud, free up to 100k events a month.
Questions? Email hello@pug.sh