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Amplitude vs Segment: What are the differences?
Both Amplitude and Segment are analytics tools used to track and analyze user behavior on websites or applications. Let's discuss the key differences between them.
Data Collection and Storage: One of the key differences between Amplitude and Segment lies in how they collect and store data. Amplitude is a complete analytics platform that directly collects and stores data on its own servers. On the other hand, Segment is a customer data platform (CDP) that acts as a data pipeline, allowing you to send data to multiple third-party tools. It acts as a middleman between your website/app and the analytics tools, including Amplitude, to which it can forward the collected data.
Data Integration and Tool Compatibility: Amplitude mainly focuses on providing comprehensive analytics functionalities and tools. It offers built-in features for data analysis, cohort analysis, A/B testing, and more. Segment, on the other hand, specializes in data integration. It allows you to collect and send data to various third-party tools, including Amplitude. Segment's strength lies in its ability to integrate with numerous tools, making it a versatile option for businesses that rely on multiple analytics and marketing platforms.
Implementation Complexity: Implementing Amplitude generally requires more technical expertise compared to Segment. Amplitude's SDKs (Software Development Kits) need to be integrated directly into your website or app codebase, requiring developers to write custom code. Segment, on the other hand, provides a simpler implementation process. Once Segment's JavaScript snippet is added to your website or app, you can easily enable/disable tools and platforms via the Segment dashboard without re-implementing the tracking code.
Pricing Structure: The pricing structures of Amplitude and Segment differ. Amplitude follows a usage-based pricing model, meaning you are charged based on the number of events or data points you track and the level of data analysis required. In contrast, Segment's pricing is based on the number of data sources, destinations, and monthly tracked users. This makes Segment's pricing more tailored to your specific needs and allows for greater flexibility depending on the size and scale of your business.
Real-time Data Processing: While both Amplitude and Segment provide real-time data processing capabilities, the extent to which they handle real-time analysis differs. Amplitude offers real-time insights, allowing you to analyze user behavior in real-time and make data-driven decisions instantly. Segment, on the other hand, focuses primarily on data collection and integration. While it does have real-time capabilities, its core strength lies in collecting and sending data to various tools rather than providing advanced real-time analytics.
Data Ownership and Flexibility: Another key difference between Amplitude and Segment relates to data ownership and flexibility. With Amplitude, the data you track and store is owned and managed by Amplitude itself. While this ensures data security and reliability, it also means you have less control over your data. On the other hand, Segment provides greater data ownership and flexibility. You have control over where your data is sent, allowing you to switch, add or remove third-party tools as needed without losing historical data.
In summary, Amplitude is a comprehensive analytics platform that directly collects, stores, and provides built-in analytics tools, whereas Segment acts as a customer data platform (CDP) and data pipeline, integrating data from various sources to multiple tools.
I am trying to decide on a solution to better track our user data. We need to track which google ads are leading to signups, and which signups are performing various actions on the site. We then need to visualize this data in various ways. We also need to run A/B tests on features and content, to track which ones lead to the most paid conversions.
Functionally, Amplitude and Mixpanel are incredibly similar. They both offer almost all the same functionality around tracking and visualizing user actions for analytics. You can track A/B test results in both. We ended up going with Amplitude at BaseDash because it has a more generous free tier for our uses (10 million actions per month, versus Mixpanel's 1000 monthly tracked users).
Segment isn't meant to compete with these tools, but instead acts as an API to send actions to them, and other analytics tools. If you're just sending event data to one of these tools, you probably don't need Segment. If you're using other analytics tools like Google Analytics and FullStory, Segment makes it easy to send events to all your tools at once.
Another option you might consider is Google Analytics App+Web.
It is a new type of Google Analytics property which is event-based (like Amplitude and Mixpanel). In App+Web you can collect exactly the same data and in the same format as the other 2 tools mentioned.
The great things about it are: - it is free - there is a free integration with BigQuery (though you'll need to pay for BigQuery, but for most SmB's it is peanuts - $5-30 a month)
Not so great: - reporting side is pretty buggy (App+Web is very new).
So if you are ok building your reporting in something like Google Data Studio, App+Web will be a great option. Your data analyst will especially be happy to have all the data in SQL format (BigQuery).
If you choose App+Web, then you can use Google Optimize (also free) as an A/B testing solution.
Hello Ben,
I have been using Mixpanel and Amplitude and both of them are good solutions in order to track events on your product; events, funnel analysis, retention and so on. The most important thing is that you set up properly the taxonomy and naming convention of your events' structure. I don't have anything against Segment I tried once but I didn't work with that tool but it for sure is a good one based on other workmates' opinions. ¡Important! When tracking distribution channels, take into consideration the attribution channel and all the touches that the users do in all the channels before your conversions. Some of them are good to open a path and other ones good to close.
Besides that, for A/B testing there are several options in the market but VWO is a good one that with a lot of features to get good insights into the A/B testing. Another one could be Optimizely or Google Optimize. ¡Important! Some teams instead run A/B testing because sometimes that could be a technological issue, they run cohort tests, where basically they change features on the product and they analyse this performance with the new users and compare. That could have another issue like seasonality but it is another option.
Overview, I recommend Amplitude and VWO but just to make simple the answer, because Mixpanel, Segment and the other options that the other users wrote here are good too.
All the best, and let me know how your experience was with all these tools. :)
Cheers,
Pros of Amplitude
- Great for product managers11
- Easy setup8
- Efficient analysis6
- Behavioral cohorts2
- Event streams for individual users2
- Chart edits get their own URLs2
- Free for up to 10M user actions per month2
- Fast1
- Great UI1
- Engagement Matrix is super helpful1
Pros of Segment
- Easy to scale and maintain 3rd party services86
- One API49
- Simple39
- Multiple integrations25
- Cleanest API19
- Easy10
- Free9
- Mixpanel Integration8
- Segment SQL7
- Flexible6
- Google Analytics Integration4
- Salesforce Integration2
- SQL Access2
- Clean Integration with Application2
- Own all your tracking data1
- Quick setup1
- Clearbit integration1
- Beautiful UI1
- Integrates with Apptimize1
- Escort1
- Woopra Integration1
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Cons of Amplitude
- Super expensive once you're past the free plan4
Cons of Segment
- Not clear which events/options are integration-specific2
- Limitations with integration-specific configurations1
- Client-side events are separated from server-side1
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