Stop Paying Per Event: Openpanel Is the Analytics Tool You Can Actually Self-Host

You know the drill. You ship a product, you want to know how people are using it, and you sign up for Mixpanel or GA4. Then the pricing page hits you—per-event costs that balloon as you grow, or a Google Analytics setup that feels like it was designed by a committee of lawyers. What if you could get the depth of Mixpanel, the simplicity of Plausible, and keep full control of your data? That's exactly what Openpanel is going for.

Openpanel is an open-source web and product analytics platform that positions itself as a direct alternative to Mixpanel. It's built for developers who want advanced analytics—funnels, cohorts, session replay, A/B testing—without the usage caps or the cloud lock-in. And because it's self-hostable, you own the whole stack.

What It Does

At its core, Openpanel is a full analytics suite. It tracks events, builds funnels, and gives you cohort analysis, but it also goes a few steps further. You get session replay to watch how users actually navigate your app, real-time dashboards that update live, and built-in A/B testing with variant breakdowns. There's even revenue tracking to tie purchases and subscriptions to product events, plus smart notifications that can alert you based on event or funnel triggers.

The architecture is a modern developer's dream stack. The dashboard is built with Next.js, the event API runs on Fastify, and the data layer splits responsibilities: Postgres for basic info, Clickhouse for event storage, and Redis for caching and pub/sub. BullMQ handles the queueing, and the whole thing is stitched together with tRPC, Tailwind, and Shadcn for the UI. If you're comfortable with Docker and a Postgres instance, this is a stack you can reason about.

It also tracks across platforms—web, iOS, Android, and server-side—so you're not just getting browser data. And there's an MCP server with 38 hosted tools, meaning you can ask Claude or Cursor questions about your users directly. That's a nice touch for anyone living in an AI-assisted workflow.

Why It's Cool

The comparison table in the README is worth a look because it lays out exactly where Openpanel wins. Here are the highlights that stood out to me:

• No usage limits. Mixpanel caps session replay at 5,000 sessions per month on the free tier and 20,000 on paid. Openpanel has no limit. For a growing product, that's a huge relief—you shouldn't have to ration your own analytics.
• Cookieless by default. GDPR compliance isn't an afterthought; it's the default. GA4 has actually faced bans in several EU countries over US data transfers, and Openpanel sidesteps that entirely with cookieless tracking.
• Self-hosting with real features. Plausible is open-source and self-hostable, but it's simple by design. Openpanel brings the heavy stuff—user profiles, session history, custom dashboards, and event notifications—to your own infrastructure.
• A/B testing included. You don't need a separate tool for experiments. Openpanel has variant testing with detailed breakdowns baked right in, alongside your funnel and cohort data.
• Transparent pricing. Since you can self-host, the cost is your own infrastructure. No hidden per-event fees, no "contact sales" for the features you actually need.

The MCP server is also a clever differentiator. Thirty-eight tools, hosted, no install required. If you're already using Claude or Cursor, you can just ask questions about your user base in natural language. That's a workflow most analytics tools don't offer out of the box.

How to Try It

The quickest way to see Openpanel in action is to head over to the repository at github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel. The README points to a hosted dashboard at dashboard.openpanel.dev where you can sign in and poke around without setting up infrastructure.

If you want to self-host, you'll be working with the core stack: Next.js for the dashboard, Fastify for the event API, and the Clickhouse/Postgres/Redis trio for data. The docs at openpanel.dev/docs should have the full setup guide, and there's a Discord community if you get stuck.

For the SDK side, you've got options for web, Swift, Kotlin, and React Native. So whether you're tracking a Next.js app or a native mobile app, there's a client ready to go. The API access also means you can wire up custom integrations if the pre-built ones don't cover your use case.

Final Thoughts

Openpanel is best for developers who've hit the ceiling of "simple" analytics tools or the pricing wall of the big players. If you're running a product where understanding user journeys matters—and you want session replay, funnels, and A/B testing without per-event fees—this is worth a serious look. The self-hosting angle gives you data sovereignty, and the feature set rivals paid tools that cost thousands per year.

It's not going to replace GA4 for everyone, and you'll need to be comfortable running your own infrastructure. But if you're already a developer, that's probably not a dealbreaker. The project is actively maintained, the creator is responsive on X/Twitter, and the momentum is clearly there. Give it a spin on your next side project—you might find you don't miss the usage limits at all.

Follow @githubprojects for more developer tools and open source projects.