Amplitude vs Chartbeat (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Amplitude if

• Fits if you're a startup that stays under 2M events a month and pays nothing
• Works for teams of any size, since every plan has unlimited seats

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you just want visitor counts for a blog, which a simple page counter does with less setup
• Not for you if you want a published price for experiment results and SSO, which start on Growth
• Tight if you stay free and build lots of reports, with only 10 saved charts, 1 live experiment and 1 year of data
• Watch out: Plus has no price list in text, only a chart; it's $6,912 a year at 10M events
• Watch out: session replays are kept for 1 month on every plan, and longer is a Growth or Enterprise add-on

Pick Chartbeat if

• Fits if you run a news site and want to see live what readers are reading
• Works for editors who test headlines and images

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want product analytics, as it's aimed at publishers
• Skip it if you need a price: sales quotes it
• Tight if you want to try first, since there's no free plan or trial
• Watch out: single sign-on is Enterprise only, the highest of four tiers

Amplitude

• Plus has no price list in text: it is free to 2M events a month, then billed by volume, and the pricing page's chart is the only published figure.
• Experiment results, A/B/n testing for feature flags and SSO start on Growth, which is priced through sales.
• Session replays are kept for 1 month on every plan; longer retention is an add-on for Growth and Enterprise.
• Free keeps 1 year of data and 10 saved charts; Plus keeps 2 years.

Chartbeat

• No prices are published; plans are quoted by sales and based on website and native app pageviews.
• Plans come in four tiers (Essentials, Plus, Premium, Enterprise); Plus and above add a choice of performance suites.
• Single sign-on is listed only on the Enterprise tier.
• It is aimed at publishers and content teams rather than general product analytics.

Amplitude

Event-based product analytics

Funnels, retention, user paths and cohorts built from tracked events, with autocapture and a data assistant to tidy the event list.

Session replay and heatmaps

Replays of web and mobile sessions with data masking on every plan (10,000 a month on Free and Plus). Heatmaps start on Plus.

Feature flags and experiments

Unlimited feature flags on all plans and a visual editor for web A/B tests. Free and Plus run one experiment at a time without results views.

In-app guides and surveys

Tours, prompts and surveys shown inside your product and targeted by cohort. Free and Plus allow one live at a time.

AI agents and MCP

AI agents analyze the data on every plan, and an MCP server lets Claude, Cursor and similar tools query your Amplitude data.

Audience syncs

Sends cohorts to ad, email and messaging tools. One-time syncs are on every plan; scheduled syncs start on Growth.

Chartbeat

Real-time dashboard

Concurrent pageviews, unique visitors and recirculation for every page, plus a Heads Up Display with scroll depth and placement ranking.

Historical reporting

13 months of trends in engaged time, traffic and topics, with reports that can be scheduled and exported as CSV.

Headline and image testing

Tests variants on a homepage with reader data, including AI-suggested headline variants. Part of the Testing suite.

Benchmarking

Compares your site with other publishers in Chartbeat's network using Cohorts, plus social video benchmarks via Tubular Viewpoint.

Reader Experience suite

Content recommendations for readers and conversion data that ties articles to registrations, subscriptions and donations.

Analytics Pro

Datastream integration for pushing real-time data into your own systems, and Data Lab for custom dashboards inside the app.

Amplitude

• Free$0

  2M events a month, unlimited seats, 10,000 session replays, product analytics, AI agents and MCP. No credit card needed.

• Plus$900

  per year for up to 3M events a month

  First 2M events free, then billed by volume up to 70M. Adds heatmaps, custom events, 20 cohorts, 2-year data. $6,912 a year at 10M events.

• GrowthCustom

  Sold through sales, priced by events: 20,000 replays a month, A/B test results, SSO and project permissions, 2-day support SLA.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Sold through sales: 50,000 replays a month, data access controls, role-based access, SCIM, account manager and 1-day SLA.

Chartbeat

Pricing could not be confirmed. See chartbeat.com.

Amplitude

• Startups

  One free year of Growth for startups

  Startups with under $10M in funding and fewer than 20 employees can apply for a free year of the Growth plan. A separate scholarship gives qualifying Black founders free Growth access.

Chartbeat

No public discounts listed.