Kissmetrics

Kissmetrics is the behavioral analytics platform that pioneered person-based (vs page-based) web analytics, founded in 2008 by Hiten Shah and Neil Patel. Originally one of the most innovative analytics products of the 2010s — predating Mixpanel's dominance in person-based analytics — Kissmetrics went through several transitions including a 2018 sale to Neil Patel Digital. The product continues serving customers but has lost significant mindshare to Mixpanel + Amplitude + PostHog in the modern product analytics category. For e-commerce + SaaS teams specifically looking at funnels + customer lifecycle analytics, Kissmetrics remains a working tool with specific use cases. What made Kissmetrics innovative + remains useful is the person-based analytics + funnel reports + ecommerce focus. Traditional analytics (Google Analytics in 2010) tracked pages + sessions — useful for marketing but limited for understanding individual customer journeys. Kissmetrics tracked people: each user has a profile, every action is attributed to them across sessions + devices, you can build funnels tracking conversion at every step + cohort analysis revealing how user behaviors change over time. The ecommerce-specific features (revenue attribution, customer lifetime value calculation, churn analysis) remain genuinely useful for online stores + SaaS focused on revenue analytics. The core feature set: • **Person-based tracking** — every event tied to specific user across sessions + devices • **Funnel reports** — conversion analysis at every step of any funnel • **Cohort analysis** — track behavior of user groups defined by characteristics or events • **Revenue tracking** — tie events to revenue + customer lifetime value • **Customer lifetime value (LTV)** — automatic calculation across customer base • **Behavioral segmentation** — segment users by behaviors not just demographics • **A/B test reporting** — analyze test results in person-based context • **Event tracking** — flexible event definition + properties for custom analytics • **People search** — find specific users + see their entire journey • **Email integrations** — Mailchimp, Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign for marketing triggers • **Ecommerce platform integrations** — Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce • **JavaScript SDK** — implement tracking on any website • **Mobile SDKs** — iOS + Android tracking • **Engage** — email automation triggered by Kissmetrics events (newer feature) • **Dashboards** — custom dashboards for tracking key metrics • **Alerts** — notifications when metrics change significantly • **API access** — programmatic data export For e-commerce + SaaS teams + marketing teams the use cases: • **E-commerce funnel analysis** — track conversion from product view → cart → checkout → purchase • **SaaS user journey analytics** — understand activation + engagement + retention • **Revenue attribution** — which marketing channels + campaigns drive actual revenue • **Customer cohort tracking** — how do January-2024 customers behave vs March-2024 • **A/B test analysis** — measure test impact in person-based context • **Churn analysis** — what behaviors predict churn before it happens • **Email marketing triggered by behavior** — Engage feature for behavior-based emails • **Customer lifetime value** — automatic LTV across customer base • **Marketing channel evaluation** — full-funnel attribution for each channel • **Product analytics for SaaS** — feature usage + engagement metrics The pricing is tiered by tracked events + users. Starter at $299/month covers 100K events + basic features. Plus at $599/month covers 500K events + advanced features. Pro at $1,099/month for high-volume tracking. Enterprise custom. Compared to Mixpanel (free up to 100K events, then ~$25-$833/month based on scale), Amplitude (free up to 10M events monthly, paid for advanced features), PostHog ($0.00045/event after free), Kissmetrics is meaningfully more expensive — competitive pricing in 2015 hasn't aged well as competitors offer more generous free tiers + modern features. Where Kissmetrics wins clearly: person-based analytics with ecommerce-specific features remain genuinely useful for the specific use case; revenue tracking + LTV calculation tied to behavior is mature + working; the Engage email automation triggered by analytics events is unique among analytics platforms (replaces separate marketing automation tools for some); for existing customers, switching costs are real + Kissmetrics continues serving them. Where it loses badly: Mixpanel + Amplitude + PostHog have dramatically more generous free tiers + better modern features + larger ecosystems; the product has been on auto-pilot since Neil Patel acquisition with limited innovation; pricing is significantly higher than competitors with comparable features; mindshare among modern analytics professionals has shifted entirely to PostHog + Mixpanel + Amplitude; for new analytics implementations, virtually nobody recommends Kissmetrics in 2026. My take: for new analytics implementations in 2026, Kissmetrics is not the right call — PostHog (open-source + free generous tier), Mixpanel (free tier + best person-based analytics modern features), and Amplitude (free up to 10M events with strong product analytics) are dramatically better choices. For existing Kissmetrics customers, migration to modern alternatives is worth evaluating but switching costs are real (re-instrumenting tracking + retraining team). For e-commerce specifically with revenue + LTV focus, modern alternatives like June (newer product analytics with ecommerce features) or Heap (auto-capture analytics) are worth comparing. Kissmetrics was innovative + valuable in its era; in 2026 it's a legacy tool with specific existing-customer use cases but not the right choice for new implementations.