Founders are spoiled for choice when it comes to analytics. GA4, Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog, Plausible, Fathom, and about 50 more tools you forgot you signed up for.

Congrats, you now have 17 dashboards and still no clue why retention sucks.

The truth is not that analytics tools are bad. The truth is that most of them are not designed for how SaaS companies grow in 2025. They drown you in metrics but rarely show you the only thing that matters: whether humans are actually finding value in your product.

The Big Names in Analytics

Google Analytics (GA4)

• What it is: Free, default choice for everyone.
• Strengths: Great at traffic sources, integrates with ads, zero cost.
• Weaknesses: Terrible for PLG. You can see that someone landed on your pricing page, but not whether they ever activated.

Mixpanel

• What it is: Event-based analytics with solid funnels and cohorts.
• Strengths: Clear product usage data, solid dashboards.
• Weaknesses: Expensive once you scale. Complex setup. Feels like you need a data team just to answer basic questions.

Amplitude

• What it is: Enterprise grade analytics built for deep product teams.
• Strengths: Excellent cohort analysis, retention curves, and experimentation tools.
• Weaknesses: Overkill for early stage teams. Price tag that could fund your entire infra bill.

PostHog

• What it is: Open source, self hosted, developer friendly analytics.
• Strengths: Flexible, cheaper than Amplitude, growing fast.
• Weaknesses: Still heavy to set up, not as founder friendly as you hope when you just want answers.

Plausible / Fathom

• What they are: Lightweight, privacy first analytics.
• Strengths: Simple dashboards, clean traffic data.
• Weaknesses: Only good for top of funnel. Zero help when it comes to retention or activation.

Advantages and Drawbacks

Every analytics tool has strengths. GA4 is free. Mixpanel and Amplitude have power features. PostHog gives you control. Plausible and Fathom are easy and privacy friendly.

But all of them share the same flaw: they do not tell you if your product is actually working.

Traffic? Vanity. Signups? Curiosity clicks. Pageviews from Germany? Neat, but did anyone activate, retain, or pay?

The Real Problem: Too Many Metrics, Not Enough Signal

Founders love dashboards because they look impressive. A wall of charts feels like control. But most of the time, you are just watching noise.

It is easy to celebrate traffic spikes or brag about signups. It is much harder to admit that none of those signups ever reached the aha moment.

Analytics tools are good at telling you where traffic came from. They are bad at telling you whether those people ever stuck around. Which is exactly why most SaaS teams are solving the wrong problems.

Why PLG Needs a Different Lens

Product Led Growth does not care about traffic graphs. It cares about funnels.

• Did someone activate?
• Did they retain?
• Did they invite teammates?
• Did they pay?

That is it. PLG filters the noise. Bots cannot fake activation. Fake signups cannot fake retention.

Real growth is not more dashboards. Real growth is knowing how humans use your product.

Where ROAARRR Fits

The analytics industry split into two camps: tools that are too simple to be useful, and tools that are too complex to be usable.

Roaarrr exists because founders do not need 20 dashboards. They need clarity. They need to see funnels from awareness to retention without hiring a data team or squinting at GA4.

We are building Roaarrr to cut the noise and make funnels obvious. So you can stop pretending traffic is growth and start measuring what matters.

Conclusion

Analytics tools are everywhere. GA4, Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog, Plausible, Fathom. All useful in their own way. But most of them fail the PLG test.

They track activity, not value. They show you noise, not signal.

If you are serious about Product Led Growth in 2025, stop obsessing over traffic and dashboards. Start tracking funnels, activation, retention, and expansion.

Because real growth does not come from more charts. Real growth comes from more humans hitting value.

FAQ

Which analytics tools are best for SaaS in 2025?

Depends on your stage. GA4 is free and good for traffic, Mixpanel and Amplitude are strong for usage but heavy, PostHog is flexible, Plausible is clean for top of funnel.

Why do most analytics dashboards fail for PLG?

Because they show vanity metrics like traffic and pageviews, not activation and retention.

What metrics matter most for Product Led Growth?

Activation rate, retention, free to paid conversion, and expansion.

How is Roaarrr different?

Roaarrr focuses on clarity. Funnels, not vanity. Signal, not noise.