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Indie Dev Analytics — PostHog vs Mixpanel vs Self-Hosted Supabase

#supabase #flutter #webdev #indiedev

Indie Dev Analytics — PostHog vs Mixpanel vs Self-Hosted Supabase

You can't improve what you can't measure. Here's how to pick the right analytics stack for your indie app and implement it in Flutter.

Tool Comparison

Tool Free tier Self-host Indie-friendly
PostHog 1M events/month ◎ (OSS) ◎
Mixpanel 20K MT/month × ○
Firebase Analytics Unlimited × ◎
Self-hosted (Supabase) DB limit only ◎ ◎

PostHog Implementation (Recommended)

Open source, self-hostable, GDPR-friendly.

dependencies:
  posthog_flutter: ^4.0.0
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await Posthog().setup('YOUR_API_KEY', host: 'https://app.posthog.com');

// Track event
Posthog().capture(
  eventName: 'task_completed',
  properties: {'category': category, 'duration_seconds': duration},
);

// Identify user
Posthog().identify(
  userId: user.id,
  userProperties: {'plan': user.plan, 'email': user.email},
);

// Screen view
Posthog().screen(screenName: 'TaskList');
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Self-Hosted Supabase Analytics

Minimum cost, full control. Best under 50K MAU.

CREATE TABLE analytics_events (
  id UUID DEFAULT gen_random_uuid() PRIMARY KEY,
  user_id UUID REFERENCES auth.users(id),
  session_id TEXT NOT NULL,
  event_name TEXT NOT NULL,
  properties JSONB DEFAULT '{}',
  platform TEXT,
  app_version TEXT,
  created_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX ON analytics_events (event_name, created_at);
CREATE INDEX ON analytics_events (user_id, created_at);
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class AnalyticsService {
  final SupabaseClient _client;
  final String _sessionId = const Uuid().v4();

  Future<void> track(String event, {Map<String, dynamic> props = const {}}) async {
    await _client.from('analytics_events').insert({
      'user_id': _client.auth.currentUser?.id,
      'session_id': _sessionId,
      'event_name': event,
      'properties': props,
      'platform': defaultTargetPlatform.name,
    });
  }
}
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Auto Screen Tracking with GoRouter 

class AnalyticsObserver extends NavigatorObserver {
  @override
  void didPush(Route route, Route? previousRoute) {
    final name = route.settings.name;
    if (name != null) analytics.track('screen_view', props: {'screen': name});
  }
}

final router = GoRouter(observers: [AnalyticsObserver()], routes: [...]);
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Events That Matter 

class AppEvents {
  // Core value actions
  static const taskCompleted = 'task_completed';
  static const journalWritten = 'journal_written';

  // Engagement signals
  static const streakExtended = 'streak_extended';

  // Monetization funnel
  static const upgradePromptShown = 'upgrade_prompt_shown';
  static const subscriptionStarted = 'subscription_started';
  static const subscriptionCancelled = 'subscription_cancelled';

  // Friction signals (churn precursors)
  static const errorEncountered = 'error_encountered';
  static const featureBlocked = 'feature_blocked';
}
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Analysis Queries 

-- DAU trend
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('day', created_at) as date, COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) as dau
FROM analytics_events
WHERE created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;

-- Conversion funnel
SELECT
  COUNT(CASE WHEN event_name = 'upgrade_prompt_shown' THEN 1 END) as shown,
  COUNT(CASE WHEN event_name = 'subscription_started' THEN 1 END) as converted,
  ROUND(100.0 * COUNT(CASE WHEN event_name = 'subscription_started' THEN 1 END) /
    NULLIF(COUNT(CASE WHEN event_name = 'upgrade_prompt_shown' THEN 1 END), 0), 2
  ) as cvr
FROM analytics_events WHERE created_at >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days';
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My Stack

I use PostHog for product analytics (funnels, cohorts, feature flags) and Supabase for custom ML signals (churn prediction, anomaly detection). The self-hosted data feeds Edge Functions that trigger re-engagement nudges.

What analytics stack are you using for your indie app? I'm curious what conversion rates look like at different scales.

Top comments (1)

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harjjotsinghh profile image
Harjot Singh •

Good breakdown of a real indie dilemma. The framing I'd add: this is mostly a question of who you want to owe, ongoing money (PostHog/Mixpanel SaaS) or ongoing maintenance (self-hosted). Self-hosting on Supabase feels free until you're the one debugging the ingestion pipeline at 2am; managed feels expensive until you price your own hours. For most indies the right answer is "managed until the bill hurts, then revisit," because early on the scarce resource is time, not dollars. The deeper trap is event-schema discipline, whichever you pick, garbage events in means useless funnels out. I lean self-host-what-you-can in Moonshift for data ownership, but only where the maintenance cost is near zero. What tipped you toward self-hosted, cost or the data-ownership angle?