Publishing an app to the stores or internally in an organisation is a challenge in itself, but once the app is live and in production, whether it’s Android or iOS based, it becomes important to measure how the app is used, whether users experience crashes or other critical issues, and for measuring the up- and downtime of the app.



At Nodes, we’ve used most of the tools we’re listing below at one point or another, but we do not have any specific preferences or recommendations. That all depends on a case by case examination of the specifics of the app, the target demographics and the scenarios in which the app is used.



There are a few different types of approaches to mobile app analytical tools, with some of the tools focusing on one aspect, such as marketing or performance. Before deciding which service to use, it’s a good idea to identify the most important metrics you wish to track.



Following is an unsorted and unordered list of all the app analytics tools we deem of a high enough quality to use in real life applications. This list is sectioned up into three main categories, depending on the primary purpose of the analytic tool.

One of the most popular and complete tools for tracking users, apps, downloads and clicks. Spearheaded by Google themselves, this tool has stood the test of time, and is constantly getting updates, new features and attention from Google’s ever growing team of developers.

This is another quite popular tool and can track both web and mobile applications with ease. Not only are the basic engagement tracking features present in this tool, but Mixpanel has also developed a machine learning algorithm to help put the data collected into an actionable perspective.

Unlike the other services on this list, Segment aims to be the connection between your app and whichever analytical tool you wish to use. By integrating your mobile application with Segment, you can then choose which analytical service you wish to incorporate, with Segment handling all routing automatically. And changing between the various analytical tools out there becomes a breeze once the initial connection to Segment has been established.

With Yahoo having a part in developing and maintaining this tool, plenty of positive things can be said for it. Specifically designed for app analytics, the intuitive dashboard allows for setting up multiple apps to track with ease, with events, funnels, segments and all the other basic analytical data we are used to.

This is the first tool on our list that’s focused itself more narrowly than the previously mentioned tools. Apsalar has invested into becoming one of the leading mobile app marketing analytics platforms out there by aggregating data and compiling that into relevant information for especially marketing teams. This includes a complete solution for tracking ROI among the more prominent features.

This is another startup that aims to incorporate all the different types of analytical data into a single view that is easy to use and setup, but still incredibly powerful. With millions of data points available to measure, Countly is a great alternative to some of the already mentioned tools, but lends itself best to product type applications, both games and other paid apps.

Another app marketing tool, Localytics aims to provide less meaningless and more actionable data. And by simplifying some of the metrics to measure and combining them into a few key categories, such as retention, engagement, notifications, and conversions any marketing manager or director will love this tool for it’s quick overview.

More than just an analytical tool, AskingPoint also allows users to “remotely control” their applications, including surveys, engagement metrics, feedback, customer support and much more. Coming with a complete SDK to easily integrate into existing apps, the SDK differs from others by allowing for real-time changes in the app and thus allows non-developers to easily add in-app surveys and ratings.

One of the most complete and useful tools on this list, it should come as no surprise since Apple’s the brains behind this analytical masterpiece. From the basic features complete with user engagement metrics, conversion rates and so on, to monetization and marketing campaign tracking. While Apple’s analytics also works on tvOS and iTunes, it doesn’t work on Android or other operating systems, and users have to accept a prompt asking if they wish to opt in to being tracked.

For many users of AWS, setting up an analytical tool have been sort of a hurdle. Now that barrier of entry has been more or less removed due to Amazon releasing their own mobile analytic tool. A more or less complete solution with possibilities of tracking all basic data, including conversion rates and revenue calculation with the bonus option of exporting directly to either Amazon S3 or Redshift.

Designed to be used for more or less commercial apps in some aspect, this is a complete product analytics suite with engagement tracking, retention rates and real-time statistics. One of their flagship features is the cross-platform tracking that easily enables users to compare Android to iOS metrics.

Another of the major analytical tools, this time published by none other than Facebook. Built to rival Google Analytics, the similarities are plenty. With complete tracking capabilities ranging from websites, mobile applications, to hard-coded bots and spiders, and all the way through to offline tracking in desktop apps this tools does it all.

This well known company has always been one to capture new and large market segments, and so it came as no surprise when they released their first versions of Adobe Analytics. Since then, the tool has merged with their cloud based solutions, similar to Amazon AWS, and Adobe is now focusing on larger businesses all the way to the multinational enterprises. Their product features include machine learning and artificial intelligence, although these tools are designed for demanding large-scale projects.

Another marketing focused app analytic tool, Appsflyer have nailed the terminology of their primary customers, using keywords such as return on investment, lifetime value, cost per install, email campaigns and much more. This makes the tool a great addition to more traditional analytical tools with views designed to optimize revenue by showing where improvements can be made.

This is not just a small script collecting basic user metrics, this is a fully fledged portal complete with independent user reporting, and one of the few tools on this list that has competition metrics as well. This means that App Annie makes it possible for app developers to identify new markets, use the extensive data to strategize optimally in order to acquire more leads, improve user engagement and monetize the app properly.

A relative newcomer compared to some of the ageing mastodons we’ve written about already, Tune aims to be the single tool needed to completely track an app, from before the app is installed and during its complete lifecycle. Unlike most other tools, Tune doesn’t consider users as users, but rather people, and as such the tool aims to reach people not machines.

This Danish startup aims to make life easier for game developers the world over. Specifically designed for mobile app games, the tracking provided is built for gamers and with their cross-platform feature being one of the staple functions together with the industry standard benchmarking, app owners using this tool can gain a competitive edge over their peers.

Not just a mobile marketing analytical tool, but a complete marketing automation platform with a CRM among the other major features, Swrve has become popular in no time. Designed for enterprise level usage, and featuring some of the largest brands in the world as their customers, this startup provides more than just basic analytics, but also a deep industry knowledge base built from millions of data points.

Another great example of next-level analytics, this tool automates much of the tracking by capturing every single interaction performed by the app’s users. Creating events is easy and done in a very intuitive way, making Heap Analytics excellent for non-developers looking to integrate a complete analytical solution for their mobile applications. Heap is built for both startups and enterprises and comes ready with integrations for some of the most popular CRM’s out there.

Recently acquired by Cisco, Appdynamics offers real-time performance monitoring for applications. Separate views for both end-users as well as business efficiency reports makes this another great tool for an all-around solution. Particularly well liked by DevOps around the world, the analytics also include cloud migration and scaling metrics, as well as a system to ensure continuous delivery and updates.

Yet another service built for use in enterprise settings, UpSight has developed a unique system that includes tracking on multiple levels. Labelled as an omnichannel marketing and monetization solution, this tool brings machine learning and split testing together with the more common analytical features such as KPI, ROI and conversion rates.

A favourite of many large organisations, including Nike, Verizon and BBC, Kochava markets themselves as a unified audience platform designed for marketers. Apart from the generic features that most analytical tools are comprised of, one of their services named Kochava Intelligence aims to go the extra mile. This enables marketers to run models based on previous data, simulating various changes and calculating their expected results.

As with many of the tools here, MoEngage does not just provide the basic analytical data that most app owner’s need. They also provide a layer of custom coding that’s unique to their own business model. MoEngage have thus focused on reaching users by letting businesses use custom tools for engagement, whether it’s using push notifications, email, in app messaging or web pushing. This allows marketers and app developers to contact users and measure the engagement from a single platform.

With A/B testing at the core, Taplytics provides a complete mobile optimization package for applications. Their key features include real-time split testing with the ability to change the design, colors, layout and text of a page or view, making it extremely easy to test changes on a small segment before deploying it to all users.

Much like the previous tool, LeanPlum also allows it’s users to easily change elements in the app or on the website in real-time for split testing painlessly. Their approach however is focused more on onboarding campaigns, where an intuitive guide helps set up push notifications that are then reinforced by follow up emails to ensure maximum conversion. Another neat feature is their app engagement grader which allows app owners to compare their metrics with other similar apps to see how they stack up.

Mainly used for mobile analysis, this tool have a few great unique features. For instance, it’s possible to precisely map the advertisements each user have clicked on, and with their fraud protection package, guarding against bad leads and irrelevant and costly clicks becomes much easier with the insight that Adjust provides.

With a different approach than most services on this list, Apptentive aims to “power the last mile of customer interaction” by focusing on the message. With the focus therefore being on improving the customer experience, it is possible to define an event and set that to trigger a review prompt without having to update the app with source code changes.

Finally, the last on our list for now. Formerly known as “AppBoy”, Braze is a complete framework for handling mobile marketing and user engagement lifecycles. An awesome feature of this analytical tool includes their integrations with for an example FourSquare and Gimbal to help get extensive customer data that goes beyond the simple first and last name that most tools use.

Conclusion

That was it for this list, a bunch of different analytical tools and services, paid and free, open-source and closed-source. Whatever your app project is about, we’re sure you’ll find an analytical tool to use here.

In case you have any questions or wish to learn more about what Nodes can do for your company in terms of mobile app analytics or app development in general, we’re always happy to schedule a meeting or set up a call to discuss the possibilities.

Also, if you know of any good tools we haven’t yet covered, please let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!