In today’s interconnected digital ecosystem, data is king—and for product teams, monitoring key metrics like Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU) is a cornerstone of strategic decision-making. Understanding usage behavior across platforms—web and mobile—is essential to shape user experiences, drive engagement, and fine-tune product offerings. As many organizations move to a hybrid cloud and self-hosted environment for reasons ranging from security to performance, hybrid analytics suites are increasingly popular.
TL;DR
If you’re looking to track DAU/MAU across multiple platforms, hybrid analytics suites offer the flexibility of the cloud with the control of on-premise setups. This article explores six top hybrid analytics tools tailored for product teams who want reliable, scalable, and privacy-minded solutions. Each tool blends real-time data monitoring, privacy compliance, and customizable dashboards. Whether you’re a startup or an enterprise, you’ll find an option that aligns with your priorities.
Why Hybrid Analytics Matters
Hybrid analytics platforms give product teams the best of both worlds: the scalability of cloud-based services and the privacy and data control of self-hosted solutions. Particularly for companies with strict compliance needs (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA), or who want to minimize third-party data risks, a hybrid approach makes sense.
Tracking DAU and MAU is just the tip of the iceberg—hybrid analytics suites often come bundled with behavioral tracking, funnel analysis, retention cohorts, and more. By enabling both real-time analysis and long-term trend exploration, these tools support strategic decisions at every level.
Top 6 Cloud + Self-Hosted Hybrid Analytics Suites for Product Teams
1. Mixpanel Hybrid Deployment
Best for: Mid- to large-scale teams needing robust behavioral analytics with flexible hosting options.
Mixpanel is one of the most popular product analytics tools thanks to its clean interface and powerful segmentation capabilities. While traditionally cloud-based, Mixpanel offers an enterprise hybrid deployment model, allowing sensitive data to be handled via private cloud or self-hosted environments.
- Key Features: Real-time DAU/MAU tracking, funnel analysis, A/B test integration, and cohort analysis.
- Hybrid Strength: Selective hosting of sensitive data on-premise with cloud-based UI and processing.
- Pricing: Premium pricing; custom quotes for hybrid setup.
2. PostHog
Best for: Teams looking for a full-featured, self-hosted analytics suite with optional cloud capabilities.
PostHog is a favorite among product teams that want ownership and control of their data without sacrificing innovation. It’s open-source, meaning you can self-host it entirely, but the platform also offers a hybrid mode with cloud support plans. You get top-tier analytics built for developers, including session recording, heatmaps, and feature flags.
- Key Features: Open-source codebase, DAU/MAU tracking, user session recording, feature flagging.
- Hybrid Strength: Self-host with optional use of PostHog Cloud for scalability.
- Pricing: Free self-hosted tier, with optional paid add-ons.
3. Plausible Analytics + Custom Storage Backend
Best for: Privacy-conscious teams who value simplicity and transparency.
Plausible is a lightweight analytics suite that prides itself on being privacy-focused and compliant out of the box. While it’s often deployed via the cloud, users can self-host it and even configure a custom storage backend, like S3 or their own PostgreSQL database instance. Plausible captures high-level metrics including DAU and MAU without cookies or intrusive tracking.
- Key Features: Simple dashboards, real-time data, anonymized tracking.
- Hybrid Strength: Fully self-hostable with cloud offload options.
- Pricing: Very affordable, especially for self-hosted users.
4. Snowplow
Best for: Engineering-heavy teams who want total data ownership and customizable tracking pipelines.
Snowplow offers event-level analytics using a flexible data pipeline that’s perfect for large enterprises. With Snowplow, you collect and process data in your cloud (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and then choose how to store and query it—using tools like BigQuery, Redshift, or even a private PostgreSQL database. Snowplow supports tracking customer journeys deeply across platforms and processes MAU/DAU calculations via modular event modeling.
- Key Features: High-volume event tracking, flexible schema management, deep API access.
- Hybrid Strength: Private data pipeline with optional cloud dashboard UI components.
- Pricing: Open-core; enterprise pricing for premium support and managed pipelines.
5. Matomo (formerly Piwik)
Best for: Teams and organizations with a strong emphasis on GDPR, HIPAA, or other regulatory compliance.
Matomo is a longstanding player in the self-hosted analytics space. It offers comprehensive features rivaling Google Analytics—including goal tracking, heatmaps, and segmentation—without compromising data privacy. You can use their cloud service or host the software on your own servers, with hybrid deployment options available for larger organizations requiring both flexibility and compliance.
- Key Features: Real-time DAU/MAU metrics, customizable dashboards, compliance tools.
- Hybrid Strength: Choose which segments of data stay on-premise and which use the cloud.
- Pricing: Free for on-premise; paid for cloud and enterprise support.
6. Amplitude Enterprise Hybrid
Best for: Large enterprises requiring powerful analytics with layered data control.
Amplitude is another giant in the product analytics world, popular for its intuitive dashboards and robust user behavior analytics. While the standard product is cloud-based, Amplitude offers enterprise clients a hybrid deployment variation. This enables teams to process certain sensitive data sets within a private environment, without losing access to Amplitude’s feature-rich reporting UI.
- Key Features: Behavioral cohorts, event segmentation, DAU/MAU pinning, retroactive analysis.
- Hybrid Strength: Data segregation options with a unified front-end experience.
- Pricing: Premium enterprise pricing only.
How to Choose the Right Suite for Your Team
When selecting an analytics suite for DAU/MAU tracking across platforms in a hybrid environment, here are a few guiding questions:
- Data Sensitivity: Do you need certain types of data to remain behind your firewall due to legal or compliance issues?
- Development Resources: Can your team handle the maintenance of self-hosted infrastructure, or do you need managed services?
- Customization: Does your product demand custom event tracking pipelines and dashboard configurations?
- Budget: Some hybrid options start free; others require significant investment in licenses and infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
Hybrid analytics suites are filling a critical gap in modern product development workflows. Whether you’re steering a lean startup or operating at the enterprise level, tools like Mixpanel, PostHog, and Snowplow make it easier to monitor user engagement across devices with both flexibility and control. As privacy regulations tighten and businesses become more data-savvy, expect the hybrid model to become the new default for serious analytics strategies.
Choosing the right tool ultimately depends on your product architecture, team maturity, and data governance standards — but the six platforms listed above are excellent starting points for any product team wanting a comprehensive view of their DAU/MAU metrics across platforms.