Are Mixpanel and Amplitude interchangeable for core analysis?
Largely yes. Funnels, retention curves, behavioral cohorts, and path analysis exist in both with equivalent statistical underpinnings. A team fluent in one becomes productive in the other within days. Differences show up in governance tooling, bundled products, and pricing rather than in what questions you can answer.
Which has the better free plan?
Mixpanel. Its free tier accommodates enough monthly events for most early-stage products and includes the full core analysis toolkit. Amplitude's free starter plan works for evaluation, but teams hit its limits sooner, and the features that differentiate Amplitude mostly sit in paid tiers.
Can I migrate from one to the other later?
Yes, and it is easier if you instrument through a CDP like Segment or a warehouse, because the same event stream can feed either platform. Direct SDK instrumentation makes migration a re-implementation project, and historical data generally does not transfer cleanly, so cohort history restarts. If you anticipate switching, decouple your tracking from any single vendor's SDK from the start.