Best Analytics Tools for React Native and Expo Apps

SDKs, Expo support, free tiers, and pricing for seven tools React Native teams use

November 8, 2026

React Native Analytics Product Analytics Expo

Vexo Team – Co-Founder

Jump to section

The short answer

Built for React Native and Expo: Vexo tracks screens, taps, network requests, and errors automatically, with session replay and heatmaps in the same SDK.
Free: Firebase Analytics costs nothing, through the community React Native Firebase library.
Deep analytics: Amplitude and Mixpanel have official React Native SDKs and generous free plans.
Analytics plus flags and experiments: PostHog, metered per product.
Crashes and performance: pair any of these with Sentry, or use a tool that includes crash reporting.

React Native analytics has a few constraints a web analytics tool doesn't face: there are no page loads, so the SDK has to follow your navigator to know which screen a user is on; users go offline, so events need to be queued on the device; and in Expo, any SDK with native code needs a development build. This post compares seven tools on those points and on price.

Every competitor fact comes from the vendor's own docs or pricing page, listed under Sources. Prices are as of November 2026.

SDKs and platform support

Tool	React Native SDK	Expo	iOS	Android	Web	Flutter
Vexo	`vexo-analytics`	Development builds	Through React Native	Through React Native	Yes	No
Firebase Analytics	`@react-native-firebase/analytics` (community)	Development builds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
PostHog	`posthog-react-native`	Yes; replay needs a development build	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mixpanel	`mixpanel-react-native`	Yes (JavaScript mode, 3.0.2+)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Amplitude	`@amplitude/analytics-react-native`	Yes; not Expo Go	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Heap	`@heap/heap-react-native-bridge`	Not in Expo Go	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sentry	`@sentry/react-native`	Yes (Expo SDK 50+)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Free tier, pricing, strengths, and limitations

Prices are as of November 2026.

Tool	Free tier	Pricing model	Key strengths	Limitations
Vexo	500K events and 1,000 session replays a month	Events, from $30 per additional million events, scaling down to $12/M at higher volume	Automatic tracking, replay, tap heatmaps, crashes, performance, and network in one SDK	React Native, Expo, and web only; frame metrics measured on the JS thread
Firebase Analytics	No-cost, with unlimited reporting on up to 500 distinct events	No charge; BigQuery use billed by BigQuery	Free, alongside Crashlytics and Performance Monitoring	React Native support comes from a community library; no session replay or heatmap product
PostHog	1M events a month, 1 project, 1-year retention	Per product; events from $0.00005 each past 1M	Analytics, replay, feature flags, experiments, and error tracking	Each product is metered separately; heatmaps are web only
Mixpanel	1M events and 10,000 replays a month	Growth from $0; 1.5M events cost $140 a month billed monthly	Mature funnels, retention, and replay	No billing limit; no heatmaps in mobile replay
Amplitude	2M events and 10,000 replays a month	Plus from $0, up to 70M events; Growth and Enterprise quoted	Deep behavioral analytics and a large free tier	SDK doesn't support Expo Go yet; heatmaps are web only
Heap	Up to 10,000 sessions a month, 6 months of history	By sessions; estimates and quotes, no published prices	Autocapture on iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter	Replay and heatmaps are add-ons on the top plans; Expo apps must be ejected to test
Sentry	5,000 errors, 50 replays, 1 user	Team plan from $29 a month	Crashes, tracing, profiling, and replay	Monitoring, not product analytics

What analytics stack does a React Native app need?

Most teams end up covering three jobs:

Product analytics: screens, custom events, funnels, retention, and who your users are.
Crash and performance monitoring: crash-free rate, stack traces, app start, and slow screens.
Session replay: what the user saw when a number moved or something broke.

You can get all three from one SDK (Vexo, or PostHog with its separate meters), or combine specialists: Firebase Analytics with Crashlytics, or Mixpanel or Amplitude with Sentry. One SDK means one install, one dashboard, and replays already linked to the events around them; specialists give you more depth in each job at the cost of more SDKs to keep updated.

The tools, one by one

Vexo

Best for: React Native and Expo teams that want analytics, replay, heatmaps, and crash reporting without writing tracking code for each screen.

One call, vexo('YOUR_API_KEY'), starts automatic tracking of app opens, screen changes, taps, typing, orientation changes, network requests, and errors, with React Navigation or Expo Router. Events are batched and queued on the device, and synced when the connection returns. The same SDK records session replays and tap heatmaps, reports crashes and JS-thread stalls, and measures app start, slow and frozen frames, and screen render time. On top of that you get funnels, retention, cohorts, and custom events enriched with screen, device, and app version.

Vexo needs React Native 0.74 or later and works in Expo development builds, not Expo Go. The free plan includes 500K events and 1,000 session replays a month; past that, you pay from $30 per additional million events, scaling down to $12/M at higher volume. Data is kept for 60 days on the free plan and 24 months on paid plans. See React Native analytics and our pricing section.

Firebase Analytics

Best for: apps that want free event analytics and already use Firebase or Google Ads.

Google Analytics for Firebase is free, with unlimited reporting on up to 500 distinct events. Google's official SDKs cover iOS, Android, web, Flutter, Unity, and C++, but not React Native: React Native apps use React Native Firebase, a community library maintained by Invertase, which works in Expo development builds through config plugins but not in Expo Go. Crashlytics and Performance Monitoring are also free. BigQuery export is limited to 1 million events a day on the standard tier, and querying the data is billed by BigQuery. Firebase's product list includes no session replay or heatmap product. For the full picture, see Vexo vs Firebase Analytics.

PostHog

Best for: teams that want analytics, feature flags, experiments, and error tracking in one platform.

PostHog's official posthog-react-native SDK installs in Expo with npx expo install; its session replay needs a development build. Pricing is per product with no per-seat charges: the first 1M events a month are free, then events start at $0.00005 each and get cheaper with volume, and each other product (replay, flags, error tracking) has its own free tier and meter. The free plan includes one project and one year of data retention. PostHog's heatmaps work with its web SDK. See Vexo vs PostHog pricing.

Mixpanel

Best for: product teams that live in funnels and retention reports.

Mixpanel's official mixpanel-react-native SDK supports Expo and React Native for Web through its JavaScript mode, added in version 3.0.2. The free plan includes 1M events and 10,000 session replays a month with unlimited seats. The Growth plan keeps the first 1M events free and then prices by volume: for example, 1.5M events cost $140 a month billed monthly or $100 a month billed yearly, and 10M events cost $1,176 or $840. Mixpanel doesn't let you set a billing limit. See Vexo vs Mixpanel pricing.

Amplitude

Best for: teams that need deep behavioral analysis and fit in a large free tier.

Amplitude's official @amplitude/analytics-react-native SDK works in React Native apps built for web or with Expo, though not in Expo Go yet. The free plan includes 2M events and 10,000 session replays a month, with unlimited seats. Plus starts at $0 for the first 2M events and scales to 70M events on pay-as-you-go pricing; Growth and Enterprise are quoted. See Vexo vs Amplitude pricing.

Heap

Best for: teams that want to capture interactions automatically and define events later.

Heap, now part of Contentsquare, offers autocapture for iOS, Android, Jetpack Compose, SwiftUI, Flutter, and React Native. Its React Native SDK doesn't capture events in Expo Go; Heap's docs say to eject an Expo app to test it. The free plan includes up to 10,000 sessions a month with six months of history. Paid plans are priced by sessions, through an estimate or a custom quote, and session replay and heatmaps are add-ons on the Pro and Premier plans.

Sentry

Best for: the crash, performance, and replay part of a stack whose product analytics live elsewhere.

The official @sentry/react-native SDK works with managed and bare Expo projects on Expo SDK 50 or newer and covers errors, tracing, profiling, session replay, and logs. Some performance data, such as slow and frozen frames, is available only in native builds, not in Expo Go. The free Developer plan includes 5,000 errors, 50 replays, and one user, and the Team plan starts at $29 a month.

When Vexo is and isn't the right choice

Vexo is a good fit if:

You build with React Native or Expo and want analytics running without instrumenting every screen.
You want replays, heatmaps, crash reporting, and performance data next to your analytics, from one SDK.
You want to budget from published rates.
You track a website too: the same dashboard covers web apps through a script tag.

Choose another tool, or add one, if:

You need native-level frame metrics. Vexo measures slow and frozen frames on the JavaScript thread, and cold start from when the JavaScript engine loads the SDK, not from native process start. That's accurate for the JavaScript side of your app, but it won't show jank that happens only on the native UI thread.
You need native crash reports. Vexo reports uncaught JavaScript errors and JS-thread stalls; pair it with a native crash reporter if native modules crash.
Your app is Flutter or native-only. Vexo's mobile SDK is for React Native and Expo.
You want feature flags or A/B tests in the same tool. Vexo doesn't offer them; PostHog does.
You test in Expo Go. Vexo needs a development build.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best product analytics SDK for React Native?

For an SDK built for React Native that tracks screens, taps, network requests, and errors automatically and adds session replay and heatmaps, Vexo is purpose-built. For the deepest general-purpose analytics, Amplitude and Mixpanel have official React Native SDKs. PostHog suits teams that also want feature flags and experiments, and Firebase Analytics is free through the community React Native Firebase library.

How do I add analytics to a React Native app?

Install an analytics SDK, initialize it when the app starts, and rebuild the app if the SDK includes native code. With Vexo, install vexo-analytics (npx expo install vexo-analytics on Expo), call vexo('YOUR_API_KEY') at module scope in your entry file or root layout, and rebuild. Screens, taps, and errors are tracked from then on, and you add custom events with customEvent().

What are the best analytics tools for React Native apps?

Vexo, Firebase Analytics, PostHog, Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Heap all have React Native SDKs, and Sentry covers crashes and performance. They differ in pricing model, in whether session replay and heatmaps are included, and in Expo support: Vexo, Firebase, Amplitude, and Heap don't run in Expo Go.

What is the best analytics tool for Expo apps?

Any SDK that supports Expo development builds works in a production Expo app. Vexo, PostHog, Amplitude, Sentry, and Firebase (through React Native Firebase) all document Expo setups, and Mixpanel supports Expo in its JavaScript mode. If your team tests in Expo Go, check each SDK: Vexo, Amplitude, Heap, and React Native Firebase need a development build.

Does React Native analytics work in Expo Go?

Only for SDKs without native code. Vexo, React Native Firebase, Amplitude, and Heap document that they don't run in Expo Go, and session replay SDKs generally need native code too. Use an Expo development build or EAS Build to test them.

What analytics stack should a React Native app use?

Most apps need three things: product analytics (screens, events, funnels, retention), crash and performance monitoring, and session replay to see what went wrong. You can cover them with one tool, such as Vexo or PostHog, or combine tools, such as Firebase Analytics with Crashlytics, or Mixpanel or Amplitude with Sentry.

Is Firebase Analytics free for React Native?

Yes. Google Analytics for Firebase is an unlimited analytics solution at no charge, with unlimited reporting on up to 500 distinct events. Its official SDKs don't include React Native, so React Native apps use the community React Native Firebase library. BigQuery export is limited to 1 million events a day on the standard tier, and querying exported data is billed by BigQuery.

How much does React Native analytics cost?

It ranges from free (Firebase Analytics) to quote-only enterprise contracts. As of November 2026, Vexo is free for 500K events and 1,000 session replays a month, then from $30 per additional million events, scaling down to $12/M at higher volume. PostHog includes 1M events a month free, then from $0.00005 per event. Mixpanel includes 1M events free, and its Growth plan costs $140 a month for 1.5M events billed monthly. Amplitude includes 2M events free.

Sources

Every competitor fact in this post comes from the vendor's own pages, checked on November 7, 2026: