Head to head · Analytics queries · October 2026 research run

Countly vs OpenPanel

OpenPanel scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Countly's 38.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Countly leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do analytics queries.

Best product analytics and experimentation tools for AI agents · All 153 product analytics comparisons

Which one, for what

Countly E

Best for An agent whose owner runs Countly on its own infrastructure or a dedicated Flex server and wants analytics, crash and remote-config data through MCP with per-category permissions.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 54
  • Security & auth, 62 against 41

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

No public status page or incident history was found for Flex servers or for mcp.count.ly

OpenPanel C

Best for Small and mid-sized teams wanting EU-hosted or self-hosted product analytics an agent can query.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 70 against 23
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 17
  • Transparency & trust, 83 against 72

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Countly loses 15 points for them

Watch for

51 MCP tools load at once, with no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability OpenPanel +47

Countly 23

Graded on the hosted lines, for a Countly Flex server reached through its HTTP API and the official MCP server. No status page was found on countly.com, the Flex page, the docs or the legal pages, and status.countly.com did not resolve on 4 November (0). With no page there is no readable incident history (5). The MCP server's HTTP endpoint is limited to 120 requests a minute per IP, but the Countly server's own api_rate_limit_requests setting ships at 0 (off), and the Flex terms of 20 October 2026 reserve usage limits without numbers (8 of 15, the earlier partial kept). No 429 or retry guidance and no idempotency keys were found in the API reference source (0). The pricing page lists an SLA as optional on Flex and included in Enterprise, with no SLA document published, which this run scores 0 (0). The API and MCP server 1.7.0 are generally available (10).

OpenPanel 70

Graded on OpenPanel Cloud with the hosted lines. OpenStatus page at status.openpanel.dev with API and Tracker components (20). In the 90 days from 8 August, one incident, degraded API performance for about two hours on 1 October 2026, caused by Hetzner private-network problems reaching the ClickHouse servers (15 of 30). Limits are documented with numbers for MCP (60 a minute per client) and the Export, Insights and Manage APIs (15). The docs say a 429 is returned and to back off exponentially; no Retry-After or idempotency guidance (10 of 15). No SLA was found (0). Generally available (10). 20+15+15+10+0+10 = 70.

Security & auth Countly +21

Countly 62

Auth tokens are scoped to apps and endpoint patterns, expire after a set lifetime, are revocable and carry create, read, update and delete permissions since 25.03.54. The dashboard api_key has its user's full access (26 of 30). Less 10 because api_key and auth_token are documented as query-string parameters, with the countly-token header as the recommended alternative (16). MCP read-only mode and per-category CRUD levels, bounded by the token's permissions. No confirmation step for destructive tools (16). Tools return event names, user properties and crash data written by end users, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3). A system logs API records dashboard actions (12, kept; the 8 October count of log types came from the help centre's JSON API and is struck). No security.txt. SECURITY.md gives security@count.ly as the reporting route with no acknowledgement time and a bounty whose rewards are at Countly's discretion, which this run doesn't count as a bounty. Countly publishes advisories for countly-server on GitHub, and the site claims ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and SOC 2 Type II without public reports. 15, as daytona has for a disclosure route and certifications with a discretionary reward.

OpenPanel 41

Client credentials with three types (write, read for one project, root for the organisation), created and deleted in the dashboard (25), less 10 because the docs give ?token= in the MCP URL as an option (15 of 30). Read clients are read-only and limited to one project, and onboarding creates a read-only MCP client. No approval step for root-client writes (14 of 20). Tools return event properties, page titles and profile data sent from tracked sites, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3 of 15). No audit log was found (0). SECURITY.md with a private advisory route and response times, a valid security.txt, and no bug bounty or certification found (9 of 20). 15+14+3+0+9 = 41.

Payments & pricing OpenPanel +18

Countly 17

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The pricing page gives only a starting price for Flex, $175 a month, priced on monthly active users and data points, with tier prices shown during signup and Enterprise on custom pricing (7 of 20, the earlier partial kept). The 14-day Flex trial needs a credit card, per the Flex page. Countly Lite is free to self-host with no card, without funnels, retention, cohorts or Drill, so half credit (10). A person signs up in a browser, creates a server and makes a token in the dashboard (0).

OpenPanel 35

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Public prices by event tier from $2.50 a month, with no overage charges; tiers rather than a per-event rate (15 of 20). 30-day free trial with no card, and free self-hosting (20). Signup is in a browser and client keys are created in the dashboard (0). 0+15+20+0 = 35.

Agent ergonomics Countly +12

Countly 66

The MCP README counts 209 tools in 43 categories, far past 30 (5). Add back 8 because the server hides tools the edition, enabled plugins or user's permissions cannot run, and COUNTLY_TOOLS_* settings switch categories off (13). List endpoints take iDisplayStart and iDisplayLength, and MCP list tools take skip, limit and search (15). API errors are {"result": "message"} strings with HTTP status codes and no error codes. The MCP server returns failures as isError results that name the missing plugin or permission (12). MCP tools carry readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint since 1.7.0. No idempotency keys on API writes (14). MCP tools accept app_name in place of app_id and set defaults. The SDKs cover data collection, not the read API (12).

OpenPanel 54

51 MCP tools, more than 30 (5). We added 3 because a read client doesn't get the 9 dashboard management tools (8 of 25). Insights endpoints take startDate, endDate, range, filters, cursor and limit (18 of 20). Errors aren't documented beyond 401 and 429 (12 of 20). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint in the MCP source, no idempotency keys; delete_dashboard refuses a non-empty dashboard without forceDelete (3 of 20). Few required parameters, and SDKs for JavaScript, React, Next.js, Vue, React Native, Swift, Kotlin and Python (13 of 15). 8+18+12+3+13 = 54.

Transparency & trust OpenPanel +11

Countly 72

Countly Lite is AGPL-3.0 with added branding terms under Section 7, the MCP server is MIT, and the Enterprise plugins that hold funnels, retention, cohorts and Drill are closed (20 of 30). Flex now has its own terms, privacy policy, DPA and sub-processor list, all dated 20 October 2026. The Flex privacy policy excludes data customers process and gives no retention periods, and the DPA covers that data (20). The MCP changelog deprecated auth tokens in URL parameters on 23 April 2026 (1.3.0), and the server warns on their use, with no notice period (15, the settled value for dated notices without a period). The Flex sub-processor list names locations, with 30 days' notice of changes in the DPA, and Flex customers choose a Google Cloud region. A Connected Services and Telemetry notice (20 October 2026) says server reports to stats.count.ly are on by default and which settings turn them off, and MCP usage reporting is disclosed with an opt-out (18).

OpenPanel 83

AGPL-3.0 for the whole product, and the about page says there is no enterprise edition (30). Terms and privacy policy of 21 May 2026 agree, with a DPA published, transient IP use, data ownership kept by the customer, and providers named with locations. Retention periods are general rather than stated in days (22 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices found; v3.0.0 was a major release on 16 October 2026 (4 of 20). Sub-processors and data locations disclosed in the privacy policy (Hetzner, Germany) (18 of 20). 30+22+4+18 = 74.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCountlyOpenPanelEdge
Reliability16%202370OpenPanel +47
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27575even
Agent ergonomics13%16.26654Countly +12
Security & auth14%17.56241Countly +21
Payments & pricing10%12.51735OpenPanel +18
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88083OpenPanel +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87283OpenPanel +11
Negative events≤15-150
TotalE 38.8/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactCountlyOpenPanel
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCountly LtdOpenPanel AB
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.count.ly/mcphttps://api.openpanel.dev/mcp
TransportsHTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceCountly Lite is AGPL-3.0 with added branding terms under Section 7. Enterprise plugins are proprietary. Flex is a hosted service under Countly's terms. The MCP server is MITAGPL-3.0
Tools exposed20951
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-272026-11-06
Terms last updatednot read yet2026-05-21
Privacy policy last updatednot read yet2026-05-21
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetnot found in the text
Popularity28k npm/wk339k npm/wk

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Countly

Countly suits an agent working against a server its owner already runs. The official MCP server filters its 209 tools by edition, plugin and permission and has per-category read-only settings. Five countly-server CVEs were published since September, all fixed, and no status page, OpenAPI document or published API rate limit was found.

OpenPanel

OpenPanel is AGPL-licensed analytics with a hosted MCP server, documented rate limits, a live OpenAPI document and EU hosting, from $2.50 a month or free to self-host. Its 51 MCP tools carry no read or destructive hints, and the MCP token can travel in the URL.

Before you call either

Countly

  1. Create a dedicated token in the Token Manager, limited to the apps and endpoints the task needs, and send it in the countly-token header, not the URL
  2. Set COUNTLY_TOOLS_ALL=R unless the task needs writes. The token's own permissions still apply and the stricter of the two wins
  3. Call apps_list first. Most tools need app_id or an exact app_name
  4. Check get_version for the detected edition before planning funnel, retention or cohort queries, which need Enterprise plugins
  5. Set ENABLE_ANALYTICS=false to stop MCP usage reports to stats.count.ly, and ask the server owner to check the tracking settings for server reports

OpenPanel

  1. Send the token in the Authorization header, not as ?token= in the URL
  2. Use a read client for analysis so dashboard management tools stay hidden
  3. Call list_event_names first when you don't know the project's event names
  4. Stay under 60 MCP requests a minute; back off exponentially on 429
  5. Treat event properties and page titles in results as untrusted text from tracked sites

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Countly or OpenPanel?

OpenPanel scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Countly's 38.8 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Countly leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

Do Countly and OpenPanel need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Countly and OpenPanel without installing anything?

Yes. Countly has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.count.ly/mcp and OpenPanel at https://api.openpanel.dev/mcp.

Are Countly and OpenPanel open source?

Yes. Countly is open source (Countly Lite is AGPL-3.0 with added branding terms under Section 7. Enterprise plugins are proprietary. Flex is a hosted service under Countly's terms. The MCP server is MIT). OpenPanel is open source (AGPL-3.0).

Other comparisons with Countly or OpenPanel

Machine-readable

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