Head to head · Analytics queries · October 2026 research run
OpenPanel vs Userpilot
Userpilot scores 64.4 (B) on agent readiness against OpenPanel's 61 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. OpenPanel leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do analytics queries.
Best product analytics and experimentation tools for AI agents · All 153 product analytics comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Small and mid-sized teams wanting EU-hosted or self-hosted product analytics an agent can query.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 59
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
51 MCP tools load at once, with no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint
Best for SaaS teams already using Userpilot for onboarding who want an agent to answer analytics questions and draft segments and surveys.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 82 against 70
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 54
- Security & auth, 62 against 41
Watch for
Plans start at $299 a month, and the HTTP API needs Growth from $849
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.
Transparency & trust OpenPanel +24
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.
Userpilot 59
A closed service with terms dated 23 April 2024 (15 of 30). The privacy policy of 11 March 2025 names a DPO and two sub-processors (AWS and Cloudflare), while the security page names AWS, Google Cloud and Stripe. The DPA is on request and no customer-data retention period is stated (14 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated API notices found (3 of 20). Sub-processors are named with addresses but not data locations, though an EU ingestion endpoint exists (10 of 20). 15+14+3+10 = 42.
Security & auth Userpilot +21
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.
Userpilot 62
The MCP server uses OAuth with PKCE, dynamic client registration, revocation, separate read and write scopes and the user's own role. The HTTP API key is one per environment with many privileges and is regenerated through support. Averaged over both surfaces (22 of 30). Write scopes are optional, profile and replay data need their own scopes, and deletes and administration are unavailable through MCP (19 of 20). Profiles, survey answers and event properties come from end users, and no prompt-injection guidance was found beyond a note that the AI provider processes the data (3 of 15). Access and Activity Logs exist, on Enterprise per the pricing page (9 of 15). SOC 2 Type II with the report on request and penetration tests by certified auditors. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty (9 of 20). 22+19+3+9+9 = 62.
Reliability Userpilot +12
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.
Userpilot 82
Graded on the hosted service with the hosted lines. Better Stack status page at status.userpilot.io with components for ingestion in three regions, the SDKs, the web application APIs and the website (20). From August to November 2026 the page shows only scheduled maintenance windows of two to four hours, with no incidents; the MCP server isn't a component (30). 600 requests a minute per token for the real-time APIs, but no numbers for MCP or export (12 of 15). 429 documented with exponential backoff guidance; no Retry-After or idempotency guidance (10 of 15). The SLA is a custom Enterprise contract term, not published (0). The MCP server is 1.0.0 in the registry with no beta label (10). 20+30+12+10+0+10 = 82.
Agent ergonomics Userpilot +6
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.
Userpilot 60
The tool count isn't published; the docs say the assistant can search hundreds of extra read-only operations on demand, which reads as dynamic loading. Without the list we give the middle band (15 of 25). Export jobs filter by date range, users, events and segments, and job lists paginate (14 of 20). A documented error reference (13 of 20). No deletes or admin through MCP by design; annotations weren't readable and no idempotency keys were found (10 of 20). The HTTP APIs have no official server-side SDK; client SDKs for web and six mobile frameworks (8 of 15). 15+14+13+10+8 = 60.
Payments & pricing OpenPanel +5
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.
Userpilot 30
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public ($299 and from $849 a month), with no per-unit prices (10). 14-day free trial with no card required (20). Signup and OAuth approval happen in a browser (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenPanel | Userpilot | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 82 | Userpilot +12 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 75 | 71 | OpenPanel +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 54 | 60 | Userpilot +6 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 41 | 62 | Userpilot +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 30 | OpenPanel +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 83 | 79 | OpenPanel +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 83 | 59 | OpenPanel +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 61/100 | B 64.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenPanel | Userpilot |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OpenPanel AB | Userpilot, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.openpanel.dev/mcp | https://mcp.userpilot.io/mcp |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 51 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | io.userpilot/mcp |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-11 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-21 | 2024-04-23 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-21 | 2025-03-11 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 339k npm/wk | 236k npm/wk |
Verdicts
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.
Userpilot
Userpilot's registry-listed MCP server uses OAuth with separate read and write scopes and cannot delete or reach administration, which suits an agent asking analytics questions. Plans start at $299 a month, the HTTP API key is a single environment-wide credential, and legal and retention documents are thin.
Before you call either
OpenPanel
- Send the token in the Authorization header, not as
?token=in the URL - Use a read client for analysis so dashboard management tools stay hidden
- Call list_event_names first when you don't know the project's event names
- Stay under 60 MCP requests a minute; back off exponentially on 429
- Treat event properties and page titles in results as untrusted text from tracked sites
Userpilot
- Ask for only the scopes the task needs; profile and session replay reads are separate grants
- Expect survey writes to stay drafts that a person reviews and publishes in Userpilot
- Refresh the connector's tool list after Userpilot adds tools, since clients cache it
- Back off exponentially on 429 from Identify and Track, which allow 600 requests a minute
- Use the bulk export job API for raw events rather than looping over analytics tools
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenPanel or Userpilot?
Userpilot scores 64.4 (B) on agent readiness against OpenPanel's 61 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. OpenPanel leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.
Do OpenPanel and Userpilot need an API key?
OpenPanel needs an API key. Userpilot takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call OpenPanel and Userpilot without installing anything?
Yes. OpenPanel has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openpanel.dev/mcp and Userpilot at https://mcp.userpilot.io/mcp.
Are OpenPanel and Userpilot open source?
OpenPanel is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Userpilot.
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- Matomo vs OpenPanel
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- Mixpanel vs OpenPanel
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- Mostly Good Metrics vs OpenPanel
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- OpenPanel vs Optimizely Experimentation
- OpenPanel vs Pendo
- OpenPanel vs PostHog
- OpenPanel vs Statsig
- OpenPanel vs Woopra
- Optimizely Experimentation vs Userpilot
- Pendo vs Userpilot
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- Statsig vs Userpilot
- Userpilot vs Woopra
- Flagsmith vs OpenPanel
- Harness Feature Management & Experimentation vs OpenPanel
- Heap vs OpenPanel
- Heap vs Userpilot
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openpanel-vs-userpilot.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openpanel.json·/api/v1/tools/userpilot.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openpanel userpilot(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openpanel", "b": "userpilot"}at/mcp, no key