How do I sign up for Mixpanel Free and set up our first project for web and mobile?

Getting started with Mixpanel Free for web and mobile is fast, and you don’t need a data team to get value. You’ll create an account, spin up your first project, and start capturing real user behavior—so you can answer product questions in seconds instead of waiting on SQL.

Quick Answer: Sign up for Mixpanel Free with your work email, create a new project, then add the web and mobile SDKs (or use Autocapture and integrations) to start tracking events like sign ups, logins, and key product actions.

The Quick Overview

What It Is: A guided way to get Mixpanel Free running on your web and mobile apps, so you can track user behavior and ship better products with data.
Who It Is For: Product, growth, marketing, and engineering teams that want event-based analytics without delays or SQL bottlenecks.
Core Problem Solved: Moving from “we think this is working” to “we know what’s working” by tracking real user actions across web and mobile in one place.

How It Works

You’ll go through three main steps: create your Mixpanel Free account, set up your first project, then connect your web and mobile apps so Mixpanel can capture events (each event being a concrete interaction with your product). From there, you can use Funnels, Retention, Flows, and Boards to understand where users drop off, what drives engagement, and which behaviors predict long-term retention.

Sign Up for Mixpanel Free:
- Go to mixpanel.com and click Get Started Free.
- Sign up with your work email (or SSO if your org uses it).
- Confirm your email and log in to your new workspace.
Create Your First Project:
- Name your project (e.g., Acme – Web + Mobile).
- Choose your primary platform(s): Web, iOS, Android, or Backend/Server.
- Set your default timezone and data region, then complete the project creation flow.
Connect Web and Mobile Apps:
- For web: install the JavaScript SDK or enable Autocapture to start collecting events automatically.
- For mobile: install the SDK in your iOS/Android apps and identify users consistently with your web implementation.
- Validate events are flowing in, then start building Insights, Funnels, and Retention reports.

Step 1: Sign up for Mixpanel Free

Create your account

Go to https://mixpanel.com.
Click Get Started Free in the top navigation.
Enter your:
- Work email
- Name
- Company name
- Approximate company size and role (to tailor guidance)
Create a strong password, or choose Continue with Google / SSO if your org supports it.

You’ll receive a verification email. Click the link to confirm your account and access the Mixpanel dashboard.

Choose or create a workspace

If you’re the first person in your company using Mixpanel, a new workspace will be created for you automatically.

If others already use Mixpanel at your company, you may:

Join an existing workspace (recommended if you want shared tracking and governance), or
Create a new workspace for a separate product, environment, or business unit.

For your first implementation, it’s usually best to join the main company workspace to avoid fragmented data.

Step 2: Set up your first project

Once you’re in a workspace, Mixpanel will prompt you to create your first project. A project is a container for events, users, and metrics for a specific app or environment (for example, “Production” vs “Staging”).

Create the project

Click Create Project if it doesn’t appear automatically.
Fill in:
- Project Name: Use something clear like:
  - Product App – Production
  - Consumer Web + Mobile – Prod
- Platform(s): Select Web, plus iOS and/or Android if you have mobile apps.
- Timezone: Usually where your core team operates.
- Data Region: Choose the region that aligns with your compliance needs (e.g., EU vs US).
Click Create.

You’ll land on a guided setup experience, including options like Autocapture, pre-built templates, and an AI-guided installation assistant to help you get set up faster.

Decide your first events

Before you touch code, decide what “success” looks like:

Acquisition: Sign Up Completed, Trial Started
Activation: Onboarding Step Completed, Profile Created, Project Created
Engagement: Feature Used, Item Added to Cart, Message Sent
Retention: Session Started, Subscription Renewed, Order Completed

Each of these should become an event in Mixpanel—an interaction between a user and your product.

Start with 5–10 core events that map to your onboarding and “aha” moments. You can always add more later.

Step 3: Connect your web app

You can start collecting data from your website or web app in a few minutes.

Option A: Use Autocapture (fastest way to see data)

Autocapture is the fastest path to value:

In your project’s setup screen, choose Web.
Toggle Autocapture on if it’s available for your account.
Follow the snippet instructions to add the Mixpanel script to your site (usually in the <head> of your layout template).

Autocapture automatically tracks key interactions like:

Page views
Button clicks
Form submissions

You can then:

Use Insights to see which pages or buttons get the most use.
Build Funnels to see where users drop off in critical flows (e.g., landing page → sign-up → onboarding).

Use Autocapture to get immediate visibility, then layer in custom events for the behaviors that really matter to your business.

Option B: Install the JavaScript SDK (for structured tracking)

If you want more control, install the JavaScript SDK:

Add the script from the setup page or via your package manager (e.g., npm install mixpanel-browser).
Initialize Mixpanel with your project token:

mixpanel.init('YOUR_PROJECT_TOKEN', {
  debug: true,
});

Track events:

mixpanel.track('Sign Up Started', {
  source: 'landing_page',
});

mixpanel.track('Sign Up Completed', {
  plan: 'pro',
  experiment_variant: 'B',
});

Identify users once they sign up or log in:

mixpanel.identify(user.id);
mixpanel.people.set({
  $email: user.email,
  plan: user.plan,
});

This ensures Mixpanel can connect anonymous sessions to a known user once they authenticate.

Step 4: Connect your mobile apps (iOS and Android)

To see a full journey across web and mobile in one project, install the mobile SDKs and align your identity strategy.

iOS setup

From your project setup, choose iOS.
Install the Mixpanel SDK via Swift Package Manager or CocoaPods.
Initialize Mixpanel in your app delegate or main application entry point with your project token.
Track events like:
- App Opened
- Onboarding Completed
- Push Notification Opened
- Purchase Completed
Use the same distinct user ID as on web (e.g., your internal user ID) when you identify users to unify profiles.

Android setup

From the project setup, choose Android.
Add the Mixpanel SDK via Gradle.
Initialize Mixpanel in your Application class with your project token.
Track key events and properties just like on iOS.
Ensure you use the same user identifier across Android, iOS, and web.

Unify web and mobile journeys

The goal is that a single user appears as one person in Mixpanel, regardless of where they interact. To achieve that:

Use a consistent distinct_id across all platforms.
Call identify() on web, iOS, and Android with the same ID once the user logs in or signs up.
Avoid using random IDs differently per platform without later aliasing or identifying them to a shared ID.

When done correctly, you’ll be able to:

Build a Funnel from “Clicked Ad on Web” → “Signed Up on iOS” → “Subscribed on Android”.
Use Retention to see if mobile-first users retain differently than web-first users.
Analyze Flows to visualize common cross-platform paths.

Step 5: Validate events and build your first reports

Once your SDKs are installed:

Check that data is flowing

In Mixpanel, open your project.
Go to Events (or a live view, depending on UI).
Trigger actions in your web/mobile apps:
- Sign up
- Log in
- Complete a key feature
Confirm you see events with the right names and properties arriving in real-time.

If something doesn’t look right, use the SDK debug/log options and the AI-guided assistant to troubleshoot.

Build your first Insights report

Use Insights to answer basic questions fast:

“Which acquisition channels drive sign ups?”
“What features are most used by retained users?”

Steps:

Go to Insights.
Select an event (e.g., Sign Up Completed).
Break down by:
- source (e.g., landing_page, paid_search)
- device (web vs mobile)
- country, etc.
Adjust date range and filters as needed.

Build a simple Funnel

Use Funnels to see exactly where users drop off:

Go to Funnels.
Define steps, like:
1. Sign Up Started
2. Sign Up Completed
3. Onboarding Completed
Choose a time window (e.g., “within 7 days”).
Segment by platform (web vs mobile) to see where friction differs.

Check early Retention

Use Retention to understand if users come back:

Go to Retention.
Set:
- Trigger event: Sign Up Completed or Onboarding Completed
- Return event: Session Started or a key feature event
View retention over days/weeks and compare web-first vs mobile-first cohorts.

Features & Benefits Breakdown

Core Feature	What It Does	Primary Benefit
Event-Based Tracking	Captures each interaction as an event across web and mobile	Understand real user behavior, not just pageviews or sessions
Cross-Platform Journeys	Unifies web, iOS, and Android analytics in one project	See full user journeys and drop-offs across devices
Self-Serve Reports	Funnels, Retention, Flows, and Insights available to the whole team	Answer product questions in seconds, without SQL bottlenecks
Autocapture & AI Assistant	Automatically logs common web interactions and guides setup with AI	Get value quickly and reduce manual setup work
Boards & Metric Trees	Organizes key reports and maps metrics to underlying drivers	Creates shared definitions and clear ownership across teams
Open Ecosystem & Security	Integrates with tools like Segment and BigQuery; secure by default	Connects to your stack without lock-in, with enterprise governance

Ideal Use Cases

Best for early-stage teams shipping fast: Because Mixpanel Free lets you see what users actually do in your product—where they drop off, which features they use—without needing to build a full data team first.
Best for established orgs piloting event-based analytics: Because you can start with one project (e.g., for a new product or region), connect web + mobile, and prove value before expanding to more teams and data sources.

Limitations & Considerations

Free plan volume & feature limits: The Free plan is designed to get you started, with limits on event volume and some advanced features. As your usage grows (billions of events per month or more teams), you’ll likely want a paid plan.
Requires some implementation work: Even with Autocapture and AI-guided setup, you’ll get the most value when engineers and product managers collaborate to define a clean event taxonomy and user identity strategy.

Pricing & Plans

Mixpanel Free lets you:

Start with no cost, ideal for initial implementations and smaller products.
Access core digital analytics features: Product & Mobile Analytics, Web Analytics, Funnels, Retention, and basic governance.

As you scale:

Growth Plan: Best for product-led teams that need higher event volumes, more projects, and advanced features like Metric Trees, advanced governance, and more robust integrations.
Enterprise Plan: Best for larger organizations with multiple products and teams, needing:
- Sub-second query times at billions of events per month
- Enterprise governance (SSO/SAML, audit logs, source-of-truth metrics)
- Security and compliance (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001/27701, HIPAA-ready)
- Premium support and implementation guidance

You can review current plan details and event volume tiers on the Mixpanel pricing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need engineers to set up Mixpanel Free for web and mobile?

Short Answer: You can get started without engineers using Autocapture and integrations, but you’ll get the best long-term value with some engineering involvement.

Details:
Autocapture and tools like Segment or CDPs can get data flowing quickly. However, defining a clean event schema (which events, which properties, naming conventions) and a consistent identity strategy usually requires collaboration with engineering. That upfront work pays off in clean, reliable analytics your whole org can trust.

Can I track both web and mobile in one Mixpanel project?

Short Answer: Yes, and you should—if they’re part of the same product journey.

Details:
Tracking web, iOS, and Android in one project lets you analyze the full user journey across devices: from a web landing page to a mobile activation and beyond. The key is to:

Use the same project token across platforms (for a single product).
Align on a consistent distinct_id strategy for users.
Use properties like platform or device_type to segment reports.

If you have completely separate products, you can create separate projects for each, while keeping them inside the same workspace.

Summary

Signing up for Mixpanel Free and setting up your first web and mobile project gives you a single, event-based view of how people actually use your product. In a few steps—create an account, spin up a project, install the SDKs, and validate events—you unlock self-serve Funnels, Retention, Flows, and Insights that help you find drop-offs, improve onboarding, and grow engagement without waiting on SQL.

With an open ecosystem, enterprise-ready security, and AI where it helps most (guided setup, not autopilot decisions), Mixpanel becomes the decision infrastructure behind how your team builds.

Next Step

Get Started