Tool profile
Countly: cost, fit and limits
Countly is a product analytics platform made by Countly Ltd that tracks events, funnels, retention and flows across mobile, web and desktop apps, deployable as a free self-hosted edition, a dedicated cloud instance or an enterprise install, with an AI agent named Cee.
What to know first
Countly splits into three offers. Lite is free and open source on your own server, Flex starts at $175 per month for a dedicated cloud instance priced by monthly active users, and Enterprise is a custom quote billed annually per deployment. The AI agent Cee is an add-on on Flex and included on Enterprise, without a published add-on price. The deployment choice is the main thing to settle first.
Countly at a glance
| Maker | Countly Ltd, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | Free (Lite, self-hosted); Flex from $175 per month |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Product Analytics Software in 2026, rank 12 of 12 |
| Website | countly.com |
Who Countly is best for
Teams with data residency rules
Flex runs in a Google Cloud region the customer picks, and Lite or Enterprise can run on the customer's own infrastructure, so analytics data stays where a policy demands.
Mobile-heavy product teams
SDKs cover iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter and Unity next to web and server languages, so one platform serves apps built on several stacks without separate analytics tools.
Companies shipping AI features
AI Analytics measures adoption, cost, quality and performance of AI features a team ships, and an MCP server connects an outside model or agent to product data as context.
Engineering-led groups that like open source
Lite is released under an open-source license with over twenty plugins, so a team can read the code, extend it and run it without a contract.
Countly plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | Free, open source | Self-hosted core platform on your own server with over twenty plugins for mobile, web and desktop analytics, community support and no SLA. |
| Flex | From $175 per month | Dedicated single-tenant cloud instance in your chosen Google Cloud region with Advanced Analytics. Adaptivity, Intelligence with Cee and an uptime SLA are add-ons. Priced by MAU, 14-day trial. |
| Enterprise | Custom quote, billed annually per deployment | Self-hosted or your own private cloud with every capability including Cee, a dedicated customer success manager, engineering support, custom SLAs and single sign-on. |
Checked November 2026.
What Countly does
- Cee, the AI agent
- Cee answers questions about product data in plain language, and natural language queries are listed as a separate feature. Cee sits in the Intelligence add-on on Flex and is included on Enterprise.
- AI Analytics
- A set of reports for the AI features a customer ships, covering adoption, cost, quality and performance. It suits teams that need to see whether an assistant inside their own product gets used.
- MCP Server
- An MCP server hooks an outside model, copilot or agent into Countly as product context, and bring your own model is listed for Enterprise. The pages do not detail which data objects the server exposes.
- Data Manager
- Event schema approval, transformations at ingestion, masking, hashing and consent management sit in one place. These controls help teams keep stray personal data out of events before it reaches storage.
- Core analytics and alerts
- Funnels, retention, flows, cohorts and Drill cover the usual product questions, with anomaly detection and metric alerts on top. Webhooks, hooks and a REST and Export API feed other systems.
How Countly handles your data
Where data lives depends on the edition: Lite on your server, Enterprise on your infrastructure, and Flex in a dedicated environment in the Google Cloud region you choose, never pooled with other customers. The homepage lists ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certification, SOC 2 Type II examination, GDPR compliance by design and HIPAA support. AI features may pass through the Countly AI Gateway in the EU, and third-party AI providers run outside Countly hosting. Training on customer data was not stated.
Where Countly falls short in practice
- Cee is gated by edition. Cee is an add-on on Flex and part of Enterprise only. The Intelligence add-on has no price on the pricing page, so a Flex buyer must ask sales before knowing what plain-language querying will add.
- SLA is not part of Flex. An uptime SLA is an add-on on Flex, and Lite has community-only support with no SLA. A team with a production dependency on analytics has to buy that add-on or move to Enterprise terms.
- MAU-based Flex pricing. Flex starts at $175 per month and is priced by monthly active users, but the pages we read show no tier table. Finance cannot forecast a large consumer app from the page alone.
- Self-hosting is your job. Lite and Enterprise installs run on the customer's own servers, so patching, storage sizing and backups fall to the team. The pages describe the software, not the operations burden that follows.
Works with
Alternatives to Countly
Countly: common questions
Is Countly free to self-host?
Yes. Lite is free and open source and runs on your own server, with over twenty plugins and community support. It has no SLA, and the AI agent Cee is not part of it. Hosting costs, upgrades and backups are the team's own responsibility.
What does Countly Flex cost?
Flex starts at $175 per month, billed monthly, for a dedicated private cloud instance, priced by monthly active users, with a 14-day free trial and cancel-anytime terms. Adaptivity, Intelligence and the uptime SLA are add-ons. The pricing page shows no MAU tier table, so ask for a quote at your volume.
Which AI features does Countly name?
Countly names Cee, an agent that answers product data questions in plain language, AI Analytics for measuring the AI features you ship, and an MCP server that connects an outside model or agent. Cee is an add-on on Flex and included on Enterprise.
Can Countly run entirely on my own infrastructure?
Yes. Enterprise can run self-hosted or in your own private cloud, and the pages mention air-gapped operation. Lite also runs on your own server. Third-party AI providers, if you use them, run outside Countly hosting, so check which AI features you enable.
Which certifications does Countly list?
The homepage lists ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certification, a SOC 2 Type II examination, TISAX participation, GDPR compliance by design and HIPAA support. We did not open the audit reports, so ask the vendor for them before relying on a certification in a security review.