Is it better to implement Amplitude with or without a CDP like Segment?
This is a typical question that I get asked by clients, and it’s quite difficult to answer! In this post I’m going to explain what a CDP is, what an Amplitude setup looks like with or without Segment, and some considerations for determining which setup is better for your product.
What is a CDP?
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a tool like Segment, which typically offers the following features:
- event data collection: APIs or SDKs that allow you to send tracking events to Segment
- data tool integrations: pipe your tracking data between several tools
- data governance: ensure your data adheres to a certain structure and set of rules so that it’s clean and usable
Is Amplitude a CDP?
Amplitude is primarily a product analytics tool, but they do now also offer their own CDP. The Amplitude CDP is being rolled out, so it’s too early to judge whether it could be a suitable replacement for Segment. That said, Amplitude has always had strong data governance and data integration features, so it may come down to how comprehensive they are able to make those.
Do I need a CDP?
Amplitude can always be implemented directly without a CDP, so you definitely don’t need one.
However, integrating via a CDP can be an advantage if your data architecture needs are sufficiently complicated to justify the extra cost.
Imagine the (common) case that you want to send data from your product to both your product analytics (e.g. Amplitude) and email tool (e.g. customer.io), and also between those tools.
Without a CDP your architecture would look something like this, and you would have effectively 4 integrations to maintain.
With a CDP, your architecture would look more like this, with Segment as the central hub. Because Segment comes with integrations for many tools, you end up only really needing to maintain the integration with Segment — the rest is just mapping their configuration to fit your needs.
As you can imagine, the more tools you add, the stronger the case is for using a CDP.
How expensive is Segment?
Honestly Segment is quite expensive, because the free plan only covers 1000 visitors a month, which is quickly exceeded! After that, the paid plan starts at $120/month but scales with your visitor volumes.
There is a special startup plan, which offers up to 2 years free, but be aware that the lock-in is quite strong with a CDP so you should be ready to pay afterwards or unpick all the integrations you casually enjoy setting up during the free period!
Stats from my Client Base
As a point of comparison, I can tell you that 30% of my Amplitude clients also use Segment, and that goes up to 70% when I only look at clients who are post Series-A.
Need help getting Amplitude and Segment setup?
As mentioned, I’ve integrated this setup several times with my agency Permutable — an official Amplitude partner. If you’d like to discuss your case, please get in touch!
