Back in 1980 there was a movie called Nine to Five—referring to the commonly held perception of a standard work day. Of course, that work day evolved to be more like eight to six (or seven), and now it seems like the concept of a work day—or work hours at all—is a distant memory. In order to keep up with the instantaneous, always-on, connected 24/7 pace of today, companies need to be able to understand how their apps are used, and proactively address issues in real-time.

That’s where companies like MixPanel come in. MixPanel offers an advanced analytics platform for Web and mobile apps so that developers can keep tabs on when, where, and how apps are used, and any problems that might arise.

I spoke with Tim Trefren, co-founder of MixPanel. He proclaimed, “It’s easy to build a product. What’s hard is building a good product.” I assume that wisdom applies both to MixPanel itself, as well as to the customers that employ MixPanel to monitor and improve their own products.

Trefren told me that MixPanel provides a very flexible system that enables customers to track and monitor the metrics that matter most to them. It allows for custom metrics, so companies can choose to monitor elements of apps and app functionality that are completely unique. Customers can also implement A/B alternatives and compare metrics between the two to determine which is most effective.

Monitoring performance metrics, and analyzing that data to fix or improve apps fits into the broader concept of agile development, and rapid iteration that define DevOps. Trefren explained that some customers also employ MixPanel in an innovative way that also applies to DevOps—to actually monitor operational data.

Trefren says MixPanel may not be the ideal tool for monitoring operations, but it does enable admins to monitor everything from a single display, and it can be used to alert IT personnel when issues arise. For example, if MixPanel starts logging metrics that show an app is not being used at all, that could indicate that a server is offline.

MixPanel also recognized that it was in a position to do a little more. It offers a service that analyzes captured metrics data, and enables MixPanel to help companies understand who their customers are. Understanding the audience, and the actions they take (or don’t take) with an app provides valuable demographic data that companies can use to target marketing efforts with greater precision.

Trefren also told me that he is exceptionally proud of the engineering team at MixPanel. While the volume of data being analyzed has tripled in each of the last two years, the engineering team has only doubled over those same periods. That means that the MixPanel engineering team is working more efficiently, and getting exponentially more done in order to keep up with demand, but that’s another story for another day.

“The combination of power, flexibility, and performance set MixPanel apart from competitors. We’re able to do more, and do it more quickly,” said Trefren.

That may be true, but MixPanel isn’t alone. I wrote a while back about similar services from AppDynamics, including its DevOps War Room feature. Clearly, the rapid pace of development, and the sheer volume of apps have created a market for being able to monitor metrics, and measure the performance of those apps in real-time.

MixPanel offers its analytics as a freemium service. Paying customers are billed for metrics per data point, so the overall cost ends up being a reflection of the volume of data being analyzed.