A few questions about DB analytics, Google, Mixpanel, etc.

Hi all,

I've been using Google Analytics 4 on my SaaS products for a while

I'll start by saying that in general I'm not happy with Google Analytics. It just feels like it's harder than it should be. Getting the data I need, creating the graphs, filtering my own traffic. It's all clunky.

BUT, that's not important enough for me to learn a new tool.

Where I am considering something else is that GA measures js events, but most important events are best derived from my SQL DB. ​How many new users, How many photos where uploaded, how many were shared.

I can manually set up events in javascript, but that's work that I need to do, test and maintain. It's also not going to be as accurate as I do validation on the server.

So the most straightforward way to me is have a service that measure js events and can connect to my DB. Is there an option like this? If no, how to others go about it?

Also, regardless, should I ditch Google Analytics? It works but it's clunky. I'm not sure if Mixpanel and the likes are better