You're tracking dozens of events across your product. To see conversion, retention, and feature adoption in one place, you're jumping between five different analyses. Custom Dashboards solve this: they let you combine multiple charts—funnels, retention curves, segmentation breakdowns—into a single dashboard you check every morning. Instead of running ad hoc analyses, you build once and watch in real time.
What Custom Dashboards Are
A Custom Dashboard is a personalized workspace where you combine visualizations to track your most important metrics.
The Core Idea
Custom Dashboards are blank canvases you populate with charts. Unlike pre-built reports, you choose exactly which events, properties, and time ranges appear. Each chart is interactive—click a segment to drill into users, toggle filters to compare cohorts, and the entire dashboard updates instantly. The dashboard pulls live data from the events you're already tracking.
What You Track Becomes Your Dashboard Data
Dashboards visualize events you send to Amplitude. If you're tracking Purchase, Feature Used, and Session Started, those events populate your funnel charts, segmentation tables, and retention analyses. The more structured your events—especially user properties like plan_tier, cohort_id, or signup_date—the more useful your dashboards become.
Example Event Structure for Dashboards
Make sure your events include rich context so dashboards can slice and segment. Tracking just the event name is limiting. Include properties that let you answer business questions.
// Event structure that powers dashboard insights
amplitude.track('Subscription Confirmed', {
subscription_id: 'sub_abc123',
plan_tier: 'pro',
plan_duration: 'annual',
mrr: 999,
utm_source: 'paid_search',
user_cohort: '2024_q1_signup',
company_size: 'mid-market'
});Building a Dashboard in Practice
Creating a dashboard takes minutes. Start with a business question, then add charts that answer it.
Create and Name Your Dashboard
From Dashboards in the left sidebar, click Create. Give it a specific name tied to what it tracks—"Q2 Launch Funnel" or "Enterprise Churn Dashboard"—not "General" or "All Metrics." Set a default time range (e.g., "Last 30 days") so the dashboard always shows recent data.
Add Your First Chart
Click Add Chart. Choose a chart type: Segmentation (counts and percentages), Funnel (multi-step flows), Retention (cohort lifetimes), Frequency (event counts per user), or User Journey (individual paths). Configure the chart by selecting events, user properties to break down by, and any filters.
Apply Global Filters
Use the filter bar at the top to narrow the entire dashboard. For example, filter by country = 'US' or subscription_status = 'active'. All charts respect this filter. You can also use a date picker to view different time windows without recreating the dashboard.
Organize and Save
Add more charts until you've covered your key questions (aim for 6–10 per dashboard). Click Save, then optionally Pin to sidebar so it's always accessible. You can also set the dashboard to auto-refresh every 5 minutes if you're monitoring live metrics during a launch.
Sharing and Operating Dashboards
Share with Your Team
Click Share on your dashboard. Grant View access (read-only) to stakeholders, or Edit access to team members who refine the dashboard. Share via link (workspace members) or invite via email. Team members see live updates—no refreshing required.
Export and Embed
Export any chart as CSV by clicking the menu. Amplitude also generates shareable dashboard links you can embed in Slack, email digests, or documentation. This is useful for stakeholder reports—they see fresh data without logging into Amplitude.
API Integration for Advanced Use Cases
If you're building custom applications or syncing dashboard data elsewhere, Amplitude's REST API lets you query dashboard data programmatically.
// Example: Query event data that would appear in a dashboard
// (Typically done server-side with your API key)
const response = await fetch(
'https://api2.amplitude.com/2/events',
{
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Authorization': `Bearer YOUR_API_KEY`,
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
},
body: JSON.stringify({
data_source: 'events',
get_property_columns: true,
start: '20240101',
end: '20240131'
})
}
);
const data = await response.json();Common Pitfalls
- Not tracking consistent event properties. If you track
subscription_planin one event andplan_tierin another, you'll create separate filters instead of one cohesive dashboard filter. - Building "kitchen sink" dashboards. A dashboard with every possible metric becomes a wall of charts nobody checks. Focus each dashboard on one business question.
- Forgetting that dashboards show historical data. If you need real-time alerts when funnel drop-off spikes, configure Amplitude alerts instead of monitoring manually.
- Ignoring dashboard performance. Too many charts or overly complex filters slow load times. Archive outdated charts and rebuild dashboards as your product strategy shifts.
Wrapping Up
Custom Dashboards in Amplitude transform your event stream into actionable insight. You track rich events, combine them into focused charts, and share with your team instantly. The best dashboards answer specific business questions and live in your morning routine. If you want to track these metrics across multiple tools and get deeper insights without maintaining custom dashboards, Product Analyst can help.