If you're managing product analytics with a spreadsheet, you know "The Spreadsheet": that infamous 500+ row Google Sheets document that's both your most important asset and your biggest source of confusion. It's like your Gen Z colleague's emotional support water bottle—it takes up half the table and everyone's staring at it, even though there's a perfectly good water pitcher right there.
After hundreds of discovery calls, we've found that 90% of teams use spreadsheets for their tracking documentation. And honestly? We get it. Spreadsheets are free, familiar, and they've been the go-to since MySpace Tom was everyone's first friend.
But here's the plot twist: teams eventually realise that spreadsheets create more problems than they solve. Suddenly you're playing "guess which version is current," your developers are staging interventions about implementation clarity, and your alignment meetings have their own alignment meetings.
So what are the alternatives? We've analysed the most common escape routes teams take and discovered why one solution actually solves the core problem instead of just moving it around (Yes, we're obviously biased toward our own solution, but we'll give you the real pros and cons of each approach based on what teams actually tell us.)
1. Glazed: The visual-first solution that actually works
Why teams fall in love: Glazed understands the real problem isn't just organisation; it's the absurd disconnect between where you plan tracking and where it actually happens. Instead of managing tracking in some distant spreadsheet, Glazed brings everything directly to your Figma designs (you know, where your actual product lives):
Key capabilities:
- Visual event discovery: Browse and create events directly on your Figma designs—no more guessing which "blue button" the spreadsheet refers to
- AI-powered suggestions: Get event recommendations based on your existing taxonomy, automatically linked to design components
- One-click design sync: Design changed? Hit 'Sync' and we'll handle the rest
- Developer-ready handoffs: Generate pseudocode and implementation specs directly in Figma
- Real-time QA: Monitor tracking implementation and catch errors before production
- Event reusability: Avoid duplicates with a centralised event library across all design files
Real impact: Teams report 86% faster tracking plan creation (goodbye, spreadsheets), 90% fewer implementation bugs (developers actually understand what to instrument), and 80% reduction in alignment meetings (because visual specs are self-explanatory).
Perfect for: Teams using Figma who are tired of writing specs, updating screenshots, and want their developers to stop asking "which button exactly?" for every single handoff.
2. Notion / Confluence Tables
"We embed tracking plans in our project documentation"
Why teams upgrade: "At least it's not a spreadsheet!" Plus, it lives with your project docs, which feels more civilised.
The reality check: Tables are still basically fancy spreadsheets without visual context. Teams start manually pasting Figma links everywhere (because deep down, they know context matters), but there's no magic sync between design changes and tracking specs. Event discovery in large tracking plans still feels like archaeology.
What we hear: "It's definitely more organized than our old spreadsheet chaos, but developers still Slack us every handoff asking 'which button exactly are we talking about?'"
Good for: Teams heavily invested in Notion/Confluence who need tracking docs embedded in project context and don't mind manual maintenance.
3. Figma Comments and Annotations
"We just add tracking specs as Figma comments—problem solved!"
Why smaller teams love it: Zero friction, zero learning curve. Specs live exactly where the magic happens. It's like having your recipe written directly on the ingredients.
The scalability reality check: No centralisation means your tracking wisdom exists only in individual files. Good luck finding that event you defined three months ago. You'll end up with "login_button_click," "loginButtonClick," "btn_login_pressed," and "user_login_tap" all doing the same thing across different screens.
What we hear: "It's perfect for our small team right now, but we just realised we have four different names for the same login event across different files."
Good for: Small teams working on a single master Figma design file where the latest version is always current.
4. AVO and TrackingPlan
"We need serious governance tools for serious data people"
Why enterprise teams choose them: These are the grown-ups in the room. Think of them as excellent security guards for data that's already flowing—robust governance, schema validation, and tracking quality that makes data scientists weep tears of joy.
The missing piece: These tools excel at monitoring data quality but weren't designed for the "what should we track?" planning phase. You can upload images, but there's no live link to your actual designs, so those screenshots become outdated faster than your favourite memes.
What we hear: "AVO catches our data quality issues beautifully, but our developers still need separate visual specs to understand which exact UI element should trigger each event."
Good for: Large organisations with dedicated data teams who need robust governance and have resources to maintain visual documentation separately.
5. Miro Boards
"Let's map this out visually in our workshop tool!"
Why some teams try it: Those user journey maps look gorgeous in workshops. Perfect for getting everyone aligned on the big picture and making stakeholders feel like strategic geniuses.
The reality check: Boards become outdated faster than fashion trends, and beautiful journey maps don't actually store searchable event data. That stunning workshop output doesn't translate to actionable developer specs.
What we hear: "Our Miro tracking journey is absolutely beautiful and everyone loves it in workshops, but when developers ask 'okay, but what exactly do I implement?' we're back to square one."
Good for: Initial strategic planning and stakeholder alignment, but you'll need something else for actual implementation.
6. Analytics Platform Documentation
"Let's just manage tracking plans directly in Amplitude, Mixpanel or Posthog"
Why it seems logical: Keep documentation where the data lives! It's like storing your recipes in your kitchen—everything's in one place.
The pre-implementation problems: These platforms are built for analysing data, not designing tracking. Developers still need to figure out how event specs map to actual UI elements, and product managers often don't have access to analytics platforms.
What we hear: "Amplitude is fantastic for understanding our data, but Glazed has dramatically improved our tracking instrumentation process."
Good for: Teams who want to supplement their existing analytics tools with better planning and handoff processes.
7. Custom Internal Tools
"We'll build our own tracking documentation system"
Why engineering teams consider it: "How hard can it be?" Plus, it'll be perfectly tailored to your needs and tech stack.
The reality check: You'll spend 6 months building what you could have implemented in 6 minutes, and your custom tool will have exactly the features you thought you needed—not the ones you actually need. Meanwhile, your tracking documentation problems persist.
What we hear: "Our custom tool technically works, but we've spent more time maintaining it than using it, and it still doesn't solve the visual context problem."
Good for: Teams with unlimited engineering resources and a deep desire to reinvent wheels.
Why Most Alternatives Still Miss the Point
Most alternatives just give your spreadsheet problem a makeover. Better formatting, prettier interfaces, but the same fundamental disconnect between planning and implementation.
The real problem with tracking spreadsheets isn't just that they're disorganised (though they are). It's the absurd disconnect between where you plan tracking and where it actually gets implemented.
Think about it:
- Documentation tools make the UI prettier but you're still describing buttons with words
- Design tools provide context but turn into an organisational nightmare
- Governance tools ensure data quality but don't help with the "what should we track?" phase
- Analytics platforms are great at showing you data but terrible at helping you plan what data to collect
Glazed is different because it addresses the root cause: it brings tracking documentation directly to your designs while keeping everything organised, consistent, and intelligent. It's like having your recipe written on the actual ingredients, but with a smart assistant that remembers all your preferences.
The Reality Check: What Teams Actually Tell Us
From spreadsheets: "We went from spending 2 weeks creating tracking docs to 2 days. But honestly, the bigger win is that our developers finally understand what to build without playing 20 questions."
From Notion: "We loved having tracking docs in our project workspace, but seeing events directly on the actual designs eliminated so much confusion and back-and-forth."
From Figma comments: "We were already annotating tracking in Figma, but Glazed gave us the governance and reusability we desperately needed as we scaled to multiple squads."
From AVO: "AVO is fantastic for data quality monitoring, but Glazed solved our 'developers staring at specs in confusion' problem. Now we use both—Glazed for planning and handoff, AVO for ongoing monitoring."
Your Escape Route from Spreadsheet Hell
Choose Glazed if you want to:
- Stop playing "guess what the tracking spec means" with your developers
- Get AI-powered event suggestions that keep your taxonomy consistent
- Have a single source of truth with cross-file event reusability
- Give developers handoffs that make sense the first time
- Catch problems with real-time QA before your data team starts crying
- Work within Figma instead of constantly context-switching
The honest truth: Most alternatives just move the spreadsheet problem around instead of solving it. Glazed actually addresses the core issue—the disconnect between planning and implementation—while giving you the governance and intelligence that modern teams need.
The real question isn't whether to ditch your tracking spreadsheet. It's whether you want a solution that actually fixes the underlying problems or just makes them look prettier.
Ready to see what happens when tracking documentation finally makes sense?
Book a demo and join the teams creating tracking plans in minutes, not weeks.