PostHog

Overview

PostHog is an open-source product analytics platform that provides analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, and surveys in a single product. Founded in 2020 after a Y Combinator-backed pivot, PostHog grew rapidly by targeting developers directly — offering a self-hostable, open-source alternative to the expensive combination of Mixpanel, LaunchDarkly, and FullStory that growth-stage companies typically pay thousands of dollars per month to maintain.

The core product insight is that product analytics, session replay, and feature management are deeply interconnected. Watching a session replay while seeing the funnel drop-off point provides context that neither tool delivers alone. PostHog makes all of this queryable from the same event data layer — meaning teams can create a feature flag, launch it to a user cohort, track their conversion funnel, and watch session replays of users who dropped off, all within one platform.

Key Features

• Product Analytics — funnels, retention, user paths, trends, and cohort analysis
• Session Replay — record and replay user sessions with DOM capture, including console logs
• Feature Flags — gradual rollouts, targeting by user properties or cohorts, instant kill switches
• A/B Testing — experiment framework tied directly to PostHog analytics metrics
• Surveys — in-product surveys triggered by user events or shown to specific cohorts
• SQL query access — run raw SQL queries against your PostHog event data
• Data warehouse — sync external data from Salesforce, HubSpot, and Stripe alongside product events
• Self-hosting — open-source deployment on your own infrastructure via Docker or Kubernetes
• SDKs — official SDKs for web, iOS, Android, React Native, Python, Node.js, and more

Pricing

PostHog Free includes 1 million events, 5,000 session recordings, 1 million feature flag requests, and 250 survey responses per month — permanently free, not a trial. Usage-based pricing applies above these limits: $0.00031/event, $0.005/recording, $0.0001/flag request. Most teams stay below the free tier for months. Self-hosting on your own infrastructure has no per-event cost — only compute.

Best For

PostHog is the right choice for developer-led product teams who want to consolidate analytics, session replay, and feature management tooling without vendor lock-in. Its open-source core and self-hosting option make it particularly appealing to teams with data residency requirements. Startups can replace Mixpanel, LaunchDarkly, and FullStory with PostHog's free tier.

Limitations

PostHog requires developer instrumentation — adding tracking to your product codebase for events you want to measure. The self-hosted version requires server management and ongoing maintenance. PostHog's UI, while functional and improving, is less polished than dedicated specialist tools. There is no formal affiliate programme.

Verdict

The best product analytics platform for developer-led teams on a budget. Consolidates analytics, session replay, and feature flags at a price point that is difficult to match. For teams who can instrument their product, PostHog's free tier effectively eliminates the cost of the analytics stack.