PostHog: The Open-Source Product Analytics App That Wants to Steal Google Analytics’ Lunch
PostHog: From Analytics Tool to Everything a Product Engineer Needs
PostHog used to be easy to explain.
It was the open-source, privacy-first analytics platform that wanted to steal Google Analytics’ lunch. Self-hosted. Developer-friendly. No creepy data sharing. A refreshing alternative to the usual analytics incumbents.
That’s still true. But it’s no longer the whole story.
Today, PostHog positions itself as something far more ambitious: a single platform for people who build products. Not just analytics. Not just session replay. But the full toolkit product engineers use to ship, debug, measure, and iterate faster.
That ambition is what makes PostHog compelling and what makes it worth revisiting.
Let’s break it down.
The Basics: What Is PostHog Now?
PostHog is an open-source platform designed to help product engineers build successful products. Analytics are still at the core, but they’re now part of a much broader system that includes:
Product and web analytics
Session replays and heatmaps
Error tracking
Feature flags and experimentation
Surveys and feedback
CDP-style data plumbing
Even LLM usage analytics
The idea is simple: everything you need to understand users, ship improvements, and measure impact lives in one place, powered by a single SDK.
Purpose: Help product engineers debug and ship faster Who it’s for: Product engineers, technical founders, and product-minded teams at growing startups Pricing: Generous free tiers across products; usage-based pricing that scales predictably
PostHog is very intentional about not calling itself “just an analytics tool” anymore. It wants to be the system engineers live in while building products.
First Impressions
Onboarding PostHog still isn’t a plug-and-play, five-minute setup if you self-host. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is how well the docs, tutorials, and examples guide you through real use cases. This is software clearly written by engineers for engineers.
Cloud users can be up and running quickly. Self-hosters should expect some upfront investment but nothing unreasonable for the level of control you get.
Interface The UI is utilitarian in the best way. It favors clarity over polish. As the product surface area has grown, navigation can feel dense at times, but it never feels opaque. You always understand what you’re looking at and why.
Philosophy Check PostHog’s “we do the right thing” ethos is not subtle. No sales pressure. No dark patterns. No contract traps. It’s refreshingly aligned with how engineers wish SaaS companies behaved.
Feature Breakdown (What Actually Matters)
Event-Based Analytics
Still one of PostHog’s strongest features. Extremely flexible, deeply customizable, and built for teams that want control over how data is modeled and queried.
This is analytics for people who like understanding their data, not just glancing at dashboards (looking at you, GA4).
Session Replays & Error Tracking
This is where PostHog’s “engineer-first” positioning really clicks.
You can move seamlessly from:
An error
To the session where it occurred
To the exact user behavior that triggered it
That context-switching reduction alone can save teams hours every week.
Feature Flags & Experimentation
Feature flags, rollouts, and experiments feel like first-class citizens, not bolt-ons. You can ship to a segment, watch usage in real time, gather feedback, and then decide what to roll out or kill.
For fast-moving teams, this tight loop is the real value.
Heatmaps & Surveys
These are intentionally lightweight. They won’t replace best-in-class standalone tools, but they don’t try to. They exist to give engineers immediate context without adding another vendor or integration.
Pricing Reality Check
PostHog’s pricing philosophy is part of the product.
Usage-based
Transparent
No surprise renewals
Generous free tiers
Consistently cheaper than major competitors
This works because PostHog expects customers to use multiple products, not because they rely on aggressive sales tactics. It’s closer to a utility model than enterprise SaaS theater.
That said, teams should still monitor usage. With so many features available, costs can scale if you turn everything on without intention.
The Honest Trade-Offs
Where PostHog Shines
Deeply aligned with how product engineers actually work
Everything lives in one platform, one mental model
Open source and auditable
Transparent, developer-respecting company culture
Powerful enough to replace multiple tools (reducing that tech stack)
Where It May Not Be a Fit
The expanding scope can feel overwhelming for smaller teams
Non-technical users may find it less approachable than point-and-click tools
It rewards teams who like learning systems, not those who want instant answers
PostHog’s ambition is a strength, but it also means you need a clear sense of what problems you’re solving. This is a toolbox, not a magic button.
Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Use It
You should strongly consider PostHog if you:
Are a product engineer or technical founder
Want tighter feedback loops between shipping and learning
Prefer tools that respect your intelligence
Are tired of duct-taping five vendors together
You may want to look elsewhere if you:
Want analytics purely for high-level reporting
Need a tool optimized primarily for non-technical stakeholders
Don’t want to engage deeply with your data
Final Verdict
PostHog no longer wants to compete only with analytics tools. It wants to replace an entire category of fragmented product tooling.
That’s a bold bet. And so far, it’s a credible one.
If you’re a product engineer who believes building great products comes from tight loops, honest data, and tools that stay out of your way, PostHog feels less like software you buy and more like software you grow into.
“PostHog isn’t trying to be everything for everyone. It’s trying to be everything for people who build.”
That clarity, more than any single feature, is what makes it worth paying attention to.
Check it out here.
