PostHog vs Plausible

The all-in-one product analytics platform vs the privacy-focused analytics that just tells you what matters.

Different Tools for Different Jobs

Plausible answers: "How many people visit my site and where do they come from?"

PostHog answers: "What are my users doing, why are they churning, and what should I build next?"

They're not really competitors. But developers compare them because both are privacy-friendly analytics that aren't Google Analytics.

PostHog: The Product OS

PostHog is what happens when you combine Mixpanel, Hotjar, LaunchDarkly, and Typeform into one open-source platform.

• Event analytics with funnels and retention • Session replay to watch real user behavior • Feature flags with percentage rollouts • A/B testing with statistical significance • Surveys for qualitative feedback

All self-hostable. All with a generous free tier (1M events/month).

Plausible: The Anti-Analytics Analytics

Plausible's pitch is simplicity and privacy. One script tag. No cookies. GDPR-compliant by default. A single-page dashboard that shows you what matters.

• Page views, referrers, countries, devices — the basics, done well • No cookie banners needed — fully privacy-compliant • Lightweight script — under 1KB vs PostHog's ~70KB • Self-hostable (Community Edition)

For blogs, marketing sites, and documentation — Plausible is all you need.

Script Size Matters

Plausible's script is under 1KB. PostHog's is ~70KB (with autocapture). If you care about page load performance (you should), that's a meaningful difference.

PostHog has a lite mode that reduces this, but it still can't match Plausible's minimalism.

Quick Comparison

Factor	PostHog	Plausible
Event Tracking	Full product analytics	Page views only
Session Replay	Built-in	No
Feature Flags	Built-in	No
Privacy	Good (self-hostable)	Excellent (no cookies)
Script Size	~70KB	<1KB
Free Tier	1M events/month	No free tier ($9/mo)
Setup Simplicity	Moderate	One line of HTML
Self-hosting	Docker, complex	Docker, simple

The Verdict

Use PostHog if: You're building a product and need to understand user behavior, run experiments, and manage feature rollouts. PostHog replaces multiple tools.

Use Plausible if: You have a blog, docs site, or marketing page and just want clean traffic data without the cookie banner dance.

Consider: Umami is another excellent privacy-focused alternative to Plausible, and it's completely free to self-host.

The Bottom Line

PostHog wins

PostHog gives you analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, and surveys in one tool. If you're building a product (not a blog), PostHog replaces 4 separate tools. Plausible is perfect if you just want clean traffic analytics.

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