PostHog Has a Free API — Product Analytics You Can Self-Host

PostHog is an open-source product analytics platform. It replaces Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and LaunchDarkly with a single self-hosted tool.

What Is PostHog?

PostHog provides analytics, session recording, feature flags, A/B testing, and surveys — all in one platform.

Free tier:

• 1M events/month
• 5K session recordings
• Unlimited feature flags
• Self-hosted: unlimited

REST API

# Capture event
curl -X POST https://app.posthog.com/capture/ \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"api_key":"YOUR_PROJECT_KEY","event":"purchase","distinct_id":"user123","properties":{"amount":49.99,"product":"Pro Plan"}}'

# Query events
curl https://app.posthog.com/api/projects/PROJECT_ID/events/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_PERSONAL_API_KEY"

# Feature flags
curl -X POST https://app.posthog.com/decide/ \
  -d '{"api_key":"YOUR_KEY","distinct_id":"user123"}'

JavaScript SDK

import posthog from "posthog-js";

posthog.init("YOUR_PROJECT_KEY", { api_host: "https://app.posthog.com" });

posthog.capture("button_clicked", { button: "signup" });

if (posthog.isFeatureEnabled("new-dashboard")) {
  showNewDashboard();
}

Use Cases

1. Product analytics — funnels, retention, paths
2. Session recording — watch user sessions
3. Feature flags — gradual rollouts
4. A/B testing — experiment with variations
5. Surveys — in-app feedback

PostHog vs Alternatives

Feature	PostHog	Mixpanel	Amplitude
Self-hosted	Yes	No	No
Free events	1M/mo	20M/mo	50M/mo
Session replay	Yes	No	Yes
Feature flags	Yes	No	Yes
Open source	Yes	No	No

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