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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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PostHog Has a Free Product Analytics Platform That Replaces 5 Paid Tools

#posthog #analytics #opensource #webdev

Google Analytics tracks page views. PostHog tracks everything: analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B tests, and surveys — all in one open-source platform.

What PostHog Replaces

PostHog feature Replaces Paid alternative cost
Product analytics Mixpanel, Amplitude $25-2000/mo
Session replay Hotjar, FullStory $39-199/mo
Feature flags LaunchDarkly $10-1000/mo
A/B testing Optimizely $50-5000/mo
Surveys Typeform, SurveyMonkey $25-99/mo
Total saved $149-8298/mo

Free Tier

  • 1M analytics events/month
  • 5K session recordings/month
  • 1M feature flag requests/month
  • Unlimited team members
  • Self-host option (truly unlimited)

Setup (2 Minutes) 

npm install posthog-js
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import posthog from "posthog-js";

posthog.init("phc_your_project_key", {
  api_host: "https://us.i.posthog.com",
  person_profiles: "identified_only",
});
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Product Analytics 

// Track events
posthog.capture("order_completed", {
  total: 99.99,
  items: 3,
  payment_method: "card",
});

// Identify users
posthog.identify("user_123", {
  email: "alice@test.com",
  plan: "premium",
  company: "Acme Inc",
});

// Group analytics (by company)
posthog.group("company", "acme-inc", {
  name: "Acme Inc",
  plan: "enterprise",
  employees: 500,
});
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Feature Flags 

// Check flag
if (posthog.isFeatureEnabled("new-checkout-flow")) {
  renderNewCheckout();
} else {
  renderOldCheckout();
}

// Multivariate flags
const variant = posthog.getFeatureFlag("pricing-page");
if (variant === "variant-a") {
  showMonthlyPricing();
} else if (variant === "variant-b") {
  showAnnualPricing();
}

// Server-side (Node.js)
import { PostHog } from "posthog-node";

const posthog = new PostHog("phc_key");
const enabled = await posthog.isFeatureEnabled("feature", "user_123");
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A/B Testing (Experiments)

Create experiments in the PostHog UI:

  1. Choose a feature flag for control/variant
  2. Define your metric (e.g., "order_completed" rate)
  3. Set statistical significance threshold
  4. PostHog automatically calculates results

Session Replay 

posthog.init("phc_key", {
  api_host: "https://us.i.posthog.com",
  session_recording: {
    maskAllInputs: true,  // Privacy
    maskTextContent: false,
  },
});
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Watch real user sessions: clicks, scrolls, rage clicks, errors — all recorded.

Surveys 

// Surveys are configured in the PostHog UI
// Target by: URL, user properties, feature flags
// Types: open text, rating, multiple choice, NPS
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Self-Host (Docker) 

git clone https://github.com/PostHog/posthog.git
cd posthog
docker compose -f docker-compose.hobby.yml up -d
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Your data stays on your servers. Unlimited events. Zero cost.

Need analytics or data tools? I build web scraping and developer solutions. Email spinov001@gmail.com or check my Apify tools.

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