PostHog Pricing 2026 - Usage-Based Analytics Costs & Complete Breakdown

PostHog has disrupted the analytics market with radical transparency and open-source flexibility. Unlike Amplitude ($2K-$8K/month) or Mixpanel ($4.5K-$15K/month), PostHog charges by actual usage with generous free tiers and no per-seat fees. However, navigating usage-based pricing requires understanding event volumes, session replay costs, and feature flag expenses—variables most product teams haven't measured.

This guide reveals PostHog's actual pricing model, real cost examples at different scales, free tier capabilities, and how it compares to alternatives so you can make an informed decision.

Pricing Model Overview

PostHog fundamentally differs from competitors by rejecting per-user and per-seat models. Instead, you pay for actual usage across distinct products:

• Product Analytics: charged per event
• Session Replay: charged per recording
• Feature Flags: charged per trigger event
• Data Warehouse: charged per row synced
• Surveys: charged per response

Key principle: Unlimited team members, unlimited tracked users. You only pay for data volume. A 5-person startup and a 500-person enterprise using identical event volumes pay identical fees.

Free Tier (Forever, No Credit Card)

PostHog's free tier is among the most generous in the industry, resetting monthly:

Real context: 1M events monthly = ~33K events/day = sufficient for a startup tracking core features on 10K-50K monthly active users. Most early-stage SaaS companies stay on free forever until reaching significant traction.

Usage-Based Pricing Breakdown

Product Analytics Events

Once you exceed 1M events monthly, PostHog charges tiered rates with step-down pricing (higher volumes = lower per-unit cost):

Example: 12M events in a month

• First 1M: $0 (free)
• Next 1M @ $0.00005/event = $50
• Remaining 10M @ $0.0000343/event = $343
• Total: $393/month

This scales down as you grow—a company sending 250M+ events pays ~70% less per-event than one sending 2M events.

Session Replay

Session replay is PostHog's second revenue driver. Costs vary by replay type (web vs. mobile):

Web Session Replay:

Mobile Session Replay:

Example: 25K web replays + 10K mobile replays

• 25K web @ $0.0035 = $87.50
• 10K mobile @ $0.01 = $100
• Total: $187.50/month

Session replay costs escalate rapidly at scale. A company capturing 100K+ sessions monthly can exceed $200-$300/month on replays alone.

Feature Flags & A/B Testing

Feature flags use trigger events as the meter:

Example: 500K flag requests/month

• First 10K: Free
• Next 40K @ $0.0005 = $20
• Next 450K @ $0.00015 = $67.50
• Total: $87.50/month

Feature flags are typically the cheapest component because they require minimal infrastructure (just decision logic, not video/data storage).

Additional Products

Data Warehouse (rows synced):

• 1-10M rows: $0.000015/row
• 10-25M rows: $0.00001/row
• 25-50M rows: $0.000008/row
• 50M+: Discounted per request

Surveys & Feedback:

• First 10K responses: Free
• 10-50K: $0.003/response
• 50-100K: $0.0018/response

Error Tracking:

• First 100K exceptions: Free
• 100-325K: $0.00037/exception

Real-World Pricing Examples

Unlike Amplitude or Mixpanel with flat-rate tiers, PostHog's costs scale smoothly with actual usage. The median PostHog customer (per Vendr) pays $54,443/year—significantly less than Amplitude ($24K-$96K/year) at equivalent scale.

What You Get

Product Analytics

PostHog captures every user interaction—page views, clicks, form submissions, custom events—without manual event instrumentation (autocapture).

Key analytics reports:

• Funnels: Track conversion drop-off through multi-step flows
• Retention: Understand which users stay engaged (DAU/WAU/MAU)
• Paths: See the actual sequence of steps users take through your product
• Cohort Analysis: Group users by behavior/property for targeted analysis
• Trends: Track metric changes over time
• SQL Explorer: Write custom queries directly against raw event data

Advantage over competitors: SQL access means you're not limited to pre-built reports. You can ask any question about your data.

Session Replay

Session replay records and plays back actual user interactions—every click, form input, scroll, and error. Unlike traditional analytics (which show "what" happened), replays show "how" it happened.

Use cases:

• Debug support tickets by watching exact user actions
• Identify usability friction (form abandonment, rage clicks)
• Validate UI/UX changes before rollout
• Understand feature adoption friction

Session replay costs escalate at scale, making it relevant primarily for startups/growth-stage companies. Mid-market teams often limit replay captures to specific user segments or actions.

Feature Flags

Feature flags allow you to control feature access without code deployments. Toggle features on/off, roll out to percentage of users, or target specific segments.

Common patterns:

• Gradual rollout: Release to 10% → 50% → 100% of users
• Segment targeting: Show feature only to paying customers
• A/B testing: Split traffic 50/50 between control and variant
• Multivariate testing: Test 3+ feature versions simultaneously

Feature flags avoid the "big bang" launch risk and enable fast rollbacks if issues arise.

Experiments

PostHog includes native A/B testing (experimentation framework) with statistical rigor. Run multivariate tests, measure impact on key metrics, and validate hypotheses before wide rollout.

Advanced capabilities:

• Sequential testing: End test early when statistical significance is reached
• Correlation analysis: Identify which variant drives highest engagement
• Sample size calculator: Determine required traffic for statistical power

PostHog vs Alternatives

PostHog vs Amplitude

• Amplitude wins on: Advanced predictive analytics, enterprise dashboards, dedicated support
• PostHog wins on: Price transparency, open-source flexibility, built-in feature flags, data ownership
• Typical savings: Switching to PostHog saves 50-75% on analytics costs at equivalent scale

PostHog vs Mixpanel

• Mixpanel wins on: Marketing-first reporting, ease of use for non-technical teams
• PostHog wins on: Cost efficiency, feature flags integration, SQL access, longer data retention (7 years vs. 12 months)
• Typical savings: 60-80% cost reduction moving to PostHog

PostHog vs Heap

• Heap wins on: Zero implementation friction (autocapture)
• PostHog wins on: Lower costs at scale, feature flags, experiments, broader ecosystem
• Verdict: Both viable; Heap for teams avoiding setup, PostHog for teams comfortable with engineering

PostHog vs Userorbit

PostHog is pure product analytics. Userorbit is a product-adoption platform combining analytics, onboarding tours, surveys, and roadmaps.

• PostHog wins on: Deep behavioral analytics, SQL access, feature flags, A/B testing, 7-year data retention, self-hosting options
• Userorbit wins on: No-code onboarding tours, in-app checklists, public roadmaps, feedback collection, simpler setup
• Verdict: Different tools for different problems. PostHog answers "what are users doing?" Userorbit answers "how do we get users to activation?"

Userorbit product tour builder UI

PostHog's Unique Advantages

Radical Transparency

PostHog publishes pricing on their website—no sales discovery calls needed. You can calculate exact costs using their pricing page. Competitors hide pricing behind contact forms.

No Per-Seat Fees

Amplitude, Mixpanel, and others charge per team member. PostHog charges based on data volume only. A 100-person analytics team costs the same as a 2-person team (assuming identical event volumes).

Open-Source & Self-Hosting

PostHog is open-source. You can self-host on your own infrastructure (AWS, Kubernetes, on-premise). This unlocks:

• Data sovereignty: Never send user data to third parties
• HIPAA/GDPR compliance: Manage data locally
• Cost control: No variable usage charges (only infrastructure costs)
• Customization: Modify platform code for specific needs

Competitors offer self-hosting only at premium enterprise prices.

Feature Flags + A/B Testing Native

PostHog bundles feature management and experimentation—typically $500-$2,000/month add-ons in competitors. PostHog includes this for the marginal cost of additional trigger events.

7-Year Data Retention

• PostHog: 7 years (except session replays = 3 months)
• Amplitude: 2 years
• Mixpanel: 12 months

Longer retention enables deep historical analysis without data export workarounds.

Cost Optimization Tactics

Use Billing Limits Per Product

PostHog allows you to set a hard monthly spend cap per product. Once you hit the limit, tracking pauses until next month. This prevents runaway bills.

Example: Set $200/month limit for session replay. If replays exceed budget mid-month, recording stops (but analytics continue).

Strategic Event Instrumentation

Every event you track costs money. Define core events aligned to business metrics (signup, feature adoption, payment) and avoid excessive/redundant instrumentation.

Rule of thumb: Aim for 10-20 critical events per user journey vs. 100+ granular events.

Session Replay Sampling

Don't replay every user session. Use sampling to capture:

• 100% of paying customers
• 10% of trial users
• 0% of logged-out visitors

This reduces replay costs by 70-80% while maintaining useful data.

Self-Hosting for Large-Scale Teams

If you're sending 100M+ events monthly, self-hosting PostHog (open-source on AWS/Kubernetes) can be cheaper than cloud:

• Cloud: $2,000-$3,000/month
• Self-hosted: $500-$800/month infrastructure costs

Self-hosting requires DevOps resources but pays off at scale.

Leverage Free Tier Creatively

1M free events + 5K free replays = enough for a startup with 50K monthly active users. Don't upgrade until you've exhausted free tier limits.

Negotiate for High-Volume Users

PostHog doesn't publicly list discounts, but options exist:

• Startups: Contact sales for startup discount
• Non-profits: Available discount
• Long-term commitments: Potential discounts for annual prepayment

Choosing PostHog vs Userorbit

Choose PostHog if:

• Your primary need is product analytics (funnel analysis, retention, user behavior)
• You have engineering resources to manage event instrumentation
• You need feature flags & A/B testing native integration
• Long-term data retention (7+ years) is critical
• You want SQL access to raw events
• Team includes data engineers/analysts

Choose Userorbit if:

• Primary goal is user adoption & onboarding
• Team lacks engineering resources for complex analytics
• You need in-app tours, surveys, roadmaps, and feedback bundled
• Lean SaaS startup with limited budget ($29-$249/mo appeals more than $300+/mo)
• You want no-code setup (tours launch in minutes, not weeks)
• Focus: activation, engagement, retention—not deep analytical insights

FAQ

How much does PostHog cost for a startup?

Most startups stay on the free tier (1M events, 5K replays). Once you exceed limits, expect $150-$400/month for a growth-stage company with 5-10M events.

Is PostHog cheaper than Amplitude?

Yes. At equivalent scale, PostHog costs 50-75% less than Amplitude. A company paying $4K/month on Amplitude typically pays $800-$1,200/month on PostHog.

Can I self-host PostHog for free?

Yes. PostHog is open-source. Self-hosting eliminates usage fees but requires infrastructure costs ($500-$800/month for 100M+ events).

Does PostHog charge per seat?

No. PostHog charges based on data volume only. Unlimited team members at no additional cost.

What's the best PostHog alternative for onboarding?

For teams focused on user onboarding rather than deep analytics, Userorbit offers in-app tours, surveys, and roadmaps at $29-$249/month—without complex event setup.

Summary

PostHog redefines what developers expect from analytics: transparent pricing, no per-seat fees, open-source flexibility, and built-in feature management. At $180-$900/month for small-to-mid-market teams, PostHog is 50-75% cheaper than Amplitude or Mixpanel while offering comparable analytical depth.

PostHog is worth it if:

• You need deep product analytics with retroactive event tracking
• Data ownership and self-hosting options matter
• You want feature flags and A/B testing without additional tools
• Your team has engineering resources for event instrumentation

Consider alternatives if:

• You primarily need onboarding flows rather than deep analytics
• Team lacks technical resources for complex analytics setup
• Budget constraints push you toward simpler, lower-cost solutions
• You want no-code tour builders and feedback collection

The right choice depends on your priorities. PostHog excels at analytics depth. Userorbit excels at product adoption. Many teams use both.