# PostHog 44 Hacker News commenters recommended PostHog and 84 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Developers recommend it as an open-source, developer-first analytics tool with good tools and strong design. Critics cite security lapses and pushy AI features. ## Why people recommend it - Open source with transparent roadmap (5 comments): "PostHog roadmap items are all GitHub issues that users can upvote which gives a great sense of who wants what in the community." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46952641)) "PostHog is open source, so if you haven't looked at their implementation yet, take a look, maybe it'll be useful to you!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49472355)) "PostHog, I think, is also open-source and incredibly successful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47011271)) - Polished, strong website and UI design (4 comments): "I think it's one of the best marketing websites for a SaaS I know, if not the best." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45893417)) "I am absolutely impressed by their design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46220750)) "the UI UX of the website is droolworthy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48369479)) - Helpful AI assistant and MCP (3 comments): "I can ask it a product question, ask it to slice and dice data, etc and it does a really good job of sifting through my events" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848707)) "Posthog's MCP and integrated AI chat were very helpful for onboarding" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848893)) "Posthog is giving me good answers to those questions here." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296999)) - Simple, reliable, enjoyable to use (3 comments): "I love this, thank you posthog for being great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45893113)) "how simple and reliable that experience is" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48029859)) "it is an absolute joy to use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45808984)) ## What people warn about - Security lapses in configuration and code (2 comments): "This incident reflects extremely poorly on PostHog because it demonstrates a lack of thought to security beyond surface level." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46092721)) "if you have access to Posthog's admin dashboard, you can configure webhook URLs that hit Posthog's internal services" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46306888)) - Opt-in data use erodes trust (3 comments): "they'd realize quite how little appetite there is for putting up with being opted into things automatically" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48296922)) "I don't want to support a company that's going to do everything they can possibly legally get away with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297133)) "AKA we won't be able to make as much money if we required you to give us permission to use your data." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297488)) - Unwanted AI features cluttering the product (2 comments): "I just could not understand what I saw. I remember it being pretty good, too bad the UI got crappified with AI." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848773)) "It's all the AI bloat for me. It keeps getting shoved in my face and they _really_ want me to use it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48848511)) - Bugs and confusing UX (2 comments): "still cannot fix bugs that exist there for years and still cannot fix their identification process for merging users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48301511)) "the most confusing and unnecessary UX complication when I needed to go track down a session replay" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48297333)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Umami](https://hackerapproved.com/p/umami.md): 17 recommend - [Mixpanel](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mixpanel.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://posthog.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "PostHog", https://hackerapproved.com/p/posthog/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).