PostHog
The most recommended of 6 product analytics platforms
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.
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.
128 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 44
- criticize it
- 84
- approval share
- 34%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 44 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open source with transparent roadmap
“PostHog roadmap items are all GitHub issues that users can upvote which gives a great sense of who wants what in the community.”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2026)” “PostHog is open source, so if you haven't looked at their implementation yet, take a look, maybe it'll be useful to you!”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Watches user sessions, finds bugs that matter, and fixes them” “PostHog, I think, is also open-source and incredibly successful”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Why Open-Source for Products/Startups?” - Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)”
- Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Shai-Hulud Returns: Over 300 NPM Packages Infected”
Polished, strong website and UI design
“I think it's one of the best marketing websites for a SaaS I know, if not the best.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Collaboration sucks” “I am absolutely impressed by their design.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Apple OS 1 inspired personal website” “the UI UX of the website is droolworthy”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)” - Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Collaboration sucks”
Helpful AI assistant and MCP
“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”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “PostHog Open Sourced” “Posthog's MCP and integrated AI chat were very helpful for onboarding”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “PostHog Open Sourced” “Posthog is giving me good answers to those questions here.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)” Simple, reliable, enjoyable to use
“I love this, thank you posthog for being great”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Collaboration sucks” “how simple and reliable that experience is”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Show HN: Airbyte Agents – context for agents across multiple data sources” “it is an absolute joy to use”
Comment from 4 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security lapses in configuration and code
“This incident reflects extremely poorly on PostHog because it demonstrates a lack of thought to security beyond surface level.”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Post-mortem of Shai-Hulud attack on November 24th, 2025” “if you have access to Posthog's admin dashboard, you can configure webhook URLs that hit Posthog's internal services”
Comment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Inside PostHog: SSRF, ClickHouse SQL Escape and Default Postgres Creds to RCE” Opt-in data use erodes trust
“they'd realize quite how little appetite there is for putting up with being opted into things automatically”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)” “I don't want to support a company that's going to do everything they can possibly legally get away with”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)” “AKA we won't be able to make as much money if we required you to give us permission to use your data.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)” Unwanted AI features cluttering the product
“I just could not understand what I saw. I remember it being pretty good, too bad the UI got crappified with AI.”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “PostHog Open Sourced” “It's all the AI bloat for me. It keeps getting shoved in my face and they _really_ want me to use it.”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “PostHog Open Sourced” Bugs and confusing UX
“still cannot fix bugs that exist there for years and still cannot fix their identification process for merging users”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)” “the most confusing and unnecessary UX complication when I needed to go track down a session replay”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “PostHog will train AI models with your data (opted-in by default)”
Other product analytics platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other product analytics platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PostHogThis page | 44 | 84 | 34% | 11 | — | — |
| Plausible | 18 | 7 | 72% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Umami | 17 | 5 | 77% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Google Analytics | 14 | 44 | 24% | 7 | — | — |
| Matomo | 8 | 6 | 57% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 142 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“PostHog is open source, so if you haven't looked at their implementation yet, take a look, maybe it'll be useful to you!”
“This is a big part of why I am in love in Posthog's design”
“after we toggled it on (through a posthog feature flag) we actively monitored for failures”
“provided confidence against vendor lock-in”
“Posthog's MCP and integrated AI chat were very helpful for onboarding”
“I just could not understand what I saw. I remember it being pretty good, too bad the UI got crappified with AI.”
“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”
“I found myself not finding the things I needed”
“what they have now is an ~idealized version of AI product”
“It's all the AI bloat for me. It keeps getting shoved in my face and they _really_ want me to use it.”
“it feels like the product has too many moving pieces available to me”
“I'm a fan of the posthog product but agree with the site.”
“They have an excellent branding and have some balls to pull it off, it shows passion”
“amazing transparency, pay and information on the site”
“the UI UX of the website is droolworthy”
“I use PostHog on my own website, love your stuff”
“PostHog makes dev tools that help product engineers build successful products.”
“I agree that's not perfect, but I can totally imagine that”
“PostHog was wonderful as an analytics solution, with its developer-first approach, good tools, and nice pricing.”
“still cannot fix bugs that exist there for years and still cannot fix their identification process for merging users”
“AKA we won't be able to make as much money if we required you to give us permission to use your data.”
“the most confusing and unnecessary UX complication when I needed to go track down a session replay”
“I don't want to support a company that's going to do everything they can possibly legally get away with”
“Posthog is giving me good answers to those questions here.”
“they'd realize quite how little appetite there is for putting up with being opted into things automatically”
“how simple and reliable that experience is”
“PostHog has a free managed reverse proxy last time I checked”
“PostHog, I think, is also open-source and incredibly successful”
“PostHog roadmap items are all GitHub issues that users can upvote which gives a great sense of who wants what in the community.”
“Posthog script included so you can see what works”
“if you have access to Posthog's admin dashboard, you can configure webhook URLs that hit Posthog's internal services”
“I am absolutely impressed by their design.”
“This incident reflects extremely poorly on PostHog because it demonstrates a lack of thought to security beyond surface level.”
“No reason to send your data to other companies.”
“the vendor is already being transparent about it”
“They really have a great website.”
“I think it's one of the best marketing websites for a SaaS I know, if not the best.”
“I love this, thank you posthog for being great”
“it is an absolute joy to use”
“if PostHog was able to do what they're doing on the stack you're abandoning”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.