OpenPanel vs PostHog (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick PostHog: it is second in our ranking of website and product analytics tools, and it grades higher too, 3.2 against 2.6.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
PostHog grades higher on value for money, the free plan and features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
OpenPanel
Open-source web and product analytics, cloud or self-hosted
PostHog
Open-source product analytics with replays, flags and surveys
Which one is for you
Pick OpenPanel if
- Fits if you want web and product analytics in one tool
- Works for developers who'd self-host or pay by events
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you want free Cloud, since there's only a 30-day trial
- Watch out: past your plan's limit, new events stop showing until the next period
- Watch out: self-hosted releases come a little after Cloud
- Watch out: yearly billing is ten months for twelve, and prices exclude VAT
- Not for you if you want an open-source free Cloud, which asks for a link back
Pick PostHog if
- Fits if you're a startup that wants analytics, replays and flags within the free allowance
- Works for developers who want to go from a broken session to the error behind it
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you just want simple visitor counts without learning a whole toolkit
- Pricey if you need SSO or a HIPAA BAA, which take Boost at $250 a month on top of usage; SAML takes Scale at $750
- Not for you if you want a fixed monthly bill, as everything past the free allowance is metered
- Tight if you stay free, with 1 project, recordings kept a month and events dropped past the limits
- Watch out: self-hosted PostHog is officially unsupported, with no tagged releases or paid support
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAOpenPanelGood | 3.2GPAPostHogVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BCloud starts at $2.50 a month for 5K events and $20 for 100K. The free self-hosted route needs a server. | AA site with 10,000 visitors a month fits in the free 1M events and 5,000 recordings, so the figure is $0. There's no base fee after that, just usage from $0.00005 an event. Boost, at $250 a month, is only for SSO, HIPAA and more projects. |
| Free plan and trial | C30-day Cloud trial with no card, or self-hosting for free. There's no permanent free Cloud plan. | BNo card and no time limit: 1M events, 5,000 recordings, 1M flag requests and 1,500 survey responses every month, with unlimited members. Usage stops at the limit, so no surprise bill. You get 1 project, and recordings are kept a month. |
| Features | BWeb and product analytics, funnels, retention, cohorts, replay and revenue, with every feature on every Cloud plan. | AAnalytics, web analytics, replays, flags, A/B tests, surveys, error tracking, logs and a data warehouse with pipelines in and out. Graded against Amplitude, Mixpanel and Heap, it covers the whole job, and none of them bundles errors, logs and a warehouse too. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating read. Cloud is simple but you still add SDKs and set up events. | CNo rating on record. The cloud version is a snippet and a sign-up, but there are a lot of products to learn and events to plan. The free self-hosted version is a Docker deploy PostHog doesn't officially support, which is a developer's job. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with SDKs for web and mobile, and Next.js, React, Vue, Swift and Kotlin. | BWeb only, so it can't reach an A. It pulls data in from Stripe, HubSpot, Salesforce and Postgres, sends events out to Braze, Klaviyo and others, and works with Snowflake, BigQuery and Zendesk. |
| Best for | web and product analytics, hosted or self-hosted | a whole product toolkit on one free allowance |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: OpenPanel and PostHog. How we grade
Where they differ
- OpenPanel also covers dashboards.
- PostHog also covers surveys and a/B testing.
At a glance
| OpenPanel | PostHog | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $2.50 per month for 5K events, billed monthly | $0.00005 per analytics event past the free 1M (pay-as-you-go) |
| Free plan | Self-hosted edition is free with no event limits; the Cloud has a 30-day trial, and open-source projects can apply for free Cloud up to 2.5M events. | Monthly allowance that resets: 1M analytics events, 5,000 recordings, 1M flag requests, 1,500 survey responses, 100K exceptions. Unlimited members, 1 project, 1-year retention. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of Cloud, no credit card needed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | OpenPanel | PostHog |
| Price read from | openpanel.dev | posthog.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
OpenPanel
- Going past the plan limit does not bill extra: new events stop showing until the next period.
- Cloud has no permanent free plan; free use means self-hosting or the open-source program, which asks for a link back.
- Self-hosted releases arrive a little after Cloud.
- Yearly billing costs ten months instead of twelve; prices are shown excluding VAT.
PostHog
- Usage is metered per product, so the monthly bill moves with traffic; billing limits can be set for each product to cap it.
- SSO enforcement, a HIPAA BAA and unlimited projects need the $250-a-month Boost package on top of usage; SAML sign-in needs Scale at $750.
- The free plan keeps recordings for 1 month and data for 1 year, allows 1 project, and drops events past its limits.
- Self-hosted PostHog is officially unsupported and has no tagged releases; PostHog recommends always running the latest image.
Key features
OpenPanel
- Web and product analytics together
- Visitors, referrers and pages without cookies, alongside funnels, retention, cohorts and user profiles in the same dashboard.
- Session replay
- Session replay and session tracking are listed as features in the product, with no separate add-on price on the pricing page.
- Revenue tracking
- Revenue figures can be shown next to traffic and events in the same views.
- AI observability
- Tracks cost, tokens and latency for AI model calls, and lets you pull numbers from your own AI assistant or agent.
- Cloud or self-hosted
- The cloud is hosted in the EU. The same code runs on your own infrastructure under the AGPL license.
- SDKs for web and mobile
- Install through a script tag or an SDK. The docs list SDKs including React, Next.js, Vue, React Native, Swift and Kotlin.
PostHog
- Product and web analytics
- Funnels, trends, retention, user paths and a web analytics dashboard, built from events. The first 1M events a month are free.
- Session replay
- Recordings of real visits to see where people get stuck, linked to funnels and errors. 5,000 recordings a month are free; recordings are kept 90 days on pay-as-you-go.
- Feature flags and experiments
- Roll features out to chosen users and run A/B tests, billed together by flag requests, with 1M requests free each month.
- Surveys
- In-app surveys with 1,500 free responses a month, and white-labeled surveys on the Boost package.
- Error tracking and logs
- Captures exceptions (100K free a month) and ingests logs (10 GB free), so you can go from a replay to the error behind it.
- Data warehouse and pipelines
- Syncs data in from Stripe, HubSpot, Salesforce, Postgres and others, and sends events out to tools such as Braze and Klaviyo.
Plans
OpenPanel
Self-hosted$0
The same open-source code on your own servers with Docker Compose, with no event limits. You host it yourself.
Cloud 5K$2.50
per month for up to 5K events, billed monthly ($25 per year)
Smallest Cloud step. Every feature is included; websites, team members and dashboards are unlimited.
Cloud 100K$20
per month for up to 100K events, billed monthly ($200 per year)
Same features as every Cloud plan; only the monthly event allowance changes.
Cloud 1M$90
per month for up to 1M events, billed monthly ($900 per year)
Price rises with events; the page also lists 10M at $350 a month and 50M at $900 a month.
CustomCustom
For more than 50M events a month, by request.
PostHog
Free$0
Full free allowance on every product, unlimited team members, 1 project, community support. Usage stops at the limits, so no surprise bill.
Pay-as-you-go$0
plus usage above the monthly free allowance
No base fee. Analytics from $0.00005 an event and replays from $0.005 a recording, cheaper at volume. 6 projects, 7-year data, email support.
Boost$250
per month, plus usage
Platform package: unlimited projects, SSO enforcement, 2FA enforcement, white labeling, HIPAA BAA and 12 months of replay retention.
Scale$750
per month, plus usage
Everything in Boost plus SAML and OIDC sign-in, approval workflows, real-time alerts and priority support with an 8-hour target.
EnterpriseCustom
Sold through sales: role-based access, a dedicated account manager, training, and up to 5 years of replay retention.
Self-hosted (hobby deploy)$0
MIT-licensed Docker Compose deployment you host yourself. Officially unsupported, with no paid support plan.
Ways to pay less
OpenPanel
- Annual discount
Two months free on yearly billing
Paying yearly costs ten months instead of twelve, for example $200 a year instead of $20 a month at 100K events.
- Other savings
Free Cloud for open-source projects
Open-source projects can get Cloud free up to 2.5M events in exchange for a link back to OpenPanel.
PostHog
- Startups
$50,000 in credits for early-stage startups
Companies under 2 years old that have raised less than $5M get $50,000 of PostHog credit for 12 months, plus partner perks. A company email domain is required.
- Nonprofit
Discount for nonprofits
PostHog says it gives nonprofits a discount in most cases: create an account, then contact sales with details of the organization.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, OpenPanel or PostHog?
As of Nov 13, 2026, OpenPanel starts at $2.50 per month for 5K events, billed monthly, and PostHog starts at $0.00005 per analytics event past the free 1M (pay-as-you-go).
Which has a free plan, OpenPanel or PostHog?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both OpenPanel and PostHog have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.