PostHog vs Segment (2026): which should you pick?

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

Pick Segment if

• Fits if you send the same customer events to many tools and want one pipeline
• Works for a team with a data person to set up and maintain tracking

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a price on the page, as both plans are quoted by sales
• Skip it if you only need traffic numbers, as this is a data pipeline
• Pricey if your user base grows, since cost scales with monthly tracked users
• Watch out: Protocols and AI predictions are add-ons on the Customer Data Pipeline plan

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.

Segment

• No prices are published: both plans use custom volume pricing and are quoted by sales.
• Cost scales with monthly tracked users rather than seats, which are unlimited.
• AI predictions and Protocols are add-ons on the Customer Data Pipeline plan, but included on the Customer Data Platform plan.
• A data warehouse is optional, but both plans can connect to one for enriching and syncing profiles.

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.

Segment

Connections data pipeline

Collects first-party events from sources and routes them to 550+ destinations, including email, messaging tools and data warehouses.

Reverse ETL and functions

Reverse ETL, custom Functions and developer tools such as a public API let engineers move warehouse data and shape events in transit.

Unified profiles

On the Customer Data Platform plan, Unify resolves identities into profiles with traits, a Profile API and a profile explorer.

Audiences and journeys

Engage builds audiences and orchestrates journeys across channels from the unified profiles; AI audiences are included on that plan.

Data governance add-on

Protocols adds real-time validation and cleaning of incoming data. It is an add-on to the pipeline plan, not included by default.

Regional hosting

The comparison table lists Regional Segment, with EU or US data location, and HIPAA eligibility as available options.

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.

Segment

Pricing could not be confirmed. See segment.com.

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.

Segment

No public discounts listed.