In-depth: PostHog vs Amplitude
Contents
Choosing the right analytics platform often comes down to trade-offs.
PostHog and Amplitude both cover the essentials – analytics, experimentation, feature flags, session replay, and more – but their strengths show up in different places.
In this post, we'll cover these differences in more detail, comparing features, pricing, reporting, integrations, and the best fit for different use cases.
How is PostHog different?
1. Everything you need in one place
PostHog is the ultimate developer platform because it puts all your customer data in one place and combines it with every tool you need to build a successful product. This means:
- Product analytics for analyzing user behavior, funnels, activation, and retention
- Web analytics for traffic, campaigns, and content performance
- Session replay for observing how people use your product and diagnosing problems
- Feature flags to test safely in production and ship new features with confidence
- Experiments to validate product and website improvements
- Error tracking for monitoring exceptions and problems in your code
- Surveys to capture user feedback, track NPS, and book interviews
- LLM analytics for gathering data on AI and LLM product usage and performance
In other words, it's everything you need in one app with a single login and contract. A genuine single source of truth for your product and customer data.
Companies that qualify for PostHog's startup program get $50,000 in PostHog credit and a range of additional benefits.
2. It's a platform built for developers
This means you get support from the engineers who actually build the product, extensively documented APIs, and a SQL query builder, so you can analyze data how you want. Our code, culture, and strategy are public on GitHub and in our public handbook.
And as your needs grow, PostHog grows with you – advanced capabilities such as a CDP or data warehouse, are ready to switch on whenever you need them.
Development teams at Supabase, Lovable, and ElevenLabs, and many more trust PostHog as they scale.
3. Transparent pricing, generous free tiers
Our pricing is 100% transparent. There are no hidden fees or surprise overages – what you see is exactly what you'll pay.
We also default to charging as little as possible while still making a sensible margin, and every product comes with a generous free tier. In fact, more than 90% of companies use PostHog for free!
In 2024, we cut prices for session replay and analytics events. In 2025, we've cut prices for data pipelines and surveys. If we can pass a saving onto our customers, we always will.
Install PostHog with one command
Paste this into your terminal and make AI do all the work.
Comparing PostHog and Amplitude
PostHog and Amplitude offer a similar suite of products, but Amplitude lacks things like error tracking and LLM analytics.
Product analytics
Both PostHog and Amplitude offer product analytics. Advanced features like SQL queries, custom formulas, and group/account analytics are included in PostHog's free tier, while Amplitude only provides them on paid plans.
PostHog supports autocapture, which means you can implement PostHog in mere minutes and ensure you don't miss out on events you haven't manually instrumented. Don't want autocapture? Just turn it off – we offer the best of both worlds.
Feature flags
Both PostHog and Amplitude provide robust feature management tools, including boolean and multivariate flags, local evaluation, payloads, targeting, and percentage rollouts.
PostHog's feature flags are tightly integrated with other features, so you can target session replays, surveys, and more using existing feature flags. See our guide on the benefits of feature flags for more.
Experiments
Both PostHog and Amplitude support core experimentation features like A/B/n testing, multivariate tests, custom and secondary metrics, and statistical significance calculations. PostHog includes experiments in its free tier (1M requests per month, including mobile support). Most Amplitude Experiments features are locked behind paid plans.
Amplitude includes Web Experimentation on all plans, but the free tier is limited to 50,000 impressions/month and advanced features like the custom code editor, CUPED, and multi-armed bandits require Growth or Enterprise plans. PostHog offers 1 million experiment requests/month for free – 20x more than Amplitude's free allowance.
Session replay
Both platforms capture console logs, but PostHog goes deeper for developer debugging. PostHog's DOM explorer lets you inspect the actual page structure during playback, and performance monitoring shows network requests, page load times, and resource bottlenecks – features Amplitude doesn't offer.
Replays let you watch how users experience your app, diagnose issues, improve support, and understand real user behavior in a way raw data can't. They are reconstructions of the session, not video recordings of user's screen. Private info, such as passwords, are masked.
Surveys
PostHog includes surveys out of the box, with 1,500 free responses per month and support for multiple formats like NPS, PMF, open text, and ratings, plus customization and targeting options. Amplitude provides surveys through its Guides & Surveys paid add-on.
Survey templates make it easy to run NPS, product-market-fit (PMF), and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys in just a few clicks. Read our guide comparing NPS, CSAT and CES to for more on how to use surveys.
Price comparison
PostHog pricing philosophy
PostHog charges based on usage. Each product (analytics, session replay, feature flags, etc.) comes with a generous free tier, and once you exceed those limits you pay only for what you use.
Pricing is fully transparent and published publicly, with per-unit rates you can calculate in advance. You can also set billing caps per product to avoid unexpected costs.
This usage-based approach means costs scale with your actual activity, whether that's events, surveys, or recordings, rather than the number of users in your product. It also means you can easily reduce your bill by changing how you track users to send fewer events, or record fewer sessions.
Amplitude pricing philosophy
Amplitude charges based on Monthly Tracked Users (MTUs). Each tracked user is counted once per month, regardless of how many events they generate. Plans scale as your MTUs grow, with higher tiers unlocking more advanced analytics, experimentation, and enterprise features.
This model can be easier to predict if you run a large product with millions of users, but it's less flexible because there's no way to reduce how much you spend. Every user is counted equally regardless of how valuable they are to you.
If you have 50,000 users who generate just a handful of events each month, usage-based pricing may be much lower than an MTU-based system, since your bill only scales with events sent. On the other hand, if those same users generate millions of events each, your costs will rise faster with an event-based model, while an MTU plan stays more predictable regardless of event volume.
Integrations
This is just a small sample of available integrations. See our data pipeline docs for a full list of destinations, and our data warehouse docs for a complete list of sources.
Security and compliance
We offer a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) for any customer on our platform packages, which also includes priority support, SSO enforcement, and additional collaboration features.
When to choose PostHog vs Amplitude
Choosing the right analytics platform depends on your team's priorities and technical needs. Here's a quick guide:
Want an all-in-one platform built for engineers, with product analytics, web analytics, error tracking, LLM analytics, surveys, and more, with transparent usage-based pricing? Go with PostHog.
Need a platform optimized for marketing analytics, campaign attribution, and growth experimentation with a UI built for non-technical teams? Amplitude is probably the right choice.
Recommendations by team type
For engineering-led product teams
- PostHog – Error tracking, LLM analytics, SQL access, and extensive APIs make it the natural fit for teams where engineers drive product decisions. Open source with a public roadmap means you can see exactly what's coming.
For marketing and growth teams
- Amplitude – Purpose-built for growth analytics with a UI designed for non-technical users. Tighter integrations with ad platforms and marketing tools, plus dedicated web experimentation features.
For data teams
- Amplitude: – Strong option if you want to keep data in your external warehouse. In addition to being warehouse-native, Amplitude’s Warehouse Metrics is the equivalent of importing modeled warehouse data so you can use it in experiments, product analytics, etc. However, Amplitude forces users to choose either warehouse-native or event-ingest for a project; doing both in one project typically requires leaning on Warehouse Metrics as the bridge. PostHog supports a simpler solution: our integrated warehouse makes warehouse data available to other PostHog tools, reducing the need to move data or maintain multiple ETL pipelines. Alternatively, you can use our Warehouse sources to connect to an external warehouse (e.g., Snowflake) and move data into PostHog.
For privacy-conscious and regulated organizations
- Both are SOC 2 certified and GDPR-ready with EU data residency options. PostHog is HIPAA-ready and offers raw data access via its data warehouse. Amplitude provides BAA agreements and enterprise compliance packages.
For early-stage startups
- PostHog – Generous free tiers across every product, transparent pricing you can model in advance, and no features locked behind sales calls. Startups can qualify for $50k in free credits. Amplitude offers a startup scholarship (one year of Growth plan free), but PostHog's usage-based model keeps costs predictable as you scale.
For enterprise product teams
- Tied – Both offer robust analytics, experimentation, and compliance features. Choose based on team composition: engineering-heavy teams will prefer PostHog; marketing-heavy teams will prefer Amplitude.
Install PostHog with one command
Paste this into your terminal and make AI do all the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main differences between PostHog and Amplitude?
- Pricing model: PostHog uses usage-based pricing (pay per event/replay); Amplitude uses MTU-based pricing (pay per tracked user)
- Free tier: PostHog offers 1M events, 5,000 replays, 1,500 survey responses free; Amplitude offers 10K MTUs, 1,000 replays
- Developer tools: PostHog includes error tracking, LLM analytics, SQL access in free tier; Amplitude lacks error tracking and LLM analytics entirely
- Target audience: PostHog is built for engineering-led teams; Amplitude is designed for product and marketing teams
- Open source: PostHog is open source (MIT license); Amplitude is closed source
What are the main similarities between PostHog and Amplitude?
- Both offer product analytics with funnels, retention, cohorts, and user paths
- Both provide session replay with mobile support (iOS, Android)
- Both include feature flags and A/B testing
- Both are SOC 2 certified and HIPAA/GDPR compliant
- Both offer EU data residency options
- Both integrate with major CDPs like Segment and Rudderstack
Can PostHog replace Amplitude?
Yes, for most use cases. PostHog offers all the core analytics features Amplitude provides – funnels, retention, cohorts, user paths, feature flags, A/B testing, session replay, and surveys – plus additional capabilities like error tracking and LLM analytics.
The main exception is warehouse-native analytics: Amplitude can run queries directly on your data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery), while PostHog offers an integrated data warehouse approach. If you use PostHog as your warehouse, data stays in PostHog and is accessible across many PostHog tools. If you use an external warehouse, you can sync tables and fields from Snowflake/BigQuery into PostHog via our warehouse sources; queries then run on PostHog compute.
PostHog is better if:
- You want to eliminate tool sprawl (Amplitude is a point solution that requires separate warehouse tools)
- You value integrated workflows across analytics, experiments, and feature flags
- You don't have a data warehouse yet or want to simplify your stack
- You want transparent, usage-based pricing
Amplitude's approach is better if you have an existing warehouse and need queries to run directly in Snowflake/BigQuery for compliance or performance reasons.
Is PostHog cheaper than Amplitude?
It depends on your usage pattern. PostHog uses usage-based pricing where you pay per event, replay, or survey response, with generous free tiers (1M events, 5,000 replays, 1,500 survey responses monthly). Amplitude charges per Monthly Tracked User (MTU) with 10K MTUs free. PostHog's pricing is fully transparent and published publicly; Amplitude's Growth and Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales.
When usage-based pricing (PostHog) works best:
- You have power users who generate lots of events
- You want to optimize costs by controlling what you track
- You need predictable per-unit costs
When MTU-based pricing (Amplitude) works best:
- You have millions of users with low event volumes
- You want a fixed cost regardless of event volume
- You're primarily focused on marketing analytics
Does Amplitude have error tracking?
No. Amplitude does not offer error tracking. If you need error tracking alongside product analytics, you'd need to integrate a separate tool like Sentry. PostHog includes error tracking as a native feature, letting you monitor exceptions and connect them directly to user sessions, analytics, and feature flags.
Does Amplitude have LLM analytics?
No. Amplitude does not offer LLM observability or analytics. PostHog includes LLM analytics for tracking AI product usage, monitoring model performance, and analyzing costs—all connected to your existing user data.
What's the best product analytics tool for startups?
PostHog. Generous free tiers, $50k startup credits for eligible companies, usage-based pricing that keeps costs low, and a roadmap focused on the needs of builders make PostHog ideal for new companies searching for product-market fit.
Which is the best tool for product engineers and developers?
PostHog. Error tracking, LLM analytics, SQL access, open source codebase, transparent roadmap, and direct support from engineers make PostHog the best platform for engineering-led teams and technical founders.
Which is the best tool for product managers?
Tied. While Amplitude is geared more towards non-technical users, both platforms provide everything product managers need to understand user behavior, gather feedback, and do deeper analysis.
What's the best tool for marketers?
Amplitude. While marketers can use both tools effectively, Amplitude's UI and toolset is more geared towards marketing use cases than PostHog.
Which should I choose for warehouse-native analytics?
Amplitude if you need queries to run directly on your Snowflake/BigQuery/Databricks warehouse and you already have a mature data warehouse setup.
PostHog is better if:
- You want to eliminate tool sprawl (Amplitude is a point solution that requires separate warehouse tools)
- You value integrated workflows across analytics, experiments, and feature flags
- You don't have a data warehouse yet or want to simplify your stack
- You want transparent, usage-based pricing
PostHog provides a complete product analytics platform with warehouse capabilities built in. If you use PostHog as your integrated warehouse, data stays in PostHog and is accessible across many PostHog tools — eliminating the need to stitch multiple vendors together.
Which is the best all-in-one analytics platform?
Tied. Both PostHog and Amplitude offer a broad suite of tools for product teams, but with differences in emphasis. PostHog favors engineering and product teams; Amplitude favors marketing and growth team use cases.
Does PostHog offer a free trial?
We don't need to. Every customer gets a generous free usage allowance each month, so you can sign up and start using PostHog for nothing.
Can PostHog replace Google Analytics?
Yes. PostHog can replace Google Analytics for many use cases – our marketing team uses PostHog, for example. You can integrate PostHog into your website using Google Tag Manager and find an easy-to-use web analytics dashboard in-app. See our comparison of PostHog and Google Analytics 4 and an intro to PostHog for Google Analytics users for more.
Is PostHog easy to deploy?
Yes. Just paste our web snippet within the <head> tags your product or website and you're good to go in just a few minutes. This works for apps, blogs, scripts, no-code site builders, and more. See our installation documentation for more options. We support dozens of client-side and server-side SDKs.
How can I estimate my usage?
The easiest way is to sign up to PostHog, integrate our snippet, then check the projection on your billing page after a few days. Alternatively, you can guesstimate by multiplying your current monthly active users by an estimate of events generated per user – 50 to 100 per user is a good starting point. See Estimating usage & costs in our docs for more.
Does PostHog block bots by default?
Yes. See the full blocklist in our docs. You need to manually enable bot blocking in Amplitude. This means event and DAU counts can look higher in Amplitude than PostHog.
Can I use PostHog with a CDP? (Segment, Rudderstack, etc.)
Yes. See Using PostHog with a CDP in our docs.
How does PostHog compare to other Amplitude alternatives?
Still need some convincing? See our guide to the most popular Amplitude alternatives.
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PostHog is an all-in-one developer platform for building successful products. We provide product analytics, web analytics, session replay, error tracking, feature flags, experiments, surveys, LLM analytics, logs, workflows, endpoints, data warehouse, CDP, and an AI product assistant to help debug your code, ship features faster, and keep all your usage and customer data in one stack.