PostHog

Why pick PostHog over Plausible or Mixpanel

Plausible is the right tool for content sites. PostHog is the right tool for products. The distinction matters: a content site cares about which articles drive traffic and which sources convert to email signups. A product cares about which features get used, where users drop off in the onboarding, and whether the new pricing page actually moved conversion.

For a one-person SaaS or digital product, PostHog gives you everything Mixpanel does, plus session replay, plus feature flags, plus A/B testing, in one tool with a free tier large enough to cover the first year. The math against three separate subscriptions is one-sided.

What it does well

Event tracking is the table stakes, and PostHog covers it. The SDK is mature in every framework that matters, and the dashboard groups events into funnels, retention curves, and trends with very little setup. Funnels are the killer feature for indie SaaS: you can see exactly where new signups stop, which is the single most actionable piece of product analytics for a solo.

Session replay is the unexpected hero. Watching ten real sessions of new users hitting your product onboarding is more useful than 100 hours of customer interviews. PostHog records sessions with privacy controls (PII masking, ignore list for sensitive fields), and the replay player is good enough that you actually watch the recordings.

Feature flags and A/B tests are bundled. For a one-person business that wants to experiment, this removes the case for a separate tool like LaunchDarkly or Optimizely. The flag and the analytics that measure the flag are in the same place.

Where it disappoints

The dashboard is denser than Plausible's. There is a learning curve, and the trade-off between flexibility and approachability lands on the flexibility side. Expect to spend a weekend setting it up properly for the first time.

Session replay storage is where the cost can sneak up. The free tier includes a generous number of replays, but a high-traffic free tier of your own product can blow through it. Set the sampling rate, exclude internal team sessions, and watch the usage.

The mobile and small-screen experience is rough. PostHog is built for the desktop dashboard pattern; do not expect to read it on a phone.

When it is overkill

Pure content sites do not need PostHog. Plausible does the job better with a tenth of the surface area. If you are not actively running experiments, watching session replays, or building features that need toggling, you are paying for capability you do not use. The right time to switch from Plausible to PostHog is when you have a real product with real users and you actually look at funnels.

Verdict

The right analytics stack for a one-person product business. Start on the free tier, self-host if data residency matters, and pay attention to session replay storage as you scale.