In-depth: PostHog vs Google Analytics 4
Jul 09, 2024
On this page
- How is PostHog different?
- 1. We're an all-in-one platform
- 2. It's built for developers
- 3. Transparent and cheap pricing (forever)
- Comparing PostHog and Google Analytics
- Analytics
- Platform
- Integrations
- Security and compliance
- Frequently asked questions
- Does PostHog have reports, dimensions, and other GA4 features?
- How much do PostHog and Google Analytics cost?
- Does PostHog offer a free trial?
- Can I migrate from Google Analytics to PostHog?
- Does PostHog block bots by default?
- What about ad blockers?
- Are there discounts for non-profits and startups?
Septemeber 2024 Update: We built our own, dedicated web analytics tool. Now PostHog is an even better alternative to Google Analytics 4!
How is PostHog different?
1. We're an all-in-one platform
PostHog combines product analytics and web analytics with session replay, feature flags, A/B testing, surveys, and a baked in data warehouse into one tightly integrated platform. Everything you need from a single app with a single contract. A genuine single source of truth for your product and customer data.
2. It's 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. We're open source, so you can inspect our source code and vote on what we should build via our public roadmap.
3. Transparent and cheap pricing (forever)
We default to charging as little as possible while still making a profit – we also have a generous free tier on all our products. We can do this because we're efficient. We don't splurge on massive sales teams, or D-list comedians to host an annual convention you'll never attend. Want to know how much we'll charge? See our pricing calculator.
Comparing PostHog and Google Analytics
Analytics
Features like group analytics, which enables you analyze behavior at an account of company level, make PostHog ideal for B2B SaaS products.
| PostHog | Google Analytics | |
Group analytics Track metrics at account or company level | ✔ | ✖ |
Traffic breakdown Gain insights into where your visitors and conversions are coming from | ✔ | ✔ |
User profiles View user demographic data such as country, language, and device type | ✔ | ✔ |
UTM tracking Track marketing campaigns with UTM tags | ✔ | ✔ |
Funnels Visualize conversion rates and drop-offs | ✔ | ✔ |
User paths Track user flows and where they drop-off | ✔ | ✔ |
Retention Analyze user and revenue retention | ✔ | ✔ |
Monetization analytics Track purchase value, LTV, and other revenue metrics | ✔ | ✔ |
Advertising analytics Track ROI on Google Ads and other marketing campaigns | ✖ | ✔ |
Real-time view Monitor activity on your site or app as it happens. | ✔ | ✔ |
Predictive insights AI-powered alerts when metrics change | ✖ | ✔ |
You can also go deeper on user behavior by utilizing heatmaps, scrollmaps, formulas, and the custom SQL insights.
| PostHog | Google Analytics | |
Heatmaps Visualize how users navigate your app or website | ✔ | ✖ |
Clickmaps Visualize where users click in your app or website | ✔ | ✖ |
Scrollmaps Visualize how far users scroll in your app or website | ✔ | ✖ |
Correlation analysis Automatically highlight factors affecting funnel conversion rates | ✔ | ✖ |
Lifecycle insights Break down events from new, returning, resurrecting, and dormant users | ✔ | ✖ |
Stickiness insights See how many times users perform an event in a period of time | ✔ | ✖ |
Formulas Use custom formulas to create unique insights | ✔ | ✖ |
SQL access Write your own queries in SQL | ✔ | ✖ |
Toolbar View insights on your live website or app with an overlay | ✔ | ✖ |
Platform
When you choose PostHog, you get more than analytics.
| PostHog | Google Analytics | |
Analytics Track events and conversion, analyze user behavior | ✔ | ✔ |
Session replay Watch real users use your product, diagnose bugs | ✔ | ✖ |
Feature flags Roll out features safely, toggle features for cohorts or individuals | ✔ | ✖ |
A/B testing Run tests on new features, optimize conversion funnels | ✔ | ✖ |
Surveys Collect and analyze feedback, run NPS and PMF surveys | ✔ | ✖ |
Customer data platform Sync data with third-party tools | Beta | ✖ |
Data warehouse A single source for all your important data | ✔ | ✖ |
Notebooks Ad-hoc analysis and collaboration | ✔ | ✖ |
Dark mode Choose between light and dark UI | ✔ | ✖ |
Integrations
It's hard to import data into Google Analytics because:
- The data type and format you're allowed to import is restrictive.
- You either need to constantly upload CSV files manually, or set up an SFTP server to automatically do this for you.
In contrast, PostHog is built to be your single source of truth, so it's simple to import data from other sources using our built-in data warehouse, or send PostHog data to other tools using our real-time destinations.
Below is a comparison of some of the most popular apps – see our data pipeline and warehouse docs for a complete list of integrations.
| PostHog | Google Analytics | |
Stripe Import charges, customers, invoices, subscriptions, and more | ✔ | ✔ |
Zapier Trigger Zaps with events | ✔ | ✔ |
Hubspot Import contacts, companies, deals, and more | ✔ | ✖ |
Salesforce Sync event and person data | ✔ | ✖ |
Intercom Extract and load data to external platforms | ✔ | ✖ |
Customer.io Sync data between platforms | ✔ | ✖ |
Sentry Ingest Sentry errors for analysis | ✔ | ✖ |
Google Ads Track Google Ads ROI | ✖ | ✔ |
Google Search Console Seamlessly import data from your search console | ✖ | ✔ |
Google BigQuery Automatically export data to BigQuery | ✔ | ✔ |
Security and compliance
PostHog makes GDPR compliance easy by letting you choose where your data is hosted: EU or US. Google also offers various privacy controls, but you can't choose where your data is stored.
| PostHog | Google Analytics | |
EU hosting available | ✔ | ✖ |
HIPAA | ✔ | ✖ |
Data anonymization | ✔ | ✔ |
Security certification | SOC 2 Type II | ISO 27001 |
Role-based access control | ✔ | ✔ |
SAML/SSO available | ✔ | ✔ |
2FA available | ✔ | ✔ |
Frequently asked questions
Does PostHog have reports, dimensions, and other GA4 features?
Yes, PostHog has much of the same functionality as Google Analytics, but we different terminology. Here’s a quick comparison of the two:
| GA name | PostHog equivalent | |
| Report | Insight | Query and filter analytics data and visualize results. Types include trends, funnels, retention, and more. |
| Dimensions | Properties | Additional details added to events, persons, and groups such as location, browser, and status. |
| View | Dashboard | A collection of insights displayed together. |
| Audience | Persons | Represents a user or set of users who create events, potentially filtered by properties or behaviors. |
| Segment | Filter | A way to create a subset of your data. |
| Goals and conversions | Actions | An event or collection of events representing a target behavior. |
| Client ID | Distinct ID | A unique identifier for a user. |
| Measurement ID | Project API key | The unique identifier for your project, used to send data to your PostHog instance. |
See our guide to PostHog for Google Analytics users for more help on making the switch.
How much do PostHog and Google Analytics cost?
Google Analytics has a free tier that's sufficient for most startups. Larger enterprises with higher data collection and export requirements will need to upgrade to GA360, which starts at $50,000 per year.
A good rule of thumb is that if you're exporting more than 1 million events per day, or querying data with more than 10 million events, you'll need to upgrade to GA360. See Google's breakdown for more.
PostHog has transparent pricing based on the usage. It's free to get started and completely free for the first 1 million analytics events. After this free monthly allowance you're charged based on usage – we charge progressively less per event the more you use.
We recommend trying our pricing calculator to estimate your costs.
Does PostHog offer a free trial?
With PostHog, it's free to get started, with a generous monthly allowance of events, replays, and feature flag requests. If you’re within this allowance, PostHog is free to use forever.
Can I migrate from Google Analytics to PostHog?
Yes, see our Google Analytics to PostHog migration guide for more details.
Does PostHog block bots by default?
Yes. See the full blocklist in our docs.
What about ad blockers?
We recommend all users deploy a reverse proxy, which enables you send events to PostHog Cloud using your own domain.
Events sent from your own domain and are less likely to be intercepted by tracking blockers, ensuring you capture the best data possible. We have reverse proxy setup guides for AWS Cloudfront, Caddy, Cloudflare, Netlify, Vercel, and more, in our docs.
Are there discounts for non-profits and startups?
Yes, PostHog offers both. Non-profit organizations can contact our team and are usually eligible for a 50% discount, while startups can sign up for $50,000 of free credit (and a host of other perks) in the PostHog for Startups program.