head to head · open source
Grafana vs PostHog
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars, 14,752 forks, 3,326 open issues and last shipped today. PostHog has 39,842 stars, 3,397 forks, 5,637 open issues and last shipped today. Grafana leads on adoption by 93% (76,792 vs 39,842 stars). Grafana is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; PostHog is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Grafana has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, PostHog 9%. PostHog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (analytics), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Grafana | PostHog | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 40K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 15K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Grafana if
- You weight community size — 77K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick PostHog if
- You want the PostHog feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and PostHog fits your workflow better
About Grafana
Grafana is an open source observability platform for visualizing metrics, logs, and traces across diverse data sources. It runs in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, designed for teams needing unified visibility into system behavior without vendor lock in. Built with TypeScript and Go, it provides a composable architecture that integrates with existing toolchains.
read the full Grafana overview →
About PostHog
PostHog is an open source platform for building self driving products, combining product analytics, web analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments, error tracking, logs, surveys, a data warehouse, data pipelines, AI observability, and workflows in a single system, aimed at product, engineering, and growth teams that want to own their product data rather than rent it.
read the full PostHog overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Grafana or PostHog more popular?
Grafana has 76,792 GitHub stars and PostHog has 39,842. Grafana has the larger community by that measure.
Are Grafana and PostHog free?
Both are open source. Grafana is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and PostHog has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Grafana and PostHog?
Grafana is written in TypeScript and PostHog in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Grafana or PostHog?
Choose Grafana if you want the larger community (76,792 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose PostHog if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.