head to head · open source
PostHog vs OpenWebAnalytics
PostHog has 40,600 GitHub stars, 3,579 forks, 5,637 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenWebAnalytics has 2,696 stars, 488 forks, 115 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PostHog leads on adoption by 1,406% (40,600 vs 2,696 stars). PostHog is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; OpenWebAnalytics is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. PostHog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, OpenWebAnalytics 18%. PostHog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| PostHog | OpenWebAnalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 488 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PostHog if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick OpenWebAnalytics if
- You want the OpenWebAnalytics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and OpenWebAnalytics fits your workflow better
About PostHog
Docs Community Roadmap Why PostHog? Changelog Bug reports PostHog is the open source platform for building self driving products PostHog provides every tool you need to build a successful product, and captures all the context agents need to proactively diagnose problems, uncover opportunities, and ship fixes: Self driving mode: Turn signals in your product data (errors, rage clicks, failed queries, and more) into researched reports and pull requests you review and merge. Product analytics: Autocapture or manually instrument event based analytics to understand user behavior and analyze data with visualization or…
read the full PostHog overview →
About OpenWebAnalytics
Open Web Analytics Server Open Web Analytics is an open source alternative to commercial web analytics tools such as Google Analytics. This software allows you to stay in control of the data you collect about the user of your websites or applications. This repository installs the OWA Server and Javascript tracking client which can easily be added to web pages. To add OWA tracking to a WordPress based website install the OWA integration plugin or see this repository. To add OWA tracking to any PHP application use the OWA PHP SDK Features Track visitors, pageviews, e commerce transactions, and configurable actions…
read the full OpenWebAnalytics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PostHog or OpenWebAnalytics more popular?
PostHog has 40,600 GitHub stars and OpenWebAnalytics has 2,696. PostHog has the larger community by that measure.
Are PostHog and OpenWebAnalytics free?
Both are open source. PostHog has no licence declared in this registry, and OpenWebAnalytics is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between PostHog and OpenWebAnalytics?
PostHog is written in Python and OpenWebAnalytics in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PostHog or OpenWebAnalytics?
Choose PostHog if you want the larger community (40,600 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose OpenWebAnalytics if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.