head to head · open source
PostHog vs Plausible
PostHog has 39,835 GitHub stars, 3,394 forks, 5,637 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plausible has 29,116 stars, 1,866 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PostHog leads on adoption by 37% (39,835 vs 29,116 stars). PostHog is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Plausible is written in Elixir under AGPL-3.0. PostHog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Plausible 6%. Plausible 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
| PostHog | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 29K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PostHog if
- You weight community size — 40K 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 Plausible if
- You want the Plausible feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and Plausible fits your workflow better
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 →
About Plausible
Plausible Analytics is an open source, privacy first web analytics tool — a lightweight, cookie free alternative to Google Analytics — for teams that want traffic and conversion insights without collecting personal data, available as a managed cloud service or a self hosted community edition under the AGPL 3.0 licence.
read the full Plausible overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PostHog or Plausible more popular?
PostHog has 39,835 GitHub stars and Plausible has 29,116. PostHog has the larger community by that measure.
Are PostHog and Plausible free?
Both are open source. PostHog has no licence declared in this registry, and Plausible is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between PostHog and Plausible?
PostHog is written in Python and Plausible in Elixir. 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 Plausible?
Choose PostHog if you want the larger community (39,835 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Plausible if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.