head to head · open source
PostHog vs Plausible
PostHog has 40,600 GitHub stars, 3,579 forks, 5,637 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plausible has 29,752 stars, 1,928 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PostHog leads on adoption by 36% (40,600 vs 29,752 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%. 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
| PostHog | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 30K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| 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 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
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 Plausible
Plausible Analytics Live Demo Open Source Docs Contributing Plausible Analytics is an open source, privacy first web analytics tool. Lightweight, cookie free alternative to Google Analytics. Available in managed cloud or self hosted community edition. 🔐 Privacy focused 🛡️ GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliant 📊 Simple, fast dashboard 🪶 Lightweight script 🇪🇺 Made and hosted in the EU Why Plausible? Here's what makes Plausible a great Google Analytics alternative and why we're trusted by thousands of paying subscribers to deliver their website and business insights: Clutter free Plausible provides simple web analytics…
read the full Plausible overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PostHog or Plausible more popular?
PostHog has 40,600 GitHub stars and Plausible has 29,752. 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 (40,600 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.