head to head · open source
PostHog vs shynet
PostHog has 39,835 GitHub stars, 3,394 forks, 5,637 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shynet has 3,155 stars, 208 forks, 63 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. PostHog leads on adoption by 1,163% (39,835 vs 3,155 stars). PostHog is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; shynet is written in Python under Apache-2.0. PostHog has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, shynet 7%. PostHog was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (analytics, python), 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 | shynet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 3.2K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-03-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.4K | ⑂ 208 |
| 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 shynet if
- You want the shynet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and shynet 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 shynet
Shynet is an open source web analytics application written in Python and built with Django. It lives in the self hosted web and product analytics ecosystem, where operators collect visit data on their own infrastructure instead of sending it to a third party service. The project is released under the Apache 2.0 license and aims to provide detailed analytics without cookies or required JavaScript.
read the full shynet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PostHog or shynet more popular?
PostHog has 39,835 GitHub stars and shynet has 3,155. PostHog has the larger community by that measure.
Are PostHog and shynet free?
Both are open source. PostHog has no licence declared in this registry, and shynet is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between PostHog and shynet?
PostHog is written in Python and shynet 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, PostHog or shynet?
Choose PostHog if you want the larger community (39,835 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose shynet if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.