Self-Host PostHog - Open-Source Product Analytics Platform

PostHog is an open-source product analytics platform that provides everything you need to understand user behavior, test features, and grow your product. With built-in event tracking, feature flags, session recording, and A/B testing, PostHog is the privacy-first alternative to Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Google Analytics.

Why Choose Self-Hosted PostHog?

🔒 Complete Data Privacy

• Full data ownership - never send data to third parties
• GDPR & CCPA compliant by design
• EU hosting options for data residency requirements
• No external tracking or data sharing

📊 All-in-One Analytics Suite

• Product analytics with funnels, cohorts, and retention
• Feature flags for safe feature rollouts
• Session recordings to see exactly what users do
• A/B testing with statistical significance

💰 Cost-Effective Solution

• No per-seat pricing - unlimited team members
• No event limits on self-hosted instances
• Transparent pricing with no hidden costs
• Scale without vendor lock-in

Key Features

• Event Tracking: Capture every user interaction automatically
• Product Analytics: Funnels, cohorts, retention, and user paths
• Feature Flags: Progressive rollouts and kill switches
• Session Recordings: Watch real user sessions with privacy controls
• A/B Testing: Experiment framework with statistical analysis
• Heatmaps: Visual representation of user interactions
• User Identification: Track users across devices and sessions
• Real-time Dashboards: Live insights and custom visualizations

Popular Use Cases

🚀 Product Development

• Feature adoption tracking and analysis
• User journey optimization
• Product-market fit validation
• Performance monitoring and optimization

📈 Growth & Marketing

• Conversion funnel analysis
• User acquisition channel performance
• Retention and churn analysis
• Marketing campaign effectiveness

🔬 Experimentation

• A/B testing new features
• Progressive feature rollouts
• Risk mitigation with kill switches
• Data-driven decision making

Deployment Options

Docker Compose Setup

version: '3.8'
services:
  db:
    image: postgres:13-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: posthog
      POSTGRES_DB: posthog
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: posthog
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  redis:
    image: redis:6.2-alpine

  clickhouse:
    image: clickhouse/clickhouse-server:22.3
    depends_on:
      - db

  web:
    image: posthog/posthog:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
      - redis
      - clickhouse
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://posthog:posthog@db:5432/posthog
      CLICKHOUSE_HOST: clickhouse
      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379
      SECRET_KEY: your-secret-key

volumes:
  postgres-data:

Environment Variables

• DATABASE_URL: PostgreSQL connection string
• CLICKHOUSE_HOST: ClickHouse server hostname
• REDIS_URL: Redis connection string
• SECRET_KEY: Django secret key for security
• ALLOWED_HOSTS: Comma-separated list of allowed hostnames

Getting Started

1. Deploy PostHog using Docker Compose or Kubernetes
2. Create your account and organization
3. Install tracking libraries in your applications
4. Set up events you want to track
5. Create dashboards and insights
6. Launch feature flags and experiments

Event Tracking Implementation

JavaScript/TypeScript

// Install: npm install posthog-js
import posthog from 'posthog-js'

posthog.init('your-api-key', { 
  api_host: 'https://your-posthog-instance.com',
  capture_pageview: true
})

// Track events
posthog.capture('button_clicked', { button_name: 'signup' })

Python

# Install: pip install posthog
from posthog import Posthog

posthog = Posthog('your-api-key', host='https://your-posthog-instance.com')
posthog.capture('user123', 'signup_completed')

React Native & Mobile

Full SDK support for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter applications.

Advanced Features

🚩 Feature Flags

• Boolean flags for on/off features
• Multivariate flags for testing multiple variants
• User targeting based on properties
• Gradual rollouts with percentage targeting

📹 Session Recordings

• Privacy-first recording with data masking
• Console logs and network monitoring
• Performance metrics integration
• User interaction heatmaps

🧪 Experimentation Platform

• Statistical significance calculations
• Bayesian and Frequentist approaches
• Multi-armed bandit testing
• Experiment result analysis

Security & Compliance

• Data encryption at rest and in transit
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• SAML/SSO integration for enterprise
• Audit logs for compliance tracking
• Data retention controls and GDPR tools

PostHog vs Alternatives

Integration Ecosystem

Frontend Frameworks: React, Vue, Angular, Svelte
Mobile Platforms: iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter
Backend Languages: Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, PHP
Data Warehouse: BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift integration
Marketing Tools: Slack, Teams, webhooks for alerts

Transform your product development with complete visibility into user behavior while maintaining full control over your data with self-hosted PostHog!