Master PostHog with our step-by-step tutorial, detailed feature walkthrough, and expert tips.
Install the PostHog JavaScript SDK or use the snippet — autocapture starts tracking immediately without manual event definitions. Set up key custom events and user properties for your specific product metrics and conversion funnels. Enable session replay to watch real user interactions and correlate behavior with analytics data. Configure feature flags for controlled rollouts and create your first A/B experiment. Connect external data sources to the data warehouse and build custom dashboards combining internal and external data.
💡 Quick Start: Follow these 1 steps in order to get up and running with PostHog quickly.
The self-hosted version provides identical features to PostHog Cloud but requires you to manage infrastructure, updates, and scaling. Benefits include complete data control, no data transfer to third parties, and potential cost savings for high-volume applications. However, you need DevOps expertise for setup and maintenance. PostHog provides Docker and Kubernetes deployment guides, but you're responsible for backups, security patches, and performance optimization.
Yes. PostHog includes web analytics billed alongside product analytics events. It tracks page views, sessions, referrers, UTM parameters, and user paths. The key differences: PostHog gives you raw event-level data access via SQL, session replay integration, and no data sampling. However, Google Analytics has deeper SEO and advertising attribution features. Many teams use PostHog for product analytics and GA4 for marketing attribution.
Nothing breaks. If you haven't added a credit card, PostHog will pause data collection for that product until the next billing cycle. If you have a card on file, you'll be charged usage-based rates for overages. You can set hard billing limits per product — for example, cap session replay spending at $50/month — so you never get surprise bills.
PostHog offers EU-hosted cloud (Frankfurt data center), automatic PII masking in session recordings, cookie-less tracking options, and a consent management API. Self-hosted deployments give complete data sovereignty. PostHog is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and HIPAA compliant for healthcare use cases. Session recordings automatically mask form inputs and sensitive data by default.
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Tutorial updated March 2026