Amplitude vs PostHog

Amplitude and PostHog have converged on a similar feature set: behavioral analytics, session replay, A/B testing, and feature flags. This comparison is less about capability gaps and more about maturity, pricing, and philosophy. Amplitude has been building these features since 2012 and has enterprise-grade data governance, compliance certifications (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR), and integration depth. PostHog launched in 2020 and has moved fast — it now ships the same core features — but with a younger, scrappier product and an open-source-first mentality.

Amplitude's Experiment product is widely considered the most sophisticated experiment management tool available alongside a product analytics platform. The statistical engine handles both frequentist and Bayesian analysis, the targeting engine can run experiments on any user segment, and the results tie directly to your Amplitude analytics metrics. For companies running dozens of A/B tests simultaneously, Amplitude Experiment's infrastructure and guardrails are battle-tested at enterprise scale.

PostHog's pricing model is fundamentally different and almost always cheaper. PostHog charges per event (not per MAU), with a free 1M events/month tier and usage-based pricing after. Amplitude charges by Monthly Active Users on lower tiers and moves to enterprise contracts at scale — contracts that often run tens of thousands per month for high-traffic consumer apps. Many companies switching from Amplitude to PostHog report 60-80% cost reductions for comparable usage.

The self-hosting dimension is unique to PostHog. Amplitude is cloud-only with no self-hosting option. If your company is in healthcare (HIPAA), finance, or a jurisdiction with strict data residency laws (EU, China), PostHog's ability to run entirely in your own AWS/GCP/Azure account is sometimes the deciding factor. Beyond compliance, some engineering teams prefer owning their analytics infrastructure — PostHog's open-source codebase means you can inspect, fork, and extend the platform.