ANALYTICS / LESSON 04

PostHog Privacy and Pricing.

Consent, self-hosting, the PostHog dashboard and pricing

Written by Andrew Lee JenkinsPublished Oct 5, 20263 min readFree lesson

Privacy Considerations

Analytics brings up privacy questions. PostHog handles them well.

I'm a broken record about compliance. TCPA texting violations run $500 to $1,500 PER MESSAGE, so I treat privacy rules as non-negotiable everywhere.

Consent

Ask people before you track them. PostHog makes it easy to keep tracking off until someone says yes. You start it opted out, then flip it on when they click "Accept" on your cookie banner. The init call below replaces the one in your instrumentation-client.js file, it just adds one extra setting.

Example

// Start with tracking OFF
posthog.init(process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_PROJECT_TOKEN, {
  api_host: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST,
  defaults: '2026-05-30',
  opt_out_capturing_by_default: true
})

// Later, when the user makes a choice on your banner
if (userConsented) {
  posthog.opt_in_capturing()
} else {
  posthog.opt_out_capturing()
}

Self-Hosting

Unlike some analytics tools, PostHog is open source and can run on your own servers, so your data never leaves your control (you know I love that). Fair warning though. PostHog calls self-hosting "officially unsupported," it's meant for smaller volumes, and the paid features are Cloud-only. For most folks the easier privacy move is PostHog Cloud with the EU or US region, whichever fits where your users are.

No Personal Data Required

You can track behavior without tracking personally identifiable information. You can spot patterns without knowing who each person is.

The PostHog Dashboard

PostHog's dashboard lets you do a lot.

View events. See every tracked event and how often it happens
Build charts. Visualize data over time
Create funnels. Analyze how people flow through your app
Watch recordings. See exactly what people do
Manage flags. Control feature rollouts
Set up alerts. Get a heads up when your numbers change

Pricing

PostHog has a generous free tier, and you don't need a credit card for it. As of October 2026, here's what you get free every month.

Product analytics. First 1 million events
Session replay. First 5,000 recordings
Feature flags. First 1 million flag requests
Paid plan. $0 base price. You keep the free tier and only pay for what you use above it

Prices change, so check PostHog's pricing page for the current numbers before you plan around them.

Most apps can ride the free tier for a LONG time.

TL;DR

Analytics helps you see how people actually use your app
PostHog is a developer-friendly, privacy-conscious analytics platform
Track events (actions), page views, and user identities
Session recordings show you exactly what people experience
Funnels show where people drop off in multi-step processes
Feature flags let you roll out new features a lil at a time
Always respect privacy and give people a way to opt out

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