OpenPanel vs PostHog (2026)
Head-to-head comparison for vibe coders: scores, free tiers, pricing and best-for, using the same evidence-based methodology. Rankings are never for sale.
Open-source web + product analytics: Mixpanel-style funnels with Plausible-style simplicity
Product analytics, session replay and feature flags in one
Side-by-side comparison
| Criterion | OpenPanel | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78/100 | 91/100 |
| Free tier | No free cloud plan (30-day free trial); self-hosting is free with unlimited events | Yes: generous free tier that resets monthly (1M events, 5K replays, 1M flag requests, 100K exceptions); no credit card required on Free |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | Cloud priced by events/month, everything else unlimited: 5K $2.50/mo, 10K $5, 100K $20, 250K $30, 500K $50, 1M $90, 2.5M $180, 5M $250, 10M $350 ... 50M $900; yearly = 2 months free; 30-day free trial, no card. Self-host free (AGPL-3.0) with unlimited events | Free forever with monthly allowances (1M analytics events, 5K session replays, 1M feature-flag requests, 100K error exceptions, and more); pay-as-you-go above free limits; platform packages for SSO/audit logs |
| Best for | Indie SaaS and vibe-coded apps that want product analytics (funnels, retention, profiles) without Mixpanel prices | Vibe-coded SaaS that wants product analytics, replay and flags without stitching three vendors |
| Category | Analytics & monitoring | Analytics & monitoring |
Score breakdown
| Criterion | OpenPanel | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| Fit for the use case /25 | 20 | 24 |
| Vibe-coder friendliness /15 | 12 | 14 |
| Output quality & reliability /15 | 11 | 13 |
| Pricing & free tier /15 | 12 | 15 |
| Ecosystem & integrations /10 | 6 | 9 |
| Momentum /10 | 7 | 9 |
| Code ownership & lock-in /10 | 10 | 7 |
Based on desk research of official pricing pages and docs; see methodology.
How they differ
Both are open-source product analytics: event tracking, funnels, retention, user profiles and session replay, with an MCP server so Claude, Cursor or another agent can query your data. PostHog (91) is a full product platform that also includes feature flags, experiments, error tracking, surveys, data pipelines and logs. OpenPanel (78) sticks to web and product analytics in one simpler dashboard, is cookie-less by default with EU hosting, and its MCP server has 38 tools.
What you pay
PostHog Free gives you, every month, 1M analytics events, 5K session recordings, 1M feature-flag requests and 100K error exceptions, with no card; the free plan has 1 project and 1-year data retention, and usage simply stops at the limits. Pay-as-you-go keeps the same free allowance, then bills per product, with 6 projects, 7-year retention and per-product billing limits. OpenPanel has no free cloud plan (30-day free trial, no card) and is priced only by monthly events, with unlimited sites, users and dashboards: 5K events $2.50/mo, 100K $20, 1M $90, 10M $350; yearly billing gives 2 months free.
The math at small scale
Up to 1M events a month, PostHog Cloud costs $0, while the same volume on OpenPanel Cloud is $90/mo. OpenPanel’s cloud is worth paying for when you want its simpler dashboard, many sites or apps on one bill (PostHog Free allows 1 project), or cookie-less tracking by default.
Self-hosting
OpenPanel self-hosts for free under AGPL-3.0 with unlimited events (about 7.2k GitHub stars). PostHog also publishes an MIT-licensed open-source edition (about 40k stars); its pricing page pitches it for organizations that aren’t ready to use PostHog’s cloud.
Which to pick
PostHog for most vibe-coded SaaS: one free tier covers analytics, replay, feature flags and error tracking. OpenPanel if you want a lighter Mixpanel-style dashboard across many sites for one event-based price, cookie-less tracking out of the box, or AGPL self-hosting with no event cap.
Who wins: OpenPanel or PostHog?
By score, PostHog wins OpenPanel vs PostHog at 91/100 vs 78/100. PostHog: The vibe-coding default for product analytics: one product for events, replay and flags, huge free tier that never expires, and an OSS/self-host path. Slightly less focused than Plausible for simple web stats and than Sentry for deep error APM. OpenPanel: Covers both web and product analytics (funnels, retention, profiles, replay) for a few dollars a month, with free AGPL self-hosting and a large MCP toolset for agents. It is a smaller project (~7k GitHub stars) than PostHog or Umami and has no free cloud tier, which holds back quality, ecosystem and pricing points. PostHog is best for Vibe-coded SaaS that wants product analytics, replay and flags without stitching three vendors. OpenPanel is best for Indie SaaS and vibe-coded apps that want product analytics (funnels, retention, profiles) without Mixpanel prices.
FAQ
- Which is better, OpenPanel or PostHog?
- By our score, PostHog (91/100) ranks above OpenPanel (78/100). PostHog is best for Vibe-coded SaaS that wants product analytics, replay and flags without stitching three vendors. The right pick still depends on your workflow; see the side-by-side table.
- What is the OpenPanel vs PostHog score?
- OpenPanel scores 78/100 and PostHog scores 91/100 on PromptToProd's evidence-based ranking. Scores are never for sale.
- Is OpenPanel free?
- The cloud has no free plan: a 30-day free trial with no card, then from $2.50/mo for 5K events or $20/mo for 100K. Self-hosting is free under AGPL-3.0 with unlimited events.
- Is OpenPanel cheaper than PostHog?
- Not at low volume. PostHog is free for up to 1M analytics events a month, while 1M events on OpenPanel costs $90/mo ($900/yr). OpenPanel’s price does include unlimited sites, users and dashboards.
- Does OpenPanel have feature flags?
- OpenPanel focuses on analytics: events, funnels, retention, profiles, revenue tracking and session replay. If you also want feature flags and A/B experiments in the same tool, PostHog includes them, with 1M free flag requests a month.