VeritaMetrics vs PostHog
PostHog is a broad product-analytics suite: analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments, and surveys, with a large free tier and an MIT-licensed core. Its SDK is heavy, around 73KB, and it sets cookies by default. VeritaMetrics covers web analytics from a ~8KB cookieless script, with no product suite to instrument.
Problems we built for, and where we stop
What people run into with analytics tools in general, read from the research, not a pitch against this one.
“decisions about landing pages, content and ad spend are being made from numbers with a messed up denominator”
What we do: Every pageview carries a bot label with a reason code; the dashboard shows the top reasons held back.
Where we stop: We label and do not block. Three reason codes fire today. A label is a statement about a signal, not a verdict. Reason-per-bot is not unique: Swetrix, Rybbit and PostHog show one.
“my tag broke and I found out weeks later”
What we do: An automatic notice when a reliably active site goes quiet.
Where we stop: Total silence only, not a drop or a partial break.
“a ten-minute read counted as a zero-second bounce”
What we do: Bounce needs one pageview and under 10 engaged seconds, and the threshold is shown.
Where we stop: Equals GA4's threshold, so new only against the privacy tools.
“GA4 users dropped after the banner and the modelling never brought them back”
What we do: Runs beside GA4 and counts on our own servers.
Where we stop: The capture rate is an unaudited estimate until capture-audit_plan.md finishes.
“every tool says privacy matters, and very few say anything meaningful about what they actually collect”
What we do: The privacy pages list what is stored and for how long.
Where we stop: The wording is hedged on consent by design, and the visit ID is pseudonymous, not anonymous.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | VeritaMetrics | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy & Compliance | ||
| Cookieless by default | Yes | Opt-in mode |
| Consent banner claim (vendor claim) | Usually, see /privacy | Not by default |
| GDPR position (vendor claim) | Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)), see /privacy | Configurable |
| Data storage region | London, UK | EU Cloud option |
| Tracking & Data | ||
| Script size (gzipped) | ~8KB | ~ 87 KB |
| Ad blocker resilience | Yes | Proxy |
| No-JS fallback (pixel) | Yes | Server-side SDKs |
| Automatic event capture | Yes | Yes |
| Rage & dead click detection | Yes | Yes |
| Bot classification, with a reason per visit | Yes | Yes |
| Bounce that counts an engaged single-page read | Yes | Yes |
| Full DOM autocapture | No | Yes |
| JS error capture | No | Yes |
| Features | ||
| Session replay (DOM recording) | No | Yes |
| Visit timeline (event list) | Yes | Yes |
| Automated insights | Rule-based, no LLM | PostHog AI (LLM analyst) |
| Funnels | Ordered steps, conversion window, event steps | Yes |
| Feature flags & experiments | No | Yes |
| Retention / cohorts | For signed-in users, in pseudonymous mode | Yes |
| Revenue attribution | Tracking only, no attribution | Stripe only (more planned) |
| Live visitor count | No | Yes |
| Data export | CSV / JSON / XLSX | CSV + warehouse export |
| Pricing & Hosting | ||
| Self-hosting option | On request (contact sales) | Self-host (discouraged) |
| Open source | No | MIT core |
When to choose PostHog
- One platform for product analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments, and surveys
- A large free tier: 1M events, 5k replays, and 1M flag requests per month
- Deep product analytics with SQL access, cohorts, and group analytics for B2B products
- Open-source (MIT) core that a team can inspect and, at small volumes, self-host
When to choose VeritaMetrics
- Hosted, no operations, where PostHog’s own self-hosters on Hacker News call the deploy script "basically unusable" and a self-host attempt "impossible"
- Cookieless, sets no cookies by default, where PostHog sets cookies unless a cookieless mode is enabled
- Scoped to web analytics, with no separate per-product usage meters to watch for bill surprises
- Simple setup for a marketing site, with no SQL or product instrumentation
- Sub-100ms main-thread impact, where PostHog’s SDK is heavy enough that teams report page slowdowns
- ~8KB script versus PostHog’s roughly 73KB SDK, for a much smaller page-load cost
What people who use PostHog say
“Self-hosting PostHog was basically unusable: the deploy script varies from somewhat working to completely broken.”
What we do: Hosted, no operations. The limit: Not open source and not self-hostable.
“I tried self-hosting it a couple of months ago, and it was impossible.”
What we do: Hosted, no operations. The limit: Not open source and not self-hostable.
Pricing
PostHog: Usage-based. Free tier of 1M events, 5k session replays, and 1M flag requests per month, then per-unit pricing.
VeritaMetrics: Free plan, then paid from 7 €/mo
See pricing and plansPostHog vs VeritaMetrics: common questions
- How big is the PostHog script?
- The posthog-js SDK is about 73KB gzipped, measured two ways. PostHog’s "under 1KB" claim describes only the small loader stub, not the SDK it injects. That is roughly 9 times our ~8KB script.
- Does PostHog need a cookie banner?
- By default, yes. PostHog sets cookies and starts autocapture on load, before consent, so a banner is required unless you enable its cookieless mode. VeritaMetrics is cookieless from the first pageview.
- Is PostHog free?
- It has a generous free tier per product (1M events, 5k replays, 1M flag requests monthly), then bills per unit. Costs add up across separate meters for events, replays, flags, surveys, and more.
- Is PostHog a Google Analytics replacement?
- It is a product-analytics platform aimed at what activated users do next, with the weight and setup to match. For traffic, sources, and conversions on a marketing site, VeritaMetrics answers the same questions from a ~8KB script.
Switch from PostHog to VeritaMetrics
Same privacy commitment. More complete data. Deeper reporting.