PostHog vs Amplitude: which product analytics platform costs less
By Julian Pryor · Updated 7 Oct 2026
Amplitude gives you more free events: 2 million a month with no time limit, against 1 million on PostHog. PostHog gives you more free products, with session replay, feature flags, error tracking, surveys and a data warehouse each carrying their own monthly allowance. Past the free tier, PostHog publishes per-event rates, so you can price it exactly; Amplitude lists Plus as starting at $0 and moves Growth and Enterprise to custom, event-based pricing. The right pick depends on how many events you send and whether you want one tool or a suite.
Free tiers side by side
Both vendors publish a free plan with no credit card and no time limit. Readouts are from each pricing page on 7 October 2026.
| Monthly allowance | PostHog free | Amplitude free |
|---|---|---|
| Analytics events | 1 million | 2 million |
| Session replay | 5,000 recordings | 10,000 replays |
| Feature flags | 1 million requests | Unlimited feature flags |
| Experiments, surveys | Experiments billed with feature flags; 1,500 survey responses | Limited experiments, guides and surveys |
| Error tracking | 100,000 exceptions | Not listed |
| Data retention | 1 year | 2 years on Plus; Free not listed |
| Seats | Unlimited team members | Unlimited seats on every plan |
| Behavior at the limit | Events beyond the limit are dropped; you cannot be charged by surprise | Plus requires a credit card and scales beyond 2 million |
What PostHog charges beyond the free tier
PostHog's pay-as-you-go plan keeps the same free allowance every month and bills the excess, with unlimited usage, six projects and seven-year data retention. Analytics events use graduated rates. All events pay a base rate: $0.00005 each from 1 to 2 million, then $0.0000343 each from 2 to 15 million. Events from identified users, or users with stored properties, pay an additional person-profile rate, with the first million free: $0.000198 each from 1 to 2 million and $0.0000697 each from 2 to 15 million. The rate shown at the top of a slider covers only the first tier, so price a volume by working up through the tiers rather than multiplying one rate. Worked that way for analytics events only:
| Events per month | All anonymous | All identified | Amplitude Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 million | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| 2 million | $50.00 | $248.00 | $0 |
| 3 million | $84.30 | $352.00 | Not listed; use its estimate tool |
| 10 million | $324.40 | $1,080.00 | Not listed; use its estimate tool |
The arithmetic behind the 3 million row: the base charge is 1 million events at $0.00005 plus 1 million at $0.0000343, which is $84.30. The person-profile charge adds $198 for the 1 to 2 million band and $69.70 for the third million. These figures cover analytics events only and exclude other products and any annual or volume discount. PostHog's own calculator is the authority for your account.
The largest lever in that table is identification. The same 3 million events cost $84.30 or $352 depending on whether they come from identified users. If you call an identify step on every first page view, you are paying the higher rate for visitors you will never recognise again. Identify at signup or login instead.
What Amplitude charges beyond the free tier
Amplitude's Plus plan starts at $0, includes the first 2 million events a month free and scales up to 70 million events, with custom events and formulas, 20 behavioral cohorts, alerts, heatmaps and two-year data retention. Its pricing page does not print a per-event rate beyond the free allowance; it offers an "Estimate bill" link and asks for a credit card. Growth and Enterprise use custom, event-based pricing, so those are quote-based: Growth adds advanced behavioral exploration, 20K monthly session replays and SSO with project permissions, and Enterprise adds data access controls and role-based access. Startups with under $10M in funding and fewer than 20 employees receive one free year on Growth.
If you act on product events with email
Sequenzy's pricing page lists a PostHog integration alongside Stripe, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy, so product and billing events can start email flows. It has a free plan of 2,500 emails a month and $19 for 15,000.
Which to choose
- Choose PostHog if you want analytics, replay, flags, experiments, surveys and error tracking under one login, value the open-source option (it is MIT licensed) or EU hosting in Frankfurt, and prefer a published rate card with billing limits per product.
- Choose Amplitude if analytics is the main job, your volume sits under 2 million events and you want that free, or you are an early-stage startup that qualifies for a year of Growth.
- Revisit at 3 million events and up. PostHog's cost is calculable; Amplitude's needs a quote or its estimate tool, so compare actual numbers rather than assuming either is cheaper.
Moving between them
- Audit your event names and properties, and cut the ones nobody queries. On either platform this lowers cost and clutter before you migrate.
- Decide when users get identified. On PostHog the choice changes the bill; on either tool it determines whether pre-login activity joins the user's later history.
- Send events to both products for several weeks so you can compare the same funnel in each.
- Rebuild the dashboards and cohorts people actually open, then retire the rest. Historical data will not follow automatically, so keep the old account read-only for your retention window.
Related reading: Mixpanel vs Amplitude, Heap vs Mixpanel, Segment vs RudderStack, Amplitude alternatives and product analytics tools.
PostHog vs Amplitude: common questions
Which has the bigger free tier?
For analytics events, Amplitude: its Free plan includes 2 million events a month with no time limit, against 1 million on PostHog. PostHog's free allowance is broader across products, with 5,000 session recordings, 1 million feature flag requests, 100,000 exceptions, 1,500 survey responses and 1 million data warehouse rows each month. Amplitude's Free plan includes 10,000 monthly session replays.
How much does PostHog cost after the free tier?
Usage-based: after the first million events, anonymous events are billed at $0.00005 each up to 2 million, then $0.0000343 each up to 15 million. Events for identified users add a person-profile rate on top, with the first million free. At 3 million events that works out to $84.30 if every event is anonymous and $352 if every event is identified.
How much does Amplitude cost after 2 million events?
Its Plus plan "starts at $0" with the first 2 million events a month free and scales to 70 million events, but its pricing page lists no per-event rate in text; it offers an estimate tool instead. Growth and Enterprise are custom, event-based pricing, so they are quote-based. Startups under $10M in funding and fewer than 20 employees can get one free year of Growth.
Can I move from Amplitude to PostHog?
Yes, as a re-instrumentation project rather than an import: audit your event names, decide how users get identified, send events to both for a few weeks, and rebuild the dashboards you actually use. Plan identification carefully, because PostHog charges extra for events from identified users.