Open-source alternative
Replace Hotjar with PostHog
The best open-source alternative to Hotjar is PostHog, self-hosted on Railway. Product analytics, session replay, and surveys you can self-host. Hotjar without the session pack.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stack Deploy on Railway
How Hotjar compares
| Hotjar | PostHog | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Session-metered experience analytics | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | From $39/mo Growth, billed yearly source | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- PostHog
Open-source product analytics and session replay
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The PostHog licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Hotjar seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Hotjar?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The PostHog stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Hotjar links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the PostHog stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: PostHog is a multi-service stack (web, worker, Postgres, Redis, ClickHouse). Treat it as a second-wave template; snippet on c17.io comes after.
- What does this replace?
- Hotjar. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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