Self-host PostHog
updated Oct 2026deployed by usprices checked · Jul 2026Install verified on Ubuntu 26.04 · Oct 2026 · how we test
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An all-in-one product analytics suite: event and funnel analytics, session replay, feature flags, A/B experiments, surveys, error tracking and a SQL data warehouse behind one SDK. The self-hosted 'hobby' deploy puts the whole platform on one server, about 36 containers including ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Redpanda (Kafka-compatible), Redis, Elasticsearch, Temporal and Caddy; PostHog's docs ask for 4 vCPU, 16 GB of RAM and more than 30 GB of storage. Self-hosting is free-plan features only, with no support and no tagged releases. The code is MIT, except the ee/ directory, which is under PostHog's proprietary enterprise licence.
Key facts
CategoryWeb analytics
LicenseMIT core with proprietary enterprise modules
StackPython, Django, TypeScript, Rust, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Kafka
Min RAM16384 MB
Official imageyes
Measured idle RAM16824 MB
Last commitOctober 25, 2026
Last releasedesktop-v0.61.839, October 24, 2026
CheckedGitHub, October 25, 2026
Difficulty
Runs on a VPS from $119.59/mo (Hetzner Cloud CPX52, 24 GB RAM) · prices checked Sep 2026
Our recommendation
Pick self-hosted PostHog when you want its whole product suite (event analytics, session replay, feature flags, experiments and surveys behind one SDK) and your events must stay on your own server. It is a platform, not a page-view counter: the hobby deploy runs about 36 containers and idled at 16.8 GB of RAM in our install check. PostHog itself steers most people to its Cloud free tier. If you only need a Google Analytics replacement, Plausible or Umami do that in a fraction of the resources; if you want funnels and replays on lighter hardware, look at OpenPanel.
Follow the PostHog deploy guide →What you need
- Any VPS with at least 16384 MB of RAM
- A domain you control — most self-hosted setups need HTTPS in front of them
- About the better part of a day
Where to host itaffiliate disclosure
Hetzner Cloudrun it on
From $23.59/mo · 2 vCPU / 4 GB / 80 GB · EU + USKamaterafree trial
From $4/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 20 GB · US + EU + AsiaDigitalOceanalso works on
From $6/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB · US + EU + AsiaPaid link — we earn a commission if you shop through it.
Install
Run these commands on your server:
# PostHog 'hobby' deploy — PostHog's official single-server installer, pinned to commit d945c98 (PostHog publishes no release tags), with HTTPS from its bundled Caddy, per our PostHog deploy guide. Needs Docker installed first, a domain pointing at the server and ports 80/443 open. PostHog says 4 vCPU and 16 GB of RAM; the stack uses nearly all of it, so 24 GB or more is comfortable.
# 16 GB swap as a safety net: there is no memory headroom on a 16 GB server
sudo fallocate -l 16G /swapfile && sudo chmod 600 /swapfile && sudo mkswap /swapfile && sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
# the installer works in the current directory and names the Compose project after it, so give it a directory of its own
mkdir -p ~/posthog-hobby && cd ~/posthog-hobby
DOMAIN=posthog.example.com
git clone --filter=blob:none https://github.com/PostHog/posthog.git && git -C posthog checkout d945c980fbd024bcb75daa029893b152b92986ef
# the compose files float 11 images on :master or :latest; pin each to the digest we installed (deploy-hobby reuses this checkout)
sed -i -e 's|image: caddy$|image: caddy@sha256:f2a1290d0463aad60660d4ec134943f183ee2a5f6c3eb7bf32dd984f2f020772|' -e 's|-node:${POSTHOG_NODE_TAG:-latest}|-node@sha256:863e76e040ad41aef79f605c33ec71f1529bddf94cfd88941c935da9bde97235|' -e 's|posthog/cymbal:master|posthog/cymbal@sha256:637ba14bc877adaf42b4cbbadca56eabe6e079124b707ba49a11cdf492b6eb78|' posthog/docker-compose.base.yml posthog/docker-compose.hobby.yml
sed -i -e 's|posthog/capture:master|posthog/capture@sha256:ba4c368efd4c0a000eb3d9969532cfa27d2da868c80821e2c06ab6b2a82b3128|' -e 's|posthog/capture-logs:master|posthog/capture-logs@sha256:45af6d72e28f064194f4453a08b90dd164e57398dbb22531f2a9ecf70d7e0c1d|' -e 's|posthog/property-defs-rs:master|posthog/property-defs-rs@sha256:50293c7208aff270f708c1d6f4b38913b1db0a01032009d9dde57ee6ecadf868|' posthog/docker-compose.base.yml posthog/docker-compose.hobby.yml
sed -i -e 's|posthog/livestream:master|posthog/livestream@sha256:2a903c1a9696ca8a86b776e19aba4e117cb42f4b69a88421a4b640d3f62be1a8|' -e 's|posthog/personhog-replica:master|posthog/personhog-replica@sha256:981a55b25dba403c9ce07b1f0e2d758ae416d8f9ab8f2f4c89dae793d6815341|' -e 's|posthog/personhog-router:master|posthog/personhog-router@sha256:bebc4e90bf9a2ebc05804d5a0f48b127a20ccdea1d4696c52b5cc5e5d0769e27|' posthog/docker-compose.base.yml posthog/docker-compose.hobby.yml
sed -i -e 's|posthog/feature-flags:master|posthog/feature-flags@sha256:a703b29359a10b10dd41d0150dad02a5e2cb04006b2dce23eb0d0be7d6451b2c|' -e 's|posthog/hypercache-server:master|posthog/hypercache-server@sha256:7f1d33d7f064a9e1a723528a25a95d9eb020111be6f94d6ee5e3e0909c5c40a0|' posthog/docker-compose.base.yml posthog/docker-compose.hobby.yml
# SKIP_HEALTH_CHECK: the installer gives up after 10 minutes, but first-boot migrations take about 56 minutes. Pulling the images takes about 17 more. It also sends your domain to PostHog as an install-start event.
curl -fsSL -o deploy-hobby https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PostHog/posthog/d945c980fbd024bcb75daa029893b152b92986ef/bin/deploy-hobby
SKIP_HEALTH_CHECK=1 bash deploy-hobby d945c980fbd024bcb75daa029893b152b92986ef "$DOMAIN"
# Caddy answers 502 until the migrations finish (about an hour on 4 vCPU); do not restart containers meanwhile. Then open https://posthog.example.com and create the first account — whoever opens the site first creates it.
timeout 150m bash -c 'until [ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" localhost/_health)" = 200 ]; do sleep 60; done'deploy guideHow to Deploy PostHog on a VPSvps picksBest VPS for self-hostingbenchmarked quarterly · re-priced monthly
What you take on
PostHog's own self-hosting docs are frank about the trade-offs, and our install check added a few more:
non-negotiableIt is heavy. The docs ask for the equivalent of 4 vCPU, 16 GB of RAM and more than 30 GB of storage (the installer's own banner says 8 GB). On our 8 vCPU / 32 GB box the stack idled at 16.8 GB of RAM and used 27 GB of disk for images and volumes, so a 16 GB server would have no headroom; we did not test one.
non-negotiableFirst boot is slow. The installer gives up after 10 minutes, but the first-boot migrations took about 45 minutes on our 8 vCPU box (an earlier attempt on a 4 vCPU / 16 GB box did not become healthy within our time limit). That is why the snippet skips the installer's health check and waits up to 150 minutes on its own.
non-negotiableSelf-hosted PostHog is officially unsupported: no tagged releases, no support tickets, no help recovering lost data, and PostHog says one machine is unlikely to scale past a couple of hundred thousand events without significant work. Paid-plan features, such as group analytics, data pipelines and one-year retention, are Cloud only.
non-negotiablePinning is our choice, not PostHog's. Its docs recommend always running the latest image, and security fixes ship continuously from master with no CVEs published. Our snippet pins the app image to one commit and the other 11 floating images to digests, so it reproduces what we tested but goes stale. Upgrading means re-running PostHog's upgrade-hobby, which moves you back to the newest code.
non-negotiableThe licence is MIT except the ee/ directory, which is under PostHog's proprietary enterprise licence and may only be used in production with a paid agreement.
non-negotiableThe installer sends your domain to PostHog's own analytics when it starts and finishes. Caddy publishes ports 80 and 443 and requests a Let's Encrypt certificate, so the domain must already point at the server.
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