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UserExplorer

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PostHog alternative for session replay and heatmaps that product and growth teams run without SQL

PostHog is a developer toolkit: analytics, replay, feature flags, experiments and error tracking, billed per event and per recording, with insights you usually build yourself. UserExplorer is a PostHog alternative for product managers, growth marketers and UX leads who want session replay, heatmaps, funnels and form analytics ready on day one, a flat monthly price, and an AI researcher that reads the recordings and tells you why users drop off. If you mainly need flags, experiments or native app replay, PostHog is the better and cheaper fit.

See a sample report
  • Flat plan price, no per recording math
  • Form analytics and funnels ready without SQL
  • AI researcher reads sessions and links the proof
  • Replay retention of 3 to 24 months by plan
Growth analyst reviewing a conversion funnel on a laptop at a desk
app.userexplorer.com/insights
This week's findings15,862 sessions read
  1. 1 Phone verification fails on mobile signup 31% of mobile signups 42 replays
  2. 2 Yearly toggle below the fold on /pricing 58% of paid search visitors 27 replays
  3. 3 Coupon field takes focus before Pay 18% of checkouts 19 replays
  4. 4 Export used in 24 h predicts retention 2.4x better week 4 33 replays

Sample data

Why teams look

The PostHog trade offs that start the search for an alternative

PostHog is a good product with a generous free tier. Teams usually start looking when the people who need answers are not the people who write queries.

  • Who it is built for

    PostHog
    Engineers and technical product teams, one platform for analytics, flags, experiments, errors and data pipelines
    UserExplorer
    Product, growth, CRO and UX teams on websites and web apps

  • How you pay

    PostHog
    Per event, per recording, per survey response and per exception, plus optional platform add-ons from $250 a month
    UserExplorer
    One plan price with a session limit, seats and features listed on the pricing page

  • Getting an answer

    PostHog
    Build insights, filters and HogQL queries, then watch the replays yourself
    UserExplorer
    Ask the AI researcher a question and get ranked causes with evidence replays

  • Form analytics

    PostHog
    No dedicated field level form report; you track field events and build it
    UserExplorer
    Field level hesitation, refills and drop off on every plan

  • Replay retention

    PostHog
    1 month on the free tier, 90 days pay as you go, up to 1 year with Boost or Scale
    UserExplorer
    3, 6, 12 or 24 months by plan

PostHog figures from its public pricing data and posthog.com/pricing, read in October 2026. PostHog changes tiers often, so confirm on both pricing pages before you sign.

The reading problem

Five thousand free recordings are only useful if someone watches them

Here is the usual story. Engineering installs PostHog, replays start piling up, and the growth team gets a link. Nobody has two hours a day to filter and watch recordings, so the replays sit there until a bug report forces someone to look.

UserExplorer starts from the question instead of the list. Ask why trial signups fell on mobile last week and the AI researcher scans the sessions, groups the patterns it finds, ranks them by how many visitors they hit and links the exact session replays that show each one.

You still get the full recording library with filters for page, device, source, custom event and frustration signals. The difference is that the first answer does not depend on someone finding time to watch.

UX researcher watching a recorded user session and taking notes

Side by side

UserExplorer and PostHog compared feature by feature

An honest view, including the many places where PostHog is the stronger or cheaper buy.

  • Entry price

    UserExplorer
    $99 a month, or $49 billed yearly, for 10,000 sessions
    PostHog
    Free for 5,000 recordings and 1 million events a month, then pay per use

  • Session replay on the web

    UserExplorer
    Every session up to the plan limit
    PostHog
    Yes, from $0.005 down to $0.0015 per recording by volume

  • Native mobile app replay

    UserExplorer
    No, websites and web apps only
    PostHog
    Yes, iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, 2,500 free then from $0.01 per recording

  • Heatmaps

    UserExplorer
    Click and scroll, split by device, source and behavior
    PostHog
    Click, scroll and rage click heatmaps built on captured events

  • Funnels and journeys

    UserExplorer
    10 funnels on Startup, uncapped from Growth, each step opens the replays
    PostHog
    Funnels, paths, retention and SQL on every plan

  • Form analytics

    UserExplorer
    Every plan
    PostHog
    Build from field events

  • Surveys and NPS

    UserExplorer
    Included from Growth, with AI follow up interviews
    PostHog
    1,500 responses free, then from $0.10 per response

  • AI analysis of sessions

    UserExplorer
    AI researcher answers questions with evidence replays
    PostHog
    PostHog AI and replay summaries, billed in credits after the free allowance

  • Feature flags and A/B tests

    UserExplorer
    No, we find the problem and you test the fix in your own tool
    PostHog
    Yes, built in

  • Self hosting

    UserExplorer
    No, hosted in the EU or US
    PostHog
    Open source hobby deployment available

PostHog features and prices from posthog.com/pricing and its public billing data in October 2026. UserExplorer plans and limits are on the pricing page.

Budget

What session replay costs on PostHog and UserExplorer

PostHog web replay charged on its tiered per recording rates, before analytics events, surveys or add-ons. UserExplorer plan prices include replay, heatmaps, funnels and form analytics.

  • 10,000

    PostHog web replay only
    About $25
    UserExplorer plan
    Startup, 10,000 sessions
    UserExplorer, monthly or yearly
    $99 monthly or $49 billed yearly

  • 50,000

    PostHog web replay only
    About $173
    UserExplorer plan
    Growth, 100,000 sessions
    UserExplorer, monthly or yearly
    $499 monthly or $249 billed yearly

  • 100,000

    PostHog web replay only
    About $273
    UserExplorer plan
    Growth, 100,000 sessions
    UserExplorer, monthly or yearly
    $499 monthly or $249 billed yearly, surveys and profiles included

  • 500,000

    PostHog web replay only
    About $968
    UserExplorer plan
    Scale, 500,000 sessions
    UserExplorer, monthly or yearly
    $1,499 monthly or $749 billed yearly, API, EU or US hosting

  • 2,000,000

    PostHog web replay only
    About $3,218
    UserExplorer plan
    Enterprise, 2,000,000 sessions
    UserExplorer, monthly or yearly
    $3,999 monthly or $1,999 billed yearly, SSO and SLA

PostHog math uses its published tiers: first 5,000 free, then $0.005 to 15,000, $0.0035 to 50,000, $0.002 to 150,000, $0.0017 to 500,000 and $0.0015 above. Longer replay retention on PostHog needs the Boost ($250 a month) or Scale ($750 a month) add-on. On replay alone PostHog is cheaper; the yearly UserExplorer plans buy the analysis, form reports and fixed bill.

What you get

What a growth team gets on day one without building it

An analyst that reads the replays

Ask a plain question about a drop. The AI researcher ranks causes by sessions affected and links the replays that prove each one.

Field level form analytics

See which field makes buyers hesitate, refill or quit, with no event plan to design first. Details on the form analytics page.

Funnels that open the evidence

Each funnel analysis step opens the recordings of the people who left at that step.

Segmented heatmaps

Split a website heatmap by device, traffic source or visitors who reached checkout and left.

Frustration signals on the timeline

Rage clicks, dead clicks and JavaScript errors are marked in every recording, so the broken button is easy to spot.

A bill finance can approve

One plan price with a session limit and listed features, bought by card online, so nobody has to forecast events and recordings each month.

Honest fit

When you should stay on PostHog

Stay if your engineers already run feature flags, experiments and error tracking in PostHog and replay is a side benefit. Replacing one part of an all in one stack rarely pays off, and PostHog at about $25 a month for 10,000 recordings is hard to beat on price.

Stay too if you ship native iOS or Android apps, need to self host, or have a data team that prefers SQL over a prepared report. UserExplorer does not record native apps, has no self hosted edition and does not run A/B tests.

Switch, or add UserExplorer next to PostHog, when the people who own conversion are product managers, marketers or UX researchers who need answers without writing queries, when form drop off matters, or when you want one flat line on the invoice. Many teams keep PostHog for flags and move behavior research here. If you are coming from a replay focused tool instead, the FullStory alternative and LogRocket alternative pages compare those.

Migration

How to move session replay from PostHog in one afternoon

You can keep PostHog for flags and experiments and only turn off its recordings once UserExplorer has a few weeks of data.

  1. Step 1

    List what you watch today

    Note the funnels, saved replay filters and dashboards your team actually opens. Recordings stay in PostHog and cannot be moved to another vendor.

  2. Step 2

    Install the UserExplorer snippet

    Create an account, check out online and add one script to your site or tag manager. Inputs are masked in the browser by default.

  3. Step 3

    Rebuild funnels, forms and heatmaps

    Recreate signup and checkout funnels, turn on form analytics for the key forms and open heatmaps for the top landing pages.

  4. Step 4

    Turn off PostHog recordings

    After two to four weeks, disable session recording in PostHog so you stop paying for duplicate replays, and keep the rest of PostHog if you use it.

FAQ

Questions teams ask before replacing PostHog

What is the best alternative to PostHog?

It depends on what you use PostHog for. For session replay, heatmaps, funnels and form analytics run by product and growth teams, UserExplorer is a strong PostHog alternative with an AI researcher and flat plans from $49 a month billed yearly. For product analytics charts, look at Amplitude or Mixpanel; for replay plus mobile apps, FullStory or LogRocket.

Who are PostHog's competitors?

PostHog competes with different tools for each product it bundles: Amplitude and Mixpanel for analytics, FullStory, LogRocket, Hotjar and UserExplorer for session replay, LaunchDarkly and Statsig for feature flags and experiments, and Sentry for error tracking. Most teams compare it against the one part they use most.

How much does PostHog session replay cost?

PostHog includes 5,000 web recordings a month for free. After that it charges $0.005 per recording up to 15,000, $0.0035 up to 50,000, $0.002 up to 150,000, $0.0017 up to 500,000 and $0.0015 above that. That works out to about $273 a month for 100,000 recordings, before events, surveys or add-ons.

Is PostHog free?

PostHog has a free tier with no card required that includes 1 million analytics events, 5,000 session recordings and 1,500 survey responses a month, for one project, with recordings kept for one month. Usage stops at those limits until you add a card and switch to pay as you go billing.

How long does PostHog keep session recordings?

PostHog keeps recordings for 1 month on the free tier and 90 days on pay as you go. The Boost and Scale add-ons extend that to up to one year, and the Enterprise add-on to five years. UserExplorer keeps replays for 3, 6, 12 or 24 months depending on the plan.

Can I use UserExplorer and PostHog together?

Yes. Both are a script on the page, so many teams keep PostHog for feature flags, experiments and error tracking and use UserExplorer for behavior research. Turn off PostHog session recording once UserExplorer is live so you do not pay for the same replays twice.

Does UserExplorer record mobile apps like PostHog?

No. UserExplorer records websites and web apps, including single page apps and visits from mobile browsers. PostHog also records native iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter apps, so an app first business should keep a tool with mobile SDKs.

Get answers from your replays without writing a query

Install one snippet next to PostHog today, rebuild your key funnels and forms, and let the AI researcher show you where users drop off.

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