Pusher vs PostHog
Realtime pub/sub WebSocket Channels + programmatic push (Beams)
vs. Open source product analytics — all-in-one dev tool
Pricing tiers
Pusher
Beams: Sandbox
Free. 1K subscribers.
$0 base (usage-based)
Channels: Sandbox
Free. 100 concurrent conns, 200K msg/day.
$0 base (usage-based)
Beams: Startup
$29/mo. 10K subscribers.
$29/mo
Channels: Startup
$49/mo. 500 concurrent conns, 1M msg/day.
$49/mo
Channels: Pro
$99/mo. 2K concurrent conns, 4M msg/day.
$99/mo
Beams: Pro
$99/mo. 50K subscribers.
$99/mo
Beams: Business
$199/mo. 115K subscribers.
$199/mo
Channels: Business
$299/mo. 5K concurrent, 10M msg/day.
$299/mo
Beams: Premium
$399/mo. 250K subscribers.
$399/mo
Channels: Premium
$499/mo. 10K concurrent, 20M msg/day.
$499/mo
Channels: Growth
$699/mo. 15K concurrent, 40M msg/day.
$699/mo
Channels: Plus
$899/mo. 20K concurrent, 60M msg/day.
$899/mo
Channels: Growth Plus
$1,199/mo. 30K concurrent, 90M msg/day.
$1199/mo
Channels: Enterprise
Custom. 10M+ concurrent, 100B+ msg/day. SLA, dedicated support.
Custom
PostHog
Free (generous)
No credit card. Each product has its own free monthly quota. Great for startups + OSS.
Free
Paid (usage-based)
Pay only what you use, after free quotas. Volume discounts at higher tiers. 6 projects, 7-year retention.
$0 base (usage-based)
Self-Hosted (OSS)
MIT-licensed. Run on your own infra via Docker/k8s. Zero vendor lock-in.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Custom. SAML SSO, dedicated CSM, custom SLA.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing be-sandbox on Pusher vs free on PostHog.
| Metric | Pusher | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| data warehouse rows | — | 1000000 rows/month |
| error tracking exceptions | — | 100000 exceptions/month |
| feature flags requests | — | 1000000 requests/month |
| llm analytics events | — | 100000 events/month |
| logs gb | — | 50 GB/month |
| product analytics events | — | 1000000 events/month |
| projects | — | 1 projects |
| retention years | — | 1 year |
| session replay recordings | — | 5000 recordings/month |
| subscribers | 1000 subscribers | — |
| surveys responses | — | 1500 responses/month |
| team members | — | unlimited members |
Features
Pusher · 11 features
- Beams — Push notifications for iOS/Android/Web with device interest groups.
- Beams Authenticated Users — Target users by auth user ID across devices.
- Channels — WebSocket pub/sub — realtime events, live updates, notifications.
- Channels Webhooks — Receive server-side notifications of channel activity.
- Client Events — Publish events from clients directly (triggered from browser).
- Debug Console — Live channel debugging dashboard.
- Encrypted Channels — End-to-end encrypted messages.
- Global Clusters — US, EU, AP-Southeast, etc. Pick nearest region.
- Presence Channels — Track who is online in a channel.
- Private Channels — Auth-required channels with server-signed tokens.
- Stats — Connection / message dashboards.
PostHog · 14 features
- A/B Testing — Experiments with significance analysis.
- Data Pipelines — Export events to BigQuery, Snowflake, S3.
- Data Warehouse — Query external sources (Stripe, Hubspot, S3) alongside events with SQL.
- Error Tracking — Sentry-style error tracking in same platform.
- Feature Flags — Rollout flags with targeting, A/B testing, JSON payloads.
- LLM Analytics — Tracing + cost tracking for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, etc.
- Logs — Centralized log ingest with free 50 GB/month.
- Product Analytics — Events, funnels, trends, retention, paths. SQL insights available.
- Revenue Tracking — Integration with Stripe for revenue + churn metrics.
- Self-Hosting — Docker/Helm. Full feature parity with cloud.
- Session Replay — Watch user sessions. Privacy controls, masked inputs, JS errors.
- SQL Query API — Run ClickHouse SQL over your events via API.
- Surveys — In-app surveys + feedback widgets.
- Workflows — Trigger emails/webhooks on events.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Pusher | PostHog |
|---|---|---|
| SDK | Pusher Beams Android, Pusher Beams iOS, Pusher Beams Web SDK, pusher-http-go, pusher-http-java, pusher-http-php, pusher-js (client), pusher (Node), pusher (Python), pusher (Ruby), PusherSwift, pusher-websocket-java (Android) | posthog-android, posthog-flutter, posthog-go, posthog-ios (Swift), posthog-js, posthog-node, posthog-php, posthog-python, posthog-react-native, posthog-ruby |
| REST | Beams Publish API, Pusher HTTP API | PostHog REST API |
| MCP | — | PostHog MCP |
| OTHER | Channels Webhooks, Pusher WebSocket | Webhooks + Actions |
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Pusher and PostHog may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.
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