PostHog vs Substack
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for PostHog and Substack, verified . PostHog is primarily analytics; Substack is primarily email marketing.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
PostHog
- Free + Pay-as-you-go
Generous free tier across every product
Free - Boost
Add-on: Boost
$250/mo - Scale
Add-on: Scale
$750/mo - Enterprise
Add-on: Enterprise
Custom
Substack
- Standard
Free to publish; 10% of paid subscription revenue
Free
When PostHog wins
- Technical product teams that want one tool covering analytics, experiments, replay, and surveys
- Startups under 1M events per month, where the free tier covers the entire stack
- Companies committed to open-source infrastructure who want the option to self-host
Where PostHog is the wrong fit
- Marketing-only teams who need attribution and campaign analytics (Mixpanel or GA4 fit better)
- Enterprises with strict procurement that requires a SaaS-only vendor with no self-hosted option in scope
- Non-technical users who cannot navigate event-based analytics UIs and SQL-style insights
When Substack wins
- New writers with no list yet who want platform-driven discovery
- Writers who would rather give 10% of revenue than pay a flat $20-100/month with no readers
Where Substack is the wrong fit
- Established creators with a paid list above ~5,000 subscribers; the 10% share exceeds what Kit, Ghost, or beehiiv would charge in flat fees at that scale
- Operators who want full control over deliverability, subscriber data, and migration optionality
- Brands needing automations, segmentation, or marketing tooling
Common questions
- Is PostHog cheaper than Substack?
- Both PostHog and Substack have free or custom entry pricing, so a direct entry-tier price comparison is not meaningful.
- Does PostHog or Substack have a free plan?
- Both have free plans. PostHog: Generous free tier across every product. Substack: Free to publish; 10% of paid subscription revenue.
- Are PostHog and Substack in the same category?
- No. PostHog is primarily a analytics tool; Substack is primarily a email marketing tool. They overlap on use case but sit in different primary categories, so the comparison is between adjacent tools rather than direct competitors.
- Which has more plans, PostHog or Substack?
- PostHog ships 4 plans; Substack ships 1. PostHog's longer ladder gives more granular upgrade steps, which can mean smoother price escalation as your team scales.
- Where can I see alternatives to PostHog or Substack?
- Each tool has a dedicated alternatives page on TierGauge with ranked options and verified pricing: /alternatives/posthog for PostHog and /alternatives/substack for Substack. Alternatives are derived from each tool's editor-flagged competitors plus same-category tools we track.
PostHog: https://posthog.com/pricing · Substack: https://substack.com/going-paid
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.