I’ve used both Pendo and PostHog on real products. Real users. Real bugs. Two teams. Two very different needs. Here’s what happened when I lived with each one. If you want a blow-by-blow of that first week, I captured every detail in my hands-on Pendo vs PostHog journal.
For an even deeper feature-by-feature rundown, check out Pendo's official comparison page and PostHog's in-depth tool comparison.
First week: set up and first wins
Pendo went on our React app with a snippet from our tag manager. I tagged five key pages and nine buttons using the Pendo guide studio. No code needed. That same day, I shipped a “Welcome” tour for new users. It had four steps and a short NPS survey at the end. By Friday, we had 312 survey replies and a clear theme: people were lost on “Billing.” Ouch, but helpful.
PostHog took a different path. I used the Cloud plan for one team and self-hosted it on Kubernetes for another (GKE, small nodes). The autocapture was wild. Clicks, submits, page views—boom, all there without chasing SDK events. I added two custom events for “Export CSV” and “Create Report” to clean it up. In two days, we had funnels, retention, and session replays that showed rage clicks on Firefox. That one saved a week.
You know what? Both felt fast, just in different ways.
Where Pendo clicked for me
- Onboarding and guides: The visual editor is a joy. I built tooltips, lightboxes, and checklists with drag and drop. I even added a “What’s New” center with release notes. Ticket volume on “how do I…” dropped by 22% the next month.
- NPS and in-app surveys: Pendo’s NPS was steady and easy. We timed it to show after a task, not at random. Replies felt richer, with tags I could filter.
- Page and feature tagging: Once I tagged “Billing” and “Team Settings,” the usage charts made sense to our PMs without any code.
- Roles and guardrails: Our larger team liked the roles, approvals, and brand control. Less chaos.
Speaking of showing things in a way that grabs attention, I stumbled upon a radically different but eye-opening take on “show and tell” over at Plansexe’s walkthrough of daring personal reveals—it’s a vivid reminder that how you present information (no matter the topic) can dramatically influence engagement and curiosity.
But it’s not magic. The tagging step needs care. If your app has iframes or modals that move, you may re-tag now and then. And yes, the price quote made my finance lead frown. We still paid. We just used it a lot to make it worth it.
Where PostHog won my heart
- Fast answers for product questions: Funnels, paths, retention, stickiness—clean and quick. I could go from “Why do people drop on step 3?” to “Fix the field label” in an hour.
- Feature flags and experiments: We ran an A/B test that changed the Save button color and copy. Variant B lifted clicks by 14% and lowered error retries by 9%. We rolled it out with one flag. Smooth.
- Session replays: I watched a user spam-click a disabled button and sigh. Not fun for them; super clear for us. Heatmaps helped too, but the replay told the story.
- Data control: On self-host, our legal team relaxed. EU data stayed in EU. We masked emails and card digits in the SDK. I slept better.
- Pipelines and warehouse: We streamed events to S3 and then Snowflake. No fuss. Our analysts joined the party.
Oh, and if you're debating whether PostHog can replace your Google Analytics setup, I ran that experiment too and shared the numbers in this comparison.
Still, PostHog’s survey and onboarding tools aren’t as rich as Pendo’s guide studio. They’re good, just more basic. If you want multi-step tours with precise styles, Pendo still feels nicer.
Two real projects, two outcomes
Project 1: New customers were getting lost in our time-tracking app.
- With Pendo, we shipped a two-minute tour and a gentle checklist. Completion of “Create First Project” jumped from 61% to 78% in two weeks. The little “Need help?” resource center kept people inside the app, not in support chat.
Project 2: Our reports page had a weird drop-off in step 3.
- With PostHog, I built a funnel and watched replays. People hit “Filters,” then backed out. We changed the default filter to “This Week” and moved the Apply button. Conversion rose 16%. No heroic code. Just less friction.
Was it fancy? Not really. But it worked.
Pricing talk (I know, not fun)
- Pendo: Wonderful for guides and surveys at scale, but it can get pricey as your monthly users grow. We had to choose which apps got licenses.
- PostHog: Usage-based felt fair. Self-host saved us later as events spiked. But remember: your infra and your team carry the load.
I don’t mind paying when value is clear. I just like knowing who holds the bill when growth hits. If you ever need to tie those product insights back to real subscription dollars, Scout Analytics gives you a laser-focused view of revenue behavior that complements what Pendo or PostHog show.
Data, privacy, and the “can legal breathe?” test
- Pendo: Good controls, role rules, and redaction. We limited what the snippet could see. Our security review passed, though it took a week.
- PostHog: Self-host made our privacy lead very happy. EU data in EU, PII masks, and clear config. Cloud was fine too, but the on-prem story sealed it for one client.
Team vibes and real-life rhythm
- PMs and UX folks loved Pendo. They could ship tours and announcements without asking engineering. It felt like power with training wheels.
- Engineers and data folks leaned into PostHog. Flags, experiments, SQL, and exports. It felt like a sharp tool bench.
And me? I used both, sometimes on the same product. One for teaching, one for truth.
Rough edges I hit
- Pendo tagging broke once when we refactored a modal. I had to re-tag two steps. Not a big deal, but it was a Friday. Of course it was.
- PostHog autocapture can get noisy. Name your events, set filters, and mask early. Less mess later.
- Pendo Feedback (the ideas portal) pulled in a flood of requests. Helpful, but you need a triage plan.
- PostHog replays chewed storage when we forgot to set sampling. Fixable. Still a “whoops.”
One teammate joked that hunting for friction spots in our UX is like searching for a good deep-tissue massage when you’re traveling—you need a reliable map of hotspots before you can get relief. If your travels ever take you to northeast Texas, this local guide—Rubmaps Texarkana—lists nearby parlors, reviews, and practical details so you can avoid guesswork and find the right place fast.
So… which did I keep?
Both. But with clear lanes.
- For strong onboarding, polished guides, and steady NPS at scale: Pendo.
- For deep product analytics, fast experiments, flags, and control over data: PostHog.
If I had to pick one for a lean team moving fast, I’d start with PostHog. If I had a complex product with many user roles and I needed A+ in-app help, I’d pick Pendo.
Quick cheat sheet (the short, honest version)
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Choose Pendo if:
- You need rich tours, checklists, and in-app messages now.
- PMs want to ship changes without code.
- You’re fine paying for polish and control.
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Choose PostHog if:
- You want serious analytics, flags, and tests in one place.
- You care a lot about data control or self-hosting.
- You like speed and don’t mind a bit of setup work.
One last note
Tools won’t fix a bad flow. They will show you the rough spots and help you teach users. That’s why I keep both in my kit. I drink my coffee, watch a few replays, ship a tiny change, and ask again with a survey. Small steps. Real gains.
Honestly, that’s the job. And these two tools help me do it well.