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Technology · head to head

PostHog vs Timeplus

PostHog logo

PostHog

Technology

The single platform to analyze, test, observe, and deploy new features

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Timeplus logo

Timeplus

Databases

Streaming SQL engine built on ClickHouse internals, shipping as one small binary

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: PostHog the free tier covers 1M events, 5K web session recordings and 2.5K mobile recordings per month before usage-based billing starts; Timeplus proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • They diverge on capability: PostHog covers Product analytics, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which PostHog and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where PostHog and Timeplus differ
AttributePostHogTimeplus
Pricing modelusage-basedPer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiLinux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
CategoryTechnologyDatabases
Founded2020Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in PostHog

  • Product analytics
  • Session recording
  • Feature flags
  • A/B testing
  • Heatmaps
  • SQL access
  • Data warehouse
  • Apps platform

Only in Timeplus

  • Streaming SQL
  • Unified streaming and historical
  • ClickHouse-based engine
  • Single binary deployment
  • External streams
  • Materialised views

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

PostHog

  • Product analyticsnot Timeplus
  • Feature experimentationnot Timeplus
  • User behavior trackingnot Timeplus
  • A/B testingnot Timeplus
  • Debug production issuesnot Timeplus

Timeplus

  • Real-time alerting on Kafka topics where standing up a Flink cluster is more work than the use case justifiesnot PostHog
  • Fraud or anomaly detection that must join a live event stream against recent history in one querynot PostHog
  • Streaming ETL from Kafka or MySQL change data capture into ClickHouse without writing Javanot PostHog
  • A small data team that needs continuous aggregation but has no platform engineers to operate JVM infrastructurenot PostHog

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

PostHog

  • The free tier covers 1M events, 5K web session recordings and 2.5K mobile recordings per month before usage-based billing starts
  • Accounts without a card on file are limited to 1 project; adding one raises it to 6
  • Data retention is 1 year until a card is added, which extends it to 7 years
  • Support is community-only until the account is on a paid plan
  • Error tracking is capped at 100K exceptions and surveys at 1500 responses per month on the free tier

Timeplus

  • Proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • It is a young project against Apache Flink’s decade of production history, so the hiring pool, the connector library and the body of known failure modes are all much smaller.
  • Inheriting ClickHouse internals also inherits ClickHouse constraints: memory-hungry queries, awkward updates and a SQL dialect that is not portable to other engines.
  • Exactly-once semantics and state recovery guarantees are less battle-tested than Flink checkpointing, which matters if the pipeline moves money.
  • Cloud pricing is by provisioned instance size rather than usage, so a bursty workload pays for peak capacity around the clock or has to be resized by hand.

Pricing, plan by plan

PostHog

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1M events/month
    • 5K sessions/month
    • Unlimited users
  • Paid$undefined/month
    • $0.00031/event
    • $0.005/session
    • Advanced permissions
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • SAML SSO
    • Advanced security
    • Dedicated support

Timeplus

Free
  • Timeplus ProtonFree
    • Apache 2.0 licence
    • Single node only
    • Full streaming SQL engine
  • Timeplus Cloud$199/month
    • One to thirty-two CPUs
    • 4 GB to 128 GB memory
    • From 250 GB SSD storage
  • Self-hosted or BYOC$undefined/year
    • Multi-node clustering
    • Kubernetes or bare metal
    • Customisable compute and storage

Which should you pick?

Choose PostHog if

  • You need product analytics.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want session recording.
PostHog review

Choose Timeplus if

  • You need streaming sql.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
  • You also want unified streaming and historical.
Timeplus review

Questions people ask

Is PostHog or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. PostHog starts at Free and Timeplus at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, PostHog or Timeplus?
PostHog starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does PostHog or Timeplus run on more platforms?
PostHog runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use PostHog for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is PostHog best used for?
PostHog is most often used for product analytics, feature experimentation, user behavior tracking, a/b testing. Of those, product analytics and feature experimentation are not what Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can PostHog do that Timeplus cannot?
PostHog covers Product analytics, Session recording, Feature flags, A/B testing. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PostHog: What does PostHog's free tier include per month?

PostHog free tier includes: 1M analytics events, 5K session replays, 1M feature flag requests, 100K error tracking exceptions, 1,500 survey responses, 1M data warehouse rows, 10K data pipeline events, 100K AI observability events, 500 PostHog AI credits, 10K workflow messages, and 10GB log ingestion. Source: https://posthog.com/pricing

Source
Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

The core engine, Timeplus Proton, is Apache 2.0. Timeplus Enterprise and Cloud are commercial.

PostHog: How much data retention does PostHog provide on paid plans?

PostHog free tier provides 1-year data retention. Pay-as-you-go plans offer 7-year data retention across all projects, enabling longer historical analysis. Source: https://posthog.com/pricing

Source
Timeplus: What is the difference from Flink?

Timeplus is one binary with SQL as the only interface; Flink is a JVM cluster with a Java and SQL API and far more operational surface.

PostHog: What percentage of PostHog users stay on the free tier?

PostHog states that 97% of companies use PostHog for free, indicating extensive free tier adoption. However, specific per-unit pricing rates for overages on paid plans are not published. Source: https://posthog.com/pricing

Source
Timeplus: Can Proton run in production?

It can, but it is single-node only, so there is no high availability without the commercial edition.

PostHog: When does PostHog provide priority support on paid plans?

PostHog provides email or Slack support for accounts exceeding $2,000/month on pay-as-you-go plans. Specific response times and support SLAs are not detailed on their pricing page. Source: https://posthog.com/pricing

Source
Timeplus: How much is the cloud?

From 199 US dollars a month, sized by CPU and memory, with a fourteen day trial.

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