Run · beginner · 8 min read

Set Up Analytics in 30 Minutes: GA4 vs Plausible vs PostHog

Which analytics tool to pick, how to install it, and what metrics actually matter when you're just starting out.

Published March 15, 2026 ·
analyticstrackingplausibleposthoggoogle-analytics

You shipped your app. People are visiting. But you have no idea how many people, where they’re coming from, or what they’re doing once they arrive. You’re flying blind, and every decision about what to build or where to market is based on gut feeling.

Analytics fixes that. But the analytics landscape is cluttered with tools that range from overkill enterprise platforms to lightweight scripts that don’t tell you enough. This guide covers the three tools worth considering, helps you pick the right one, and walks through setup.

Why You Need Analytics on Day One

Some founders treat analytics as a “later” task. This is a mistake. Every day without analytics is a day of lost data you can never recover. You can’t retroactively see who visited your site last month.

You don’t need complex event tracking or funnel analysis on day one. You need the basics: how many people visit, where they come from, and which pages they look at. That’s enough to make informed decisions about where to focus your energy.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4): The Default Choice

GA4 is free, powerful, and what most people default to. But “default” doesn’t always mean “best.”

What GA4 does well

It’s free. Genuinely free, with no usage limits that matter at startup scale. Google subsidizes it because the data feeds their ad platform.

Deep integration with Google’s ecosystem. If you’re running Google Ads, GA4’s integration is unbeatable. Conversion tracking, audience building, attribution modeling — it all connects natively.

Event-based tracking. GA4 moved away from the old pageview model. Everything is an event, which means you can track button clicks, form submissions, video plays, and custom actions without much extra code.

What’s wrong with GA4

The interface is genuinely bad. This isn’t subjective snobbery — GA4’s UI is confusing even for experienced marketers. Finding basic information requires navigating nested menus and building custom reports. Google has improved it, but it’s still the weakest interface of the three tools in this guide.

Privacy concerns are real. GA4 uses cookies, collects personal data, and sends it to Google’s servers. In the EU, you need a cookie consent banner to use it legally. Many privacy-conscious users block it with ad blockers. Studies suggest 30-40% of traffic is invisible to GA4 due to blocking.

Data sampling at scale. Even on the free tier, GA4 samples data when you run certain reports. You’re not always looking at the full picture.

When to choose GA4

Choose GA4 if you’re running Google Ads and need conversion tracking, or if you need advanced segmentation and don’t want to pay for it. Accept that you’ll need to invest time learning the interface.

Installing GA4

  1. Create a Google Analytics account at analytics.google.com
  2. Create a property for your website
  3. Copy the measurement ID (starts with G-)
  4. Add the tracking script to your site’s <head> tag

The script looks like this — replace G-XXXXXXXXXX with your measurement ID:

<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());
  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX');
</script>

If you’re using Astro, Next.js, or another framework, add this to your base layout’s <head> section.

Plausible: Best for Privacy-Conscious Founders

Plausible is the anti-GA4. It’s simple, private, and shows you exactly what you need without the noise.

What Plausible does well

No cookies, no consent banners. Plausible doesn’t use cookies and doesn’t collect personal data. You don’t need a cookie consent banner to use it, which means a cleaner user experience and compliance with GDPR by default.

The dashboard is beautiful. One page. All your key metrics. Real-time data. No clicking through nested menus, no building custom reports for basic questions. You open Plausible and immediately see visitors, sources, top pages, and locations.

Lightweight script. The Plausible tracking script is under 1KB — roughly 45x smaller than GA4’s script. Your site loads faster.

Not blocked by most ad blockers. Because Plausible is privacy-respecting, most ad blockers don’t flag it. You see a more accurate visitor count than GA4.

What Plausible doesn’t do

No advanced event tracking. You can track custom events, but the depth is nowhere near GA4 or PostHog. If you need funnel analysis, cohort breakdowns, or complex segmentation, Plausible isn’t enough.

No free tier. Plausible costs $9/month for up to 10,000 monthly pageviews. Worth it, but GA4’s “free” is hard to compete with on a tight budget.

When to choose Plausible

Choose Plausible if you want simple, accurate analytics without privacy headaches. It’s ideal for content sites, landing pages, and early-stage products where you need the basics done well.

Installing Plausible

  1. Sign up at plausible.io
  2. Add your domain
  3. Add one line to your site’s <head>:
<script defer data-domain="yourapp.com" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>

That’s it. One line. Data starts flowing immediately.

PostHog: Best for Product Analytics

PostHog is different from GA4 and Plausible. It’s a product analytics platform — designed to help you understand how users behave inside your application, not just how they find your website.

What PostHog does well

Session recordings. Watch real users navigate your app. See where they click, where they get confused, where they drop off. This is worth the entire tool’s price for product founders.

Feature flags. Roll out features to a percentage of users, A/B test changes, and kill underperforming features — all from PostHog’s dashboard.

Funnels and retention. Build conversion funnels (signup to onboarding to activation to payment) and track retention curves. This is the data that tells you whether your product actually works.

Generous free tier. PostHog’s free tier includes 1 million events per month, 5,000 session recordings, and feature flags. That’s enough for most startups through their first year.

What PostHog doesn’t do

It’s not a simple analytics dashboard. PostHog is powerful but complex. If all you want is “how many visitors did I get today,” PostHog is overkill. The learning curve is real.

Self-hosted option requires infrastructure. PostHog offers a cloud version (recommended) and a self-hosted version. The self-hosted version needs a server with decent resources. Stick with cloud unless you have a specific reason.

When to choose PostHog

Choose PostHog if you have a web application (not just a marketing site) and you want to understand user behavior at a product level. Session recordings alone make it worthwhile.

Installing PostHog

  1. Sign up at posthog.com
  2. Create a project
  3. Add the script to your site’s <head>:
<script>
  !function(t,e){var o,n,p,r;e.__SV||(window.posthog=e,e._i=[],e.init=function(i,s,a){function g(t,e){var o=e.split(".");2==o.length&&(t=t[o[0]],e=o[1]),t[e]=function(){t.push([e].concat(Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments,0)))}}(p=t.createElement("script")).type="text/javascript",p.async=!0,p.src=s.api_host+"/static/array.js",(r=t.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]).parentNode.insertBefore(p,r);var u=e;for(void 0!==a?u=e[a]=[]:a="posthog",u.people=u.people||[],u.toString=function(t){var e="posthog";return"posthog"!==a&&(e+="."+a),t||(e+=" (stub)"),e},u.people.toString=function(){return u.toString(1)+".people (stub)"},o="capture identify alias people.set people.set_once set_config register register_once unregister opt_out_capturing has_opted_out_capturing opt_in_capturing reset isFeatureEnabled onFeatureFlags getFeatureFlag getFeatureFlagPayload reloadFeatureFlags group updateEarlyAccessFeatureEnrollment getEarlyAccessFeatures getActiveMatchingSurveys getSurveys".split(" "),n=0;n<o.length;n++)g(u,o[n]);e._i.push([i,s,a])},e.__SV=1)}(document,window.posthog||[]);
  posthog.init('YOUR_PROJECT_KEY',{api_host:'https://app.posthog.com'})
</script>

Replace YOUR_PROJECT_KEY with the key from your PostHog project settings.

The Decision Matrix

FeatureGA4PlausiblePostHog
PriceFree$9/mo+Free tier
Cookie consent neededYesNoDepends on config
Setup time10 min2 min10 min
Learning curveHighLowMedium
Session recordingsNoNoYes
Product analyticsBasicNoYes
Best forAd-driven sitesContent sitesWeb apps

What Metrics Actually Matter at Launch

Regardless of which tool you pick, focus on these five metrics first:

  1. Unique visitors per day/week. Is your audience growing?
  2. Traffic sources. Where are people coming from? Double down on what works.
  3. Top pages. What content or features get the most attention?
  4. Bounce rate. Are people leaving immediately? If so, your landing page needs work.
  5. Conversion rate. Whatever your primary action is (signup, purchase, contact), what percentage of visitors take it?

Everything else is noise until you have consistent traffic. Don’t get lost in advanced analytics before you have 100 daily visitors.

One Last Thing

Install analytics before you start marketing. The worst feeling is running a successful launch campaign and realizing you forgot to add tracking. The data from your launch is the most valuable data you’ll ever collect, and you only get one shot at it.

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