PostHog is a product-analytics platform with session replay as one feature. It's open-source, engineering-led, runs on web and mobile and server-side, and lives at the centre of a multi-product stack — event analytics, feature flags, A/B tests, SQL access, surveys, and replay all in one. If you have engineers and you want a product-led growth toolkit, choose PostHog.
Propel is a focused Shopify session replay app. Smaller surface on purpose. Replay filters speak Shopify customer fields by default. Replays link to actual orders in Shopify admin. AI summaries see Shopify customer and order context. Insight alerts and product-page alerts surface the sessions and regressions worth your attention. The script is 0ms on Core Web Vitals. If you're a Shopify merchant who wants to see why visitors don't buy without writing code, choose Propel.
Plenty of teams run both. PostHog for product analytics and the engineering data layer. Propel for the Shopify-shaped replay and heatmap layer that merchants actually open every day. That's a real pattern, not a hedge.
Disclosure: we make Propel. PostHog is a serious, well-built product. We've tried to write this comparison the way we'd want a peer studio to write one against us — naming where PostHog wins, naming where Propel does, and giving you the real shape difference instead of a sales-deck spin.
Seven criteria that actually decide which one fits how you work. Bolded column is the winner on each row.
Two of the rows above show "winner" on both columns — that's deliberate. PostHog and Propel are different shapes of tool serving different users; the right pick depends on which audience and which job describes you, not which one is "better."
PostHog is a serious, well-built product. The depth, the open-source posture, and the breadth of the platform are real. If your situation matches any of these, PostHog earns its place over Propel — and we'd rather you pick the tool that fits.
The cleanest test: if your last three tool decisions were made by an engineer, PostHog is probably the shape that fits. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
Propel started as the tool Chris Norton (founder) wanted when he was running his own Shopify store, SOLID Tool Chests. He didn't want a platform with an SDK and an event schema. He wanted to see why mobile shoppers bailed at the cart step. We built that, then sweated the Shopify integration. If your situation matches any of these, that's the bet:
Broken into four categories. We're honest where PostHog has more — they often do, because they're a platform. The question is whether "more" is the right shape for your work.
PostHog meters by the recording (and meters product analytics, feature flags, and experiments separately on top). Propel charges a flat tier by pageview volume. The shapes don't line up cleanly — here's the apples-to-apples view for the replay job specifically.
Annual = 35% off. 7-day free trial on every paid plan. AI summaries, heatmaps, surveys, insight alerts, and human support included on every tier.
Per-recording rates are tiered with volume discounts at higher scale. The total bill for a team using replay + analytics + flags + experiments stacks across products. Self-hosting is free but you absorb the infra cost.
Pricing as of April 2026. Both vendors update pricing periodically; check the live pricing pages before purchasing. PostHog's per-recording rate and tier breaks change as they refine the model — the ~$0.005 figure is a rough mid-volume estimate, not a contracted rate. The 20K-recording comparison is for the replay product only; if you're using PostHog for product analytics and feature flags too, the bill scales accordingly.
Most merchants don't migrate from PostHog to Propel. They're using PostHog for product analytics, feature flags, and the engineering data layer — none of which Propel does — and they don't want to lose that. What they do instead is add Propel for the Shopify-shaped replay piece, and keep PostHog for the rest.
The other common pattern is to migrate only the replay piece. Disable session replay inside PostHog (saving the metered cost), keep PostHog for analytics and flags and experiments, and let Propel handle the merchant-shaped replay-and-heatmap workflow. The two scripts are independent and don't interfere.
The mechanics:
Honest caveat: you can't migrate historical replays from PostHog to Propel — that's an industry-wide limitation. Replays are stored as compressed DOM events that don't translate between vendors. Fresh data accumulates fast on a Shopify-shaped store; you'll have a meaningful library inside a week.
7,000+ Shopify stores. 4.9★ across 500+ reviews. Three quotes that lean into the "designed for shop owners" angle — the difference that matters when the alternative is a platform built for engineers.
PostHog and Propel aren't really "competitors" in the usual sense. They're different shapes of tool serving different audiences with overlap on session replay. PostHog is a powerful, engineering-led product-analytics platform — the right choice for product engineers, dev-led teams, multi-platform stacks, and anyone who needs feature flags and A/B tests sitting next to replay. Propel is a focused Shopify session-replay app — the right choice for Shopify merchants who want to see why visitors don't buy without writing code.
If you have engineers and a product-led growth motion, PostHog is the right tool, full stop. If you're a Shopify merchant — non-technical or semi-technical — Propel is built around the rhythm of the work you actually do every day. And if you're a Shopify Plus brand with engineers, running both is a perfectly reasonable answer: PostHog as the engineering data backbone, Propel for the merchant-shaped replay layer the merchandising team opens.
Best test: install Propel free for the Shopify-shaped replay job. If you also need product analytics, feature flags, A/B tests, or multi-platform coverage, keep (or add) PostHog. Different tools, different jobs — the question is which jobs are yours.
Install Propel Replays in under 30 seconds. Free up to 750 pageviews/mo. AI summaries on every replay. 7,000+ Shopify stores already chose us.