PostHog alternative — when all you wanted was the marketing numbers
If you are using PostHog for product analytics — funnels, retention, session replay, feature flags — TableBI is not a replacement and this page will not pretend otherwise. PostHog is better at all of it, and its free tier is generous enough that most teams never pay. This page is for a narrower case: you installed PostHog mainly to see where your traffic and spend come from, and now you are maintaining an SDK on your site to get numbers the ad platforms already have. TableBI does that one part with nothing on your site at all.
What PostHog does better — the list, not a hedge
A comparison page that only flatters its author is worthless, so here is the part that goes against us:
- Product analytics. Funnels, retention, user paths, cohorts. TableBI has none of this and is not building it.
- Session replay, feature flags, experiments, surveys, error tracking. Entire products we do not have.
- More sources. Its warehouse syncs LinkedIn Ads and TikTok Ads, which we do not.
- A semantic layer with real governance — metrics move proposed → approved, and it detects when an approved definition drifts from what it was built on. Our caveats are static text. On governance it is a generation ahead.
- A free tier that is hard to exhaust — 1M events and 1M warehouse rows a month. For a small site that is effectively free forever.
If any of that matters to you, stay on PostHog. Seriously.
The one difference that is structural
Everything PostHog does first-hand starts with a script on your site. That is the premise, not a detail. Which means two situations where it does not fit:
- The site is not yours. Agencies and freelancers reporting on a client's account often cannot add a tag, and would not want to own one if they could.
- You do not want a third-party script. Consent banners, performance budgets, a privacy stance you already took.
In either case PostHog degrades into a mover of ad data — and in that mode it hands you the platform's raw report tables and leaves the analysis to you. Its own documentation for the Google Ads source says the metric calculation and cross-platform measurement need separate configuration.
TableBI never touches your site. It reads each platform's own API, so it sees the part a tracking script structurally cannot: impressions, average position, and spend — everything that happens before the click.
Side by side
| PostHog | TableBI | |
|---|---|---|
| Needs a script on your site | Yes, for everything first-party | No — nothing is installed |
| Product analytics, replay, flags | Yes, extensive | No, and not planned |
| Marketing sources | Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Search Console, GA4 + dozens more | Search Console, Google Ads, GA4, CSV |
| Cross-channel metrics | Semantic layer — you define each metric | ROAS / CPA / CTR / CPC out of the box |
| Metric governance | Approval flow + drift detection | Static caveats only |
| Query from your own agent | Official MCP | CLI + skill, $0 inference |
| Share a dashboard | Yes, inside the product | Public read-only URL, no account needed |
| Pricing shape | Per event / per row, large free tier | Flat — data volume does not change it |
Who should actually switch
Almost nobody should switch from PostHog. The realistic case is narrower and more common than it sounds: you never needed product analytics in the first place. You run a site or a few client sites, you buy some traffic, you want to know which channel is worth it and whether search is growing — and the tool you reached for asks you to instrument your site to answer a question the ad platforms already answer.
That is the case TableBI is built for. The two can also sit side by side: PostHog for what happens after the click, TableBI for the spend and visibility before it. The weekly report template shows what the second half looks like.
Questions people ask
Is TableBI a PostHog replacement?
No. PostHog is better at product analytics, session replay, feature flags and experiments, and TableBI does not have any of them. It replaces one narrow use of PostHog: pulling marketing data in to see which channel is working — and it does that without any script on your site.
Can I use both?
Yes, and for most teams that is the right answer. PostHog reads what happens after the click; TableBI reads the spend, impressions and rank before it. They are not measuring the same thing, so they do not conflict.
Why does "no tracking script" matter if I already have one?
If you already run PostHog happily, it mostly does not. It matters when the site is a client's and you cannot add a tag, when a consent banner is in play, or when you simply do not want a third-party script — and it matters structurally, because spend, impressions and average position are never visible to any script, no matter how it is configured.
Does PostHog not already do cross-channel marketing metrics?
Its warehouse syncs the ad platforms' report tables, and its semantic layer lets you define metrics on top — but you define them. PostHog's own Google Ads documentation says the analysis and cross-platform measurement require separate configuration. TableBI ships the marketing definitions, so ROAS, CPA, CTR and CPC exist the moment a source finishes syncing.
Which sources can TableBI connect?
Google Search Console, Google Ads, GA4, and CSV upload. That is fewer than PostHog by a wide margin; if you need LinkedIn or TikTok data, PostHog covers them and we do not.