Product analytics enable you to gather and analyze data about how users interact with your product.
To start, install PostHog in the app you want to collect data in.
Tip: Even if you have multiple customer-facing products (e.g., a marketing website + iOS app + web app), it's best to have them share the same project. This enables you to track the user across their journey across different platforms. See organizations & projects docs for more.
Option 1: Add the JavaScript snippet to your HTML Recommended
This is the simplest way to get PostHog up and running. It only takes a few minutes.
Copy the snippet below and replace <ph_project_api_key>
and <ph_instance_address>
with your project's values, then add it within the <head>
tags at the base of your product - ideally just before the closing </head>
tag. This ensures PostHog loads on any page users visit.
You can find the snippet pre-filled with this data in your project settings.
<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 onSessionId".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('<ph_project_api_key>', {api_host: '<ph_instance_address>'})</script>
Once the snippet is added, PostHog automatically captures $pageview
and other events like button clicks. You can then enable other products, such as session replays, within your project settings.
Option 2: Install via package manager
yarn add posthog-js
And then include it in your files:
import posthog from 'posthog-js'posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', { api_host: '<ph_instance_address>' })
If you don't want to send test data while you're developing, you can do the following:
if (!window.location.host.includes('127.0.0.1') && !window.location.host.includes('localhost')) {posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', { api_host: '<ph_instance_address>' })}
If you're using React or Next.js, checkout our React SDK or Next.js integration.