Quickstart

Get PostHog up and running and capture your first event in minutes. Create a free PostHog Cloud account:

PostHog Cloud US

PostHog Cloud EU

Your first 1 million events, 5,000 recordings, 1 million flag requests, and 100,000 exceptions are free every month.

Step 2: Install PostHog

After signing up, you’ll be prompted to install PostHog. Choose your preferred method:

JavaScript snippet
npm
Python

The quickest way to get started. Add this snippet to your HTML:

<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('<ph_project_api_key>', {api_host: 'https://app.posthog.com'})
</script>

Replace <ph_project_api_key> with your project API key from the PostHog dashboard.

Install the JavaScript library:

npm install posthog-js

Initialize PostHog:

import posthog from 'posthog-js'

posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', {
  api_host: 'https://app.posthog.com'
})

Install the Python library:

pip install posthog

Initialize and capture events:

from posthog import Posthog

posthog = Posthog(
  project_api_key='<ph_project_api_key>',
  host='https://app.posthog.com'
)

posthog.capture(
  distinct_id='user_distinct_id',
  event='event_name'
)

Step 3: Capture your first event

Once installed, PostHog automatically captures pageviews and other events. You can also capture custom events:

posthog.capture('button_clicked', {
  button_name: 'Sign Up',
  location: 'Homepage'
})

posthog.capture(
  distinct_id='user123',
  event='button_clicked',
  properties={
    'button_name': 'Sign Up',
    'location': 'Homepage'
  }
)

Step 4: View your data

After capturing events, view them in PostHog:

Go to Activity in your PostHog dashboard to see live events
Create your first Insight to analyze trends
Set up a Dashboard to monitor key metrics

Next steps

Identify users

Link events to specific users

Create feature flags

Roll out features safely

Set up session replay

Watch user sessions

Explore insights

Analyze user behavior

Get Started

Core Products

Data & Infrastructure

Integration

Configuration

PostHog Cloud US

PostHog Cloud EU

Step 2: Install PostHog

Step 3: Capture your first event

Step 4: View your data

Next steps

Identify users

Create feature flags

Set up session replay

Explore insights

​Step 1: Sign up for PostHog Cloud

PostHog Cloud US

PostHog Cloud EU

​Step 2: Install PostHog

​Step 3: Capture your first event

​Step 4: View your data

​Next steps

Identify users

Create feature flags

Set up session replay

Explore insights

Step 1: Sign up for PostHog Cloud

Step 2: Install PostHog

Step 3: Capture your first event

Step 4: View your data

Next steps