Google Analytics 4 is Overkill: Why PostHog is the Future for SaaS Analytics

If you have tried to set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) recently, you know the pain.

It feels like a tool built for Fortune 500 marketing teams, not for software builders. The UI is confusing, the data is sampled, and simple questions like "Who signed up yesterday?" take a PhD to answer.

For SaaS founders in 2025, there is a better way. It's called PostHog.

Here is why we ditched GA4 for PostHog in Sabo, and why you should too.

1. Product Analytics > Marketing Analytics

GA4 is designed to track traffic. It tells you where people came from (Source/Medium) and how long they stayed. That's great for e-commerce or blogs.

PostHog is designed to track behavior. It tells you:

Did user X click the 'Upgrade' button?
How many times did they use the 'Export' feature?
Where do they drop off in the onboarding flow?

For a SaaS product, traffic metrics are vanity metrics. Product usage metrics are sanity metrics. You need to know if people are actually using your software, not just visiting your landing page.

2. Session Recordings (The Game Changer)

This is the killer feature. PostHog lets you watch videos of real users using your site.

You can see exactly where they get confused, where they rage-click, and where they encounter bugs.

Without Session Replay: "Users are dropping off at step 3." (Why?)
With Session Replay: "Oh, the 'Next' button is hidden on mobile screens!"

You fix the bug in 5 minutes. GA4 would never tell you that.

3. All-in-One Platform

PostHog isn't just analytics. It replaces 5 different tools:

Analytics: (Replaces Mixpanel/Amplitude)
Session Replay: (Replaces Hotjar/FullStory)
Feature Flags: (Replaces LaunchDarkly)
A/B Testing: (Replaces Optimizely)
Surveys: (Replaces Typeform)

For a solo founder, having all these in one dashboard (and one SDK) is a massive productivity boost. No more context switching.

4. The Generous Free Tier

PostHog's free tier is incredible for startups:

1 million events/month for free.
5,000 recordings/month for free.

Most early-stage SaaS startups won't pay a dime for their first year.

5. Sabo's "Zero-Config" Integration

We believe in PostHog so much that we integrated it deeply into Sabo.

When you deploy a Sabo app, you don't need to copy-paste snippets into your layout.tsx.

Environment Variables: Just add your PostHog Key.
Proxy Setup: We configured a reverse proxy (via Next.js Rewrites) to bypass ad-blockers, ensuring you capture 100% of your data.
Event Tracking: Example custom events are already set up.

You get enterprise-grade product analytics from Day 1.

Conclusion

Google Analytics is fine for measuring how many people read your blog. But if you are building a software business, you need product intelligence.

Stop flying blind. Start watching how users actually use your product.

Launch your SaaS with pre-configured PostHog analytics in Sabo.