This library is large

[mariusandra]

As it stands now, posthog-js v1.3.0 is about 52.4kb of minified code.

While nowhere near as bad as some of our competitors (mixpanel-browser is 95KB and segment's analytics.js is 187KB), this can still be improved upon.

Should we improve on this and with what priority? We've covered the low hanging fruit and the next step is to refactor and modernise the library's internals. This would greatly help writing proper tests as well.

[boldtrn]

I was wondering, would it be possible to "split" this package. For example if I don't need some of the features. I for example don't need the Toolbar or Session Recording at the moment. That could help to minimize the size for people who only need a part of the features.

[Tbhesswebber]

I think this stream of work likely would be beneficial to start prioritizing... We just upgraded from 1.13.13 to 1.17.3 and it essentially added 2k to what webpack bundle analyzer is reporting for the g-zipped size.

Before:

After:

[kouliavtsev]

OMG!

It's growing!

1.3 was 16kb, 1.5 is 30kb.

Is there a way to reduce the bundle size?

[iamnafets]

This package is huge and leaving us with wondering whether posthog is worthwhile given we're eating very real consequences from Google on mobile LCP. Any updates on this?

[jyotman]

It's getting bigger.
+1 for prioritising the size of this library. This is a big consideration for us while choosing Posthog vs something else. Size reduction or a "lite" version would be much appreciated.

PS: the new segment library is 0.5 KB and mixpanel is 20 KB compared to 38 KB for posthog.

[jyotman]

Just discovered this - https://github.com/PostHog/posthog-js-lite/tree/master/posthog-web
Happy to see that effort is being made in this direction 🙌

[marandaneto]

another instance of that https://posthog.com/questions/posthog-js-lite

[pimterry]

Very interested in this also, Posthog-js is now the single largest dependency in my Next.js website bundle, which is a bit ridiculous! I'm trying to improve core web vitals and this is hard to justify.

Posthog JS is now larger than react-dom itself (168kb vs 142kb), and it's more than triple the size it was when @mariusandra first opened this issue about it being large.

I've looked at the two alternative suggestions above but they're not suitable. In my case this is a Next.js marketing site, and I really just want to track anonymous page events and a handful of other very notable interactions, that's it. That shouldn't require a huge bundle imo, but it doesn't look like the lite alternatives include:

• The React integration (manageable but awkward, since it's tiny anyway)
• Various constructor options I use for simple fully anonymous tracking: person_profiles: 'identified_only', disable_session_recording: true and advanced_disable_decide: true.
  • Looks like session recording isn't in the lite package so that's fine, but decide & identification is, and it's not clear how to disable those.
  • Really just looking for fewer features here though, so I'd hope that'd be possible in a tiny bundle!

A lightweight package for minimal web analytics would be amazing 🙏