Surveys installation

Surveys are a great tool to collect qualitative feedback from your users.

Important: When installing PostHog via a package manager, surveys require posthog-js v1.81.1+. It's recommended to install the latest version.

To get started with surveys, add PostHog to your web app by installing our Javascript web SDK (if you haven't already). There are two methods to do so:

Option 1: Add the JavaScript snippet to your HTML Recommended

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.crossOrigin="anonymous",p.async=!0,p.src=s.api_host.replace(".i.posthog.com","-assets.i.posthog.com")+"/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="init capture register register_once register_for_session unregister unregister_for_session getFeatureFlag getFeatureFlagPayload isFeatureEnabled reloadFeatureFlags updateEarlyAccessFeatureEnrollment getEarlyAccessFeatures on onFeatureFlags onSessionId getSurveys getActiveMatchingSurveys renderSurvey canRenderSurvey getNextSurveyStep identify setPersonProperties group resetGroups setPersonPropertiesForFlags resetPersonPropertiesForFlags setGroupPropertiesForFlags resetGroupPropertiesForFlags reset get_distinct_id getGroups get_session_id get_session_replay_url alias set_config startSessionRecording stopSessionRecording sessionRecordingStarted captureException loadToolbar get_property getSessionProperty createPersonProfile opt_in_capturing opt_out_capturing has_opted_in_capturing has_opted_out_capturing clear_opt_in_out_capturing debug".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://us.i.posthog.com', defaults:'2025-05-24'})
</script>

Option 2: Install via package manager

npm install --save posthog-js

And then include it with your project API key and host (which you can find in your project settings):

Web
import posthog from 'posthog-js'


posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', {
  api_host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com',
  defaults: '2025-05-24'
})

See our framework specific docs for Next.js, React, Vue, Angular, Astro, Remix, and Svelte for more installation details.

Bundle all required extensions (advanced)

By default, the JavaScript Web library only loads the core functionality. It lazy-loads extensions such as surveys or the session replay 'recorder' when needed.

This can cause issues if:

  • You have a Content Security Policy (CSP) that blocks inline scripts.
  • You want to optimize your bundle at build time to ensure all dependencies are ready immediately.
  • Your app is running in environments like the Chrome Extension store or Electron that reject or block remote code loading.

To solve these issues, we have multiple import options available below.

Note: With any of the no-external options, the toolbar will be unavailable as this is only possible as a runtime dependency loaded directly from us.posthog.com.

Web
// No external code loading possible (this disables all extensions such as Replay, Surveys, Exceptions etc.)
import posthog from 'posthog-js/dist/module.no-external'


// No external code loading possible but all external dependencies pre-bundled
import posthog from 'posthog-js/dist/module.full.no-external'


// All external dependencies pre-bundled and with the ability to load external scripts (primarily useful is you use Site Apps)
import posthog from 'posthog-js/dist/module.full'


// Finally you can also import specific extra dependencies 
import "posthog-js/dist/recorder"
import "posthog-js/dist/surveys"
import "posthog-js/dist/exception-autocapture"
import "posthog-js/dist/tracing-headers"
import "posthog-js/dist/web-vitals"
import posthog from 'posthog-js/dist/module.no-external'


// All other posthog commands are the same as usual
posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', { api_host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com', defaults: '2025-05-24' })

Note: You should ensure if using this option that you always import posthog-js from the same module, otherwise multiple bundles could get included. At this time @posthog/react does not work with any module import other than the default.

Don't want to send test data while developing?

If you don't want to send test data while you're developing, you can do the following:

Web
if (!window.location.host.includes('127.0.0.1') && !window.location.host.includes('localhost')) {
    posthog.init('<ph_project_api_key>', { api_host: 'https://us.i.posthog.com', defaults: '2025-05-24' })
}
What is the `defaults` option?

The defaults is a date, such as 2025-05-24, for a configuration snapshot used as defaults to initialize PostHog. This default is overridden when you explicitly set a value for any of the options.

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