Web Analytics & Privacy
4.5/5.0
VerifiedPaidLast technical review:
Markdown for AI (.md)

Plausible Analytics

Lightweight and privacy-friendly cookie-free Google Analytics alternative

Score

4.5/5

License
AGPL-3.0
Certifications
1
Last technical review
2026-10-31
Available plansVisit website (opens in a new tab)

Technical Overview

Plausible is a lightweight, open-source web analytics solution focused on user privacy. It is designed for teams seeking essential metrics without complexity or cookie banners. Hosted in European infrastructure with a tracking script under 1 KB, ensuring regulatory compliance and performance.

Analyst Evaluation: Pros and Limitations

Verified Advantages

  • Ultra-lightweight tracking script under 1 KB that does not block rendering.
  • Strict GDPR compliance without requiring cookie consent banners.
  • Open-source self-hosted model for complete data control.

Technical Considerations

  • No permanent free tier for hosted commercial usage.
  • Lacks advanced session-level behavior analytics or heatmaps.

Technical Capabilities & Features

5/7
Included:REST & GraphQL API
Not available:SSO / SAML Authentication
Included:Self-Hosted Option
Included:Full Data Export
Included:Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Included:Custom Domains & SSL
Not available:Immutable Audit Logs
Scorecard
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Technical Scorecard: Plausible Analytics

88/100
DX & Tech Documentation
Excellent
90/100
Pricing Fairness
Excellent
85/100
Security & Governance
Excellent
92/100
Data Portability & Sovereignty
Excellent
88/100
Performance & Reliability
Excellent
85/100

Time to Value & Fit by Segment: Plausible Analytics

Estimated Time-to-Value< 1 hour (Immediate)

Near-instantaneous deployment with minimal technical friction.

Learning CurveLow (Intuitive)

Rapid onboarding for developers without prior training required.

Fit Index by Organization Size

Startup & Agile Teams1 to 50 members
90%
Mid-Market & Scaleup50 to 500 members
80%
Corporate Enterprise500+ members
60%
Pricing & TCO
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Pricing

Contact Sales/mo

Model: PAID.

Available plans:

  • Cloud HostedCustom
Get Plausible Analytics (opens in a new tab)

Billing Risks & Hidden Clauses: Plausible Analytics

Free Tier Limits:

Free trial available for 30 days, no permanent free tier.

Audited Billing Critical Points:
  • Pricing scales directly with monthly pageviews across your sites.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Projection: Plausible AnalyticsPAID
Deterministic cost estimation at 12 and 36 months based on team size, including SSO tax premiums and annual prepay discounts.
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Indie / Solo (1 active user)

Solo developer or independent technical founder.

Base Monthly Cost
$12/month
1 active user
12-Month Investment
$122/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$366total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 3 active users

Calculated infrastructure: VPS 1 vCPU / 2GB RAM (~$5) + 0.5h DevOps/mes ($20)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$300/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSaaS is $178/year
Startup (10 active users)

Agile engineering team in validation and early traction stage.

Base Monthly Cost
$120/month
10 active users
12-Month Investment
$1,224/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$3,672total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 10 active users

Calculated infrastructure: VPS 2 vCPU / 8GB RAM (~$15) + 2h DevOps/mes ($80)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$1,140/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSavings of $84/year
Growth (25 active users)

Scaling company with team governance and granular access control requirements.

Base Monthly Cost
$300/month
25 active users
12-Month Investment
$3,060/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$9,180total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 28 active users

Calculated infrastructure: Cluster VPS 4 vCPU / 16GB RAM (~$45) + 6h DevOps/mes ($240)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$3,420/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSaaS is $360/year
Scaleup (100 active users)

Established organization with enterprise security policies and mandatory SAML/SSO.

Base Monthly Cost
$1,200/month
100 active users
12-Month Investment
$12,240/year
Includes ~15% savings via annual billing
3-Year TCO Projection (36m)
$36,720total
Consolidated software licensing expenditure

Estimated Self-Hosted VPS + DevOps Cost

Break-Even Point: Profitable starting at 78 active users

Calculated infrastructure: Infraestructura HA redundante + Backups (~$150) + 16h DevOps/mes ($640)

Annual VPS + DevOps Cost$9,480/year
Differential vs SaaS LicensingSavings of $2,760/year
Usage Surcharges & Bill Shock Simulator: Plausible AnalyticsWhat usage costs as you scale
Detect overage penalties before they impact engineering budget.
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Prototype / MVP (100.000 eventos)

Included base quota in plan: 250,000 eventos.
Low Risk / Predictable Bill
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
$0/month extra
Usage covered within plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$20/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Configure selective sampling in staging environments.

Base Production (1.000.000 eventos)

Included base quota in plan: 250,000 eventos.
Moderate Risk / Monitor Quota
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$26/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$46/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Filter high-frequency repetitive events on the client side.

Active Growth (10.000.000 eventos)

Included base quota in plan: 250,000 eventos.
Critical Risk / Severe Bill Shock
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$341/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$361/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Set ingestion drop-rate limits upon exceeding monthly quota.

Large Scale (50.000.000 eventos)

Included base quota in plan: 250,000 eventos.
Critical Risk / Severe Bill Shock
Base Monthly Rate
$20/mo
Fixed subscription or contracted tier
Overage Penalty
+$1,741/month extra
Variable surcharge for consumption above plan quota
Estimated Monthly Invoice
$1,761/mo
Total monthly cost before taxes
Technical Mitigation Recommendation:

Commit to annual event volume contracts for scale discounts.

Procurement Strategy & Discounts: Plausible AnalyticsB2B Negotiation Playbook
Corporate executive level with highest authority to approve budgetary exceptions.
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Fair Market Price & B2B Procurement Benchmark

Non-renewal notice: 30 days before expirationMedian achieved discount: -12%
Public List Price
Custom / Contact
100% baseline
Audited Market Average
-12% median
~88% of list price
Optimized Target Price
-20% target
Max achievable discount (Q4 / multi-year): -20%

Verified Tactical Savings Levers

  • Annual Upfront PrepayUp to -17%

    Consolidated discount for upfront annual billing versus monthly rate.

  • Competitive Migration CreditUp to -10%

    Migration credits and buyout of remaining competitor contract period.

Pricing & Licensing Radar · Plausible Analytics

Immutable chronological log of changes in pricing models, price increases, and licensing transitions detected by our crawler.

  1. Plan Added

    Adición de nuevo plan de suscripción: Cloud Hosted.

    Cloud Hosted
  2. Plan Retired

    Eliminación o descatalogación del plan: Cloud Starter.

    Cloud Starter
Security & Data Exit
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Compliance & Security Standards: Plausible Analytics

SOC 2 Type IINot reported
ISO 27001Not reported
GDPR / RGPDAudited
HIPAANot reported
PCI-DSSNot reported
Jurisdiction & Legal Sovereignty
🌐Estonia [EE]Immune to US CLOUD Act (EU Sovereign)GDPR DPA Available
SSO Availability (SAML Enterprise)
No SSO Documented
Data Residency
EUSELF_HOSTEDHetzner
AI Privacy Policy
Zero customer data retention
Data Liberation & Migration Runbook: Plausible AnalyticsCSV · JSON
Actionable escape runbook and credential export guarantees to mitigate vendor lock-in.
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Supported Structured Export Formats
CSVJSON
Password Hash Portability
Subject to Support Ticket (Manual Process)

Credential hash export requires commercial mediation or formal support ticket approval.

CLI Command / Rescue Endpoint
GET /api/v1/stats/timeseries
Exit Protocol & Migration Notes

Permite exportación de datos agregados en formato CSV o mediante consulta directa a la API y base de datos en despliegues propios.

Deployment & Infrastructure Requirements: Plausible AnalyticsAGPL-3.0
Hardware specs and Docker directives to run on local servers, dedicated VPS, or Kubernetes without telemetry leak to the cloud.
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Minimum Memory1 GB RAM (Recommended)
Compute CPU1 vCPU
Runtime / LanguageElixir
Code LicenseAGPL-3.0
Docker CLI Directive
docker run -d --name plausible-analytics -p 8080:8080 plausible-analytics:latest
Companion Services & Dependencies:
PostgreSQL 15+Redis 7+
Community & Repository
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Technical Reputation of Plausible Analytics

85/100 Technical Trust

Frequent Praises in Production

  • Ultra-lightweight tracking script under 1 KB that does not block rendering.
  • Strict GDPR compliance without requiring cookie consent banners.
  • Open-source self-hosted model for complete data control.

Reported Production Frictions

  • No permanent free tier for hosted commercial usage.
  • Lacks advanced session-level behavior analytics or heatmaps.
Commercial Treatment & Vendor Lock-in:Self-Service in Dashboard

Cancellation flow is autonomous via billing portal or subscription settings.

Open source repository activity: Plausible Analytics29,729
Stars, forks and release cadence
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Stars29.7k
Forks1.9k
Open Issues52
SPDX LicenseAGPL-3.0
Latest Commit DetectedOct 30, 2026

Frequently Asked Technical Questions (Plausible Analytics)

Do I need a cookie banner when using Plausible?

Because Plausible does not use cookies and collects no personal identifiable data, most websites operate without requiring a cookie consent banner under EU privacy guidelines.

How is the self-hosted version deployed?

The open-source community edition is deployed via Docker containers and requires dependencies such as PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, and Redis to process telemetry events efficiently.

Can historical data be imported from Google Analytics?

Plausible provides an import API and connectors to transfer aggregated historical data, although detailed event-level data from other platforms is not natively migrated.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Direct Alternatives

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