Google Analytics vs Plausible Analytics

Thinking of swapping Google Analytics for the open-source Plausible Analytics? Here’s the honest trade-off.

27k Elixir AGPL-3.0 2 days ago

What you give up vs Google Analytics

  • Intentionally simple: no heatmaps, session recordings, or user-level product analytics.
  • The self-hosted Community Edition lags behind the paid cloud on some features and updates.
  • ClickHouse dependency makes the stack heavier than a single-binary tool despite the simple feature set.

What you gain

  • • Full data ownership — self-host Plausible Analytics on your own infrastructure.
  • • No per-seat SaaS bill (Google Analytics: privacy concerns and GDPR headaches).
  • • Open-source code you can audit and extend (AGPL-3.0).