head to head · open source
Plausible vs Matomo
Plausible has 29,116 GitHub stars, 1,866 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Matomo has 21,880 stars, 2,896 forks, 2,578 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plausible leads on adoption by 33% (29,116 vs 21,880 stars). Plausible is written in Elixir under AGPL-3.0; Matomo is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Plausible has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Matomo 13%. Plausible was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (analytics, marketing, privacy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Plausible | Matomo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 22K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Elixir | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plausible if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Matomo if
- You want the Matomo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Matomo fits your workflow better
About Plausible
Plausible Analytics is an open source, privacy first web analytics tool — a lightweight, cookie free alternative to Google Analytics — for teams that want traffic and conversion insights without collecting personal data, available as a managed cloud service or a self hosted community edition under the AGPL 3.0 licence.
read the full Plausible overview →
About Matomo
Matomo is an open source digital analytics platform for websites and apps, formerly known as Piwik. It lives in the PHP and MySQL web analytics ecosystem, and the provided description positions it as an open alternative to Google Analytics and Amplitude. The project lets an organization collect, visualise, and analyse visitor data from its own digital properties.
read the full Matomo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Plausible or Matomo more popular?
Plausible has 29,116 GitHub stars and Matomo has 21,880. Plausible has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plausible and Matomo free?
Both are open source. Plausible is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Matomo under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Plausible and Matomo?
Plausible is written in Elixir and Matomo in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Plausible or Matomo?
Choose Plausible if you want the larger community (29,116 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Matomo if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.