head to head · open source
Plausible vs OpenWebAnalytics
Plausible has 29,752 GitHub stars, 1,928 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenWebAnalytics has 2,696 stars, 488 forks, 115 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Plausible leads on adoption by 1,004% (29,752 vs 2,696 stars). Plausible is written in Elixir under AGPL-3.0; OpenWebAnalytics is written in PHP under GPL-2.0. Plausible has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, OpenWebAnalytics 18%. Plausible was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | OpenWebAnalytics | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Elixir | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 488 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plausible if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 OpenWebAnalytics if
- You want the OpenWebAnalytics feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and OpenWebAnalytics fits your workflow better
About Plausible
Plausible Analytics Live Demo Open Source Docs Contributing Plausible Analytics is an open source, privacy first web analytics tool. Lightweight, cookie free alternative to Google Analytics. Available in managed cloud or self hosted community edition. 🔐 Privacy focused 🛡️ GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliant 📊 Simple, fast dashboard 🪶 Lightweight script 🇪🇺 Made and hosted in the EU Why Plausible? Here's what makes Plausible a great Google Analytics alternative and why we're trusted by thousands of paying subscribers to deliver their website and business insights: Clutter free Plausible provides simple web analytics…
read the full Plausible overview →
About OpenWebAnalytics
Open Web Analytics Server Open Web Analytics is an open source alternative to commercial web analytics tools such as Google Analytics. This software allows you to stay in control of the data you collect about the user of your websites or applications. This repository installs the OWA Server and Javascript tracking client which can easily be added to web pages. To add OWA tracking to a WordPress based website install the OWA integration plugin or see this repository. To add OWA tracking to any PHP application use the OWA PHP SDK Features Track visitors, pageviews, e commerce transactions, and configurable actions…
read the full OpenWebAnalytics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Plausible or OpenWebAnalytics more popular?
Plausible has 29,752 GitHub stars and OpenWebAnalytics has 2,696. Plausible has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plausible and OpenWebAnalytics free?
Both are open source. Plausible is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OpenWebAnalytics under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Plausible and OpenWebAnalytics?
Plausible is written in Elixir and OpenWebAnalytics 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 OpenWebAnalytics?
Choose Plausible if you want the larger community (29,752 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OpenWebAnalytics if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.