head to head · open source
Plausible vs OpenWebAnalytics
Plausible has 29,116 GitHub stars, 1,866 forks, 60 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenWebAnalytics has 2,688 stars, 488 forks, 115 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Plausible leads on adoption by 983% (29,116 vs 2,688 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 | ★ 29K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Elixir | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 488 |
| 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 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 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 OpenWebAnalytics
Open Web Analytics is an open source web analytics server written in PHP and released under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later. It ships the OWA Server together with a first party JavaScript tracking client that can be added to web pages, and it is positioned by its maintainers as an alternative to commercial analytics tools such as Google Analytics. The project lives in the PHP ecosystem and is distributed through its GitHub repository, with a WordPress integration plugin and a PHP SDK maintained alongside it for sites and applications that want tracking wired in without hand rolling the client.…
read the full OpenWebAnalytics overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Plausible or OpenWebAnalytics more popular?
Plausible has 29,116 GitHub stars and OpenWebAnalytics has 2,688. 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 (29,116 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.