head to head
Google Analytics vs Matomo
Matomo is the open source alternative to Google Analytics — web analytics service. Here is the honest comparison.
Yes — Matomo is a viable free replacement for Google Analytics. Matomo is open source under GPL-3.0, written in PHP, with 21,880 GitHub stars, 2,896 forks and 2,578 open issues; it was last pushed 6 hours ago. Google Analytics costs from $50, while self-hosting Matomo carries no licence fee — the trade is your operational time instead of a subscription. 2 other open source Google Analytics alternatives are tracked here, led by Umami at 38,885 stars. Matomo ranks #3 of 3 tracked open source Google Analytics alternatives by stars. The tracked set, by adoption: Umami (38,885 stars), Plausible (29,116 stars). Replacement criteria on this page: 4 reasons to move to Matomo and 3 reasons to stay on Google Analytics.
choose Matomo if
- Your Google Analytics bill is growing with seats or usage
- You need your data in a format and server you control
- Your compliance posture requires auditing the code that touches sensitive data
- You have (or can rent) a server and basic Docker comfort
stick with Google Analytics if
- You need the polished onboarding and support SLAs of a commercial vendor
- Your team has zero capacity to operate software, even self-hosted-simple
- You depend on a Google Analytics integration ecosystem that the OSS alternatives have not replicated
Side by side
| Matomo (open source) | Google Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-hosted) | Free / $50K+/yr for GA360 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Source code | Public, auditable | Closed |
| Self-hosting | Yes — matomo-org/matomo | Cloud only |
| Data ownership | Your server, your format | Vendor's cloud |
| Community | ★ 22K · ⑂ 2.9K | — |
| Built with | PHP | — |
Why people look for a Google Analytics alternative
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 →
Other open source alternatives to Google Analytics
last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked
Frequently asked questions
Is Matomo a good replacement for Google Analytics?
Matomo is an open source alternative to Google Analytics (Web analytics service). It is written in PHP and licensed under GPL-3.0, with 21,880 GitHub stars.
Is Matomo free compared to Google Analytics?
Yes. Matomo is open source — there is no licence fee, and you can self-host it. Google Analytics is typically a paid subscription, so the trade-off is licence cost against the operational work of running it yourself.
How do I migrate from Google Analytics to Matomo?
Migration effort depends on the data formats involved. Check Matomo's documentation for import options, and compare the feature table above to confirm the capabilities you depend on are covered before switching.