head to head
Google Analytics vs Plausible
Plausible is the open source alternative to Google Analytics — web analytics service. Here is the honest comparison.
Yes — Plausible is a viable free replacement for Google Analytics. Plausible is open source under AGPL-3.0, written in Elixir, with 29,116 GitHub stars, 1,866 forks and 60 open issues; it was last pushed 3 hours ago. Google Analytics costs from $50, while self-hosting Plausible 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. Plausible ranks #2 of 3 tracked open source Google Analytics alternatives by stars. The tracked set, by adoption: Umami (38,885 stars), Matomo (21,880 stars). Replacement criteria on this page: 4 reasons to move to Plausible and 3 reasons to stay on Google Analytics.
choose Plausible 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
| Plausible (open source) | Google Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (self-hosted) | Free / $50K+/yr for GA360 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Source code | Public, auditable | Closed |
| Self-hosting | Yes — plausible/analytics | Cloud only |
| Data ownership | Your server, your format | Vendor's cloud |
| Community | ★ 29K · ⑂ 1.9K | — |
| Built with | Elixir | — |
Why people look for a Google Analytics alternative
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 →
Other open source alternatives to Google Analytics
last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked
Frequently asked questions
Is Plausible a good replacement for Google Analytics?
Plausible is an open source alternative to Google Analytics (Web analytics service). It is written in Elixir and licensed under AGPL-3.0, with 29,116 GitHub stars.
Is Plausible free compared to Google Analytics?
Yes. Plausible 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 Plausible?
Migration effort depends on the data formats involved. Check Plausible's documentation for import options, and compare the feature table above to confirm the capabilities you depend on are covered before switching.