Compare pricing, deployment, product fit, integrations, and capabilities side by side.
Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics
Important considerations: Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted.
Publishers, SaaS teams, and privacy-first site owners who want simple reporting without consent-banner complexity
Important considerations: Starter is limited to one site; funnels, revenue tracking, custom properties, and API access require the Business tier.
| Attribute | GoatCounter | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | A lightweight, privacy-aware open-source web analytics service with cookieless visit counting, referrers, campaigns, browser and location reports, exports, and JavaScript-free tracking options. | A privacy-first and open-source analytics platform focused on simple reporting, cookieless tracking, funnels, Search Console insights, and recent additions like scroll-depth tracking and AI-referral monitoring. |
| Pricing | Hosted service is donation-supported and free for reasonable public use; self-hosting is free and open source | Cloud plans start at $9/month (Starter), $14/month (Growth), and $19/month (Business); Enterprise is custom and Community Edition is self-hosted |
| Deployment | Self-hosted and hosted options | Self-hosted and hosted options |
| Best for | Website owners who want simple, privacy-focused analytics | Publishers, SaaS teams, and privacy-first site owners who want simple reporting without consent-banner complexity |
| Operator | Martin Tournoij Independent project | Plausible Insights OÜ Independent private company |
| Company base | Ireland · European Union | Tartu, Estonia · European Union |
| Organization scale | 1 maintainers · operator, as of 13 Aug 2026 | 10 team members · operator, as of 13 Aug 2026 |
| Recent direction | self-hosted expansion Recent official evidence shows a focus on self-hosted expansion. | marketing attribution Recent official evidence shows a focus on marketing attribution. |
| Key features |
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| Important considerations | Hosted use is donation-supported with a reasonable-use policy; high-volume or specialized deployments should be self-hosted. | Starter is limited to one site; funnels, revenue tracking, custom properties, and API access require the Business tier. |
| Integrations | Ghost, Hugo | WordPress, Shopify, Zapier |
| Fact check | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-27. | We checked this information against official vendor sources on 2026-08-08. |
This matrix shows capabilities recorded in our catalog. Not listed means we have not confirmed the capability here. Check the linked vendor sources for plan, deployment, and usage limits.
| Attribute | GoatCounter | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Audience insights | Listed | Listed |
| CCPA compliant | Listed | Listed |
| Cookieless | Listed | Listed |
| Custom reports | Listed | Not listed |
| Data export | Listed | Listed |
| Data ownership | Listed | Not listed |
| Event tracking | Listed | Listed |
| Free plan | Listed | Not listed |
| Funnels | Not listed | Listed |
| GDPR compliant | Listed | Listed |
| Goals | Not listed | Listed |
| Integrations | Listed | Listed |
| Open source | Listed | Listed |
| Privacy-first | Listed | Listed |
| Real-time data | Listed | Listed |
| Self-hosted | Listed | Listed |
| User segments | Listed | Listed |