Plausible vs Matomo
Learn how Matomo compares to Plausible — both are open-source, privacy-centred web analytics solutions and great contenders for anyone looking for an alternative to Google Analytics.
Matomo vs Plausible at a Glance
Matomo is an open-source, GDPR-compliant web analytics solution, used by over 1 million websites worldwide. Originally started as a community-led project fifteen years ago, Matomo has since evolved into a competitive alternative to Google Analytics with more features and higher respect for users’ privacy.
Plausible is a newer player on the market, launched in 2019. Boasting an ultra-light-weight tracking script and simplified analytics, Plausible is another popular privacy-centred web analytics solution.
Please note: We aim to keep this table accurate and up to date. However, if you see any inaccuracies or outdated information, please email us at marketing@matomo.org
| FEATURES & CAPABILITIES |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| General | ||
| On-Premise (self-hosted) |  | |
| Cloud | | |
| EU-hosted Servers | | |
| Open-source | | |
| Google Analytics data importer | | |
| Roll-Up Reporting | | |
| No Data Sampling | | |
| No Data Limits | | |
| Unsampled Reports | |  |
| White Label | | |
| Real-time Reporting | | |
| Support | | |
| Annotations | | |
| Script Weight | 22.8 KB | 1KB |
| PRIVACY & COMPLIANCE | ||
| GDPR Compliant | | |
| 100% Data Ownership | | |
| Advanced Privacy Controls | | |
| GDPR Manager | | |
| Cookieless Tracking | | |
| Consent-free Tracking | | |
| REPORTING CATEGORIES | ||
| Basic Metrics | | |
| Website Actions (Tracking behaviour on your website including entry pages, exit pages) | | |
| Channel Referrer / Campaign Tracking | | |
| Event Tracking | | |
| Goal Tracking | | |
| Advanced Segmentation | | |
| User Flows | | |
| Site Search | | |
| Built-in Tag Manager | | |
| Heatmaps | | |
| Session Recordings | | |
| A/B Testing | | |
| Form Analytics | | |
| Media Analytics | | |
| Funnels and Multi Attribution | | |
| Data Driven Attribution | | |
| Search Engine Keyword Rankings | | |
| Ecommerce Reporting | | |
| Downloads and Outlinks tracks automatically | | |
| Content Interactions | | |
| Log Analytics | | |
| Custom Reporting | | |
| Custom Dimensions | | |
| Intranet Analytics | | |
| INTEGRATIONS | ||
| Integration with Google Search Console | | |
| Integration with Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Yandex Ads | | |
| Integration with the full Google Marketing Platform ( Including Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360 etc.) | | |
| Integration with Bing and Yahoo Search Consoles | | |
| TECHNICAL SETUP | ||
| Full access to raw data via SQL | | |
| Full access to raw data via API | | |
Similarities between Matomo and Plausible
Matomo and Plausible operate under the same principles of full data ownership, tracking transparency and utmost respect for user privacy. So the two have a lot of overlapping features.
Compliance
By design, Matomo is GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, LGPD and PECR compliant. We also provide customisable privacy controls, which you can use to meet any other regional or industry compliance requirement. Plausible is also GDPR, CCPA and PECR compliant by default.
Also, neither product applies data sampling for any reports (i.e. analysing a subset of data instead of all the available insights). In both cases, you see 100% accurate analytics.
Finally, there’s no cap on how much data you can collect with Matomo or Plausible.
For self-hosted deployments, you are only limited by your hardware.
On-Premise or Cloud hosting in the EU
Matomo offers two hosting options:
- On-Premise (aka self-hosted or on your own hardware)
- Cloud (on servers based in Germany)
Plausible proposes the same selection – On-Premise or Cloud hosting in Germany.
In both cases, your user data stays within the EU.
That’s unlike Google Analytics which sends European user data to undisclosed locations across the US. After the invalidation of the EU-US Privacy Shield, Google Analytics became illegal under GDPR. Effectively, all of its European users can be fined now for GDPR violations.
100% data ownership, no data sampling and no data limits
Neither Matomo nor Plausible shares collected user data with any third parties (e.g. advertisers) or uses it for self-servicing purposes such as product marketing.
Matomo users can choose which type of data they collect, for how long it is stored and what happens next with it. By having full ownership and visibility into the data collection process, you can set up stronger privacy controls.
Also, neither product applies data sampling for any reports (i.e. analysing a subset of data instead of all the available insights). In both cases, you see 100% accurate analytics.
Finally, there’s no cap on how much data you can collect with Matomo or Plausible.
For self-hosted deployments, you are only limited by your hardware.
Open-source
Matomo promises to remain “free forever”. Our source code is publicly available on GitHub. You can download it and install it on your server to operate an on-premise web analytics solution.
Plausible also freely distributes its code on GitHub for on-premise installations.
Both products are supported by an active community of open source enthusiasts, who have contributed ideas, improvements and hotfixes to common operational issues. Since the source code rests in the open, anyone can review and vet it for security purposes.
On the other hand, proprietary web analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) provide a limited view “under the hood” and don’t allow changes to the underlying code.
Essential metrics covered
Matomo and Plausible both let you collect basic web analytics metrics such as total site traffic, number of page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, traffic sources and visit duration.
You have a clear picture of how visitors land on your website, which pages they visit and what content interests them the most.
All the data is reported in real-time. Though Matomo refreshes analytics stats every 10 seconds (you can also programme a custom delay). Plausible updates reports every 30 seconds.
Traditional analytics features
Marketers and analysts will appreciate familiar web analytics features Matomo and Plausible have such as:
- Goal tracking
- Roll-up reporting
- Custom analytics dimensions
- Advanced audience segmentation
- And much more
Being a more mature product, Matomo has more advanced analytics features, while Plausible focuses more on keeping their analytics simple and lightweight.
Privacy-friendly, consent-free cookieless tracking
Matomo and Plausible support cookieless tracking. This is ideal since Big Tech firms are progressively deprecating third-party cookie collection, deemed invasive by consumers and regulators alike.
With Matomo you can select between several cookieless tracking options:
- Counting the number of unique IP addresses and anonymizing them
- Config_id tag to group different actions into “visits” during a short window of up to 24 hours
The latter is the strongest privacy control available, which helps you exclude the processing of all personally identifiable information (PII). Or you can disable cookies altogether, but this decision can potentially impact data accuracy.
Plausible also relies on anonymised IP address counts for cookieless tracking but doesn’t offer alternative privacy controls.
With cookieless tracking enabled in either product, you no longer need to show disruptive cookie consent banners.
Support
Matomo and Plausible both provide free support for Cloud users and offer in-depth product documentation, extensive how-to guides and community forums for additional help.
Matomo also offers paid support plans for Matomo On-Premise users.
Differences between Matomo and Plausible
Both Matomo and Plausible analytics are privacy-centric analytics solutions, but both come with different advantages.
Historical Google Analytics data importer
Matomo has a convenient Google Analytics Importer plugin so you can easily migrate historical data from GA to maintain data continuity.
Plausible also launched a Google Analytics import tool, which is now available for use.
Built-in tag manager
Matomo offers a native Tag Manager that you can use to easily embed event tracking codes into your website (without requiring a developer).
You can assign custom code snippets (tags) to better track page conversions, newsletter signups, affiliate performance, form submissions, scrolling behaviours, digital marketing results and any other custom events.
Plausible doesn’t currently have a Tag Manager.
Analytics script weight
Plausible web analytics tracking script weights less than 1 KB. Meaning when you embed it into your website it doesn’t affect page speed at all. Matomo tracking script weighs 22.8 KB.
This might seem significant, but file size of tracking script is a fairly minor aspect. For reference, it generally takes more time for the TLS/SSL to connect to the server than it takes to download the tracking file. It is also only downloaded once and then cached in the browser and is only downloaded again if the matomo.js file is updated on the server, which doesn’t happen often.
Pre-made integrations
Both apps come with a different set of integrations with other products. Integrations streamline data imports and exchanges between different apps. When a pre-made integration isn’t available, you’ll have to either transfer data manually or fiddle with the source code.
Matomo has 100+ pre-made integrations with popular content management systems (CMS), web development frameworks, Ecommerce platforms, forum software and more.
Generally, migrating from Matomo to Google Analytics is easier thanks to our import tool and integrations with other Google products such as Google Ads, Google Search Console and other products.
Plausible has a shorter list of integrations, spanning popular CMS, Ecommerce platforms and web development frameworks.
Below is a quick comparison of Matomo vs Plausible unique integrations each platform has (but the other one doesn’t).
| Matomo Integrations | Plausible Integrations | |
|---|---|---|
| CMS and site builders | Photodeck, Joomla, Dotclear, Foswiki, Contao, Moodle, DokuWiki, ZenPhoto CMS, eZ publish, Plone | Grav, Carrd, Gatsby, Bridgetown, Buttondown, Docusaurus, Gridsome, Statamic |
| Ecommerce | Magneto, WooCommerce, OpenCart, HikaShop | - |
| Web development languages and frameworks | Drupal, PHP, C#, Java, Python, Ruby on Rails, C++, Zend Framework, Objective-C, Xamarin | Go, Jekyll, Nuxt.js |
| Business apps | Cloudflare, SharePoint, Jira Cloud and Jira Server, Limesurvey | HubSpot, Sanity.io |
GDPR Manager
Matomo has an in-built GDPR Manager to make sure your website meets GDPR requirements. The GDPR Manager ensures compliance by giving users the right to object, access data, withdraw consent, data portability, erasure, delete historical data, support “Do Not Track” and so on. Plausible only provides text guides and how-to’s.
Advanced analytics features
Plausible positions itself as a simple, straightforward analytics solution many beginners would appreciate. As such, it currently lacks more advanced analytics features.
Matomo is your all-in-one analytics solutions, offering a robust set of features such as:
- Heatmaps
- Session recordings
- Search engines and keyword performance reporting
- Annotations
- Native A/B testing
- Ecommerce reporting
- Site search analytics
- Funnels and Multi Attribution reporting
- Custom reporting
Check the full list of Matomo’s features.
Log analytics
Healthcare organisations, government agencies, financial services providers and educational institutions have to process sensitive consumer information. However, they must also avoid processing this data in web analytics apps for compliance reasons.
This factor renders JavaScript-based tracking codes unsuitable. Matomo proposes an alternative log analytics tracking mechanism. It provides baseline data through all your historical visitor sessions but restricts PII processing.
Plausible doesn’t offer the same feature.
Intranet analytics
You can configure Matomo to securely track visitor behaviours on internal portals, built-in SharePoint, Confluence, Sitecore, Liferay, Alfresco, NextCloud and Open Atrium. This way you can learn more about how your workforce engages with corporate resources without exposing sensitive data to third parties.
Intranet analytics is another differentiating feature of Matomo vs Plausible.
White label
Every self-hosted Matomo installation can be easily white labelled. Apart from adding your own logo and favicon, you can add custom branding elements and hide certain marketplace functionality. We also allow changing tracking endpoints and removing links to Matomo.org. All of this can be done in several clicks via our white label plugin.
Plausible doesn’t provide a way to white label your analytics.
Full access to raw data
Matomo and Plausible guarantee 100% data ownership. But a crucial Plausible vs Matomo difference lies in how you can export collected data.
Plausible provides two ways for exporting analytics stats:
- As a CSV file from your dashboard
- Using Stats API
In both cases, however, you get access to aggregated data — the one you see in your reports — not raw data — unprocessed analytics records. This is a hindrance if you want to do your own data segmentation or build a custom analytics model to operationalise certain insights.
With Matomo, you get access to raw data with no traces of filters, tags or any other analysis applied. We offer two ways to export data:
- Set up direct read-only access to the MySQL database (for On-Premise Matomo)
- Use our HTTP API to download all data for all websites or set up custom data ranges
Afterward, you can freely use the obtained data in any other project.
Pricing
Both Matomo On-Premise and Plausible self-hosted are free. You pay for your own infrastructure, and with Matomo, there are premium plugins available for purchase.
But if you want a ready-to-use, managed web analytics app, opt for a Cloud installation. Plausible and Matomo both have progressive pricing, based on monthly hits or pageviews.
- Matomo counts hits as a tracked pageview, an event tracking, a download, an onsite search or a content tracking request. On average, users track 3 hits per visit. So 100 visits will generate roughly 300 hits.
- Plausible pricing covers the total number of pageviews, generated by all the sites on your account. “Custom events” tracking such as clicks to external links or 404 error page tracking also count towards your total pageviews.
Matomo vs Plausible Pricing
| Matomo | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $23 (USD)/mo for 50K website hits | $9 (USD)/mo for 10K pageviews |
| Annual discounts | 17% off with annual billing | 2 months free with annual billing |
Up front, Matomo is a more expensive Plausible alternative, but you get access to more advanced features and native tools. This way you save money on custom integrations and additional third-party tools.
Final thoughts
Plausible offers a beginner-friendly web analytics solution. If you just want to know your web visitor count, track basic on-site behaviours and traffic sources, Plausible is a great option. With a gentle learning curve, it’s a good “first-ever” analytics app for bloggers, freelancers and small business owners starting out. A lower price point also makes the difference.
Matomo, in turn, sits close to Google Analytics in terms of features, plus addresses some of Google Analytics limitations around GDPR compliance, by-default data sampling, lack of data anonymization features and known data import/export issues.
We offer equally robust analytics and reporting features, but without any sneaky compromises on consumer privacy.
Start your 21-day free trial (no credit card required) to see if Matomo is the right web analytics solution for you.
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