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Last checked October 15, 2026

Best Free Alternatives to Google Analytics (2026)

GA4 is free at the standard tier and expensive only if you need Analytics 360. Teams leave it for privacy, a lighter script, or because they do not want analytics tied to an ads account.

MarketersStartupsPrivacy-consciousPrice checked

What Google Analytics costs

GA4 standard is free. Analytics 360 is a custom enterprise contract.

The cost people are ditching is usually compliance work and the size of the Google tag, not a monthly GA4 invoice.

Google Analytics website·Pricing source

Ranked by Drop-in score

How we rank

#1 is the highest-scoring alternative that is not sponsored. A featured listing, when one is sold, is labeled and sits after #1.

  1. 96
    #1Open source

    Plausible

    A lightweight, cookie-free analytics tool you can also host.

    Last checked October 15, 2026 · AGPL-3.0 (Community Edition); tracker script is MIT

    WebSelf-host
    Cost and detailsMigration guideWebsite
  2. 91
    #2Open source

    Matomo

    A full-featured GPL analytics suite, on your server or their cloud.

    Last checked October 15, 2026 · GPL-3.0

    WebSelf-host
    Cost and detailsWebsite
  3. 91
    #3Open source

    Umami

    A MIT-licensed analytics app with a small footprint.

    Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT

    WebSelf-host
    Cost and detailsWebsite
  4. 77
    #4Open source

    GoatCounter

    Tiny EUPL analytics for people who want a page counter, not a suite.

    Last checked October 15, 2026 · EUPL-1.2

    WebSelf-host
    Cost and detailsWebsite

Feature by feature

Full is the whole job. Partial is a real version with a gap. Missing means it does not do this. Not checked counts as zero in the score.

FeaturePlausible#1 · 96Matomo#2 · 91Umami#3 · 91GoatCounter#4 · 77
Pageview analyticsWeight 10FullFullFullFull
Privacy-friendly by defaultWeight 8FullFullFullFull
Traffic sourcesWeight 8FullFullFullPartialReferrers and a few campaign parameters, not GA4's source model.
Custom eventsWeight 7FullFullFullPartial
Funnels and goalsWeight 6PartialFunnels are a paid cloud feature and are not in the Community Edition.PartialGoals are included. Richer funnel and heatmap reports are often premium plugins.MissingMissing
Realtime viewWeight 4FullFullFullPartial
Works without a cookie bannerWeight 6FullFullCan be configured to avoid cookies. Confirm the settings rather than assuming the default.FullFull
Self-hostingWeight 7FullFullFullFull
Lightweight scriptWeight 6FullPartialThe tracker is heavier than Plausible or Umami.FullFull
You control retentionWeight 5FullFullFullFull

Real cost

Plausible

Free tier
No permanent free cloud plan. There is a 30-day trial. Community Edition is free to self-host.
Hosted plan
Cloud plans are paid and tiered by traffic. A current euro figure was not locked from the pricing page in this check. Unverified.
Self-hosting
Moderate. Docker Compose with ClickHouse and Postgres. Heavier than Umami, still a one-server install. Approximate server cost: $10–25/mo. Unverified estimate.

Matomo

Free tier
On-premise Matomo is free. Cloud and premium plugins are paid.
Hosted plan
Matomo publishes cloud and on-premise support prices. The scraped figures were ambiguous, so no dollar amount is shown. Unverified.
Self-hosting
Moderate. PHP and MySQL. Comfortable on one server at modest traffic, and it wants backups and occasional tuning. Approximate server cost: $8–20/mo. Unverified estimate.

Umami

Free tier
Self-hosting is free. Umami also offers a hosted service.
Hosted plan
Umami Cloud has free and paid tiers. The current limits were not copied in this check. Unverified.
Self-hosting
Easy. A Node app and Postgres or MySQL. One of the easier analytics installs. Approximate server cost: $4–10/mo. Unverified estimate.

GoatCounter

Free tier
The hosted service has a free tier for non-commercial and small sites. Self-hosting is free. Confirm the current hosted limits on the site. Unverified.
Hosted plan
No hosted price recorded.
Self-hosting
Easy. A single Go binary and SQLite or Postgres. Approximate server cost: $4–8/mo. Unverified estimate.

Top pair

Move a site from Google Analytics to Plausible

Add the Plausible script, remove the Google tag, and start the charts from today. GA4 history does not import.

Read the migration guide

Questions