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Technology · Analytics

Plausible

plausible.io

Plausible is a lightweight web analytics tool that uses no cookies and is hosted in the EU. Its code is open source and you can run it yourself.[1]

A lightweight, open-source alternative to Google Analytics that prioritizes user privacy and simplicity. Plausible offers essential website analytics without using cookies or collecting personal data, making it GDPR-compliant out of the box. It provides a clean, easy-to-understand dashboard for key metrics, ideal for privacy-conscious website owners.

Plausible belongs toAnalyticscategory.

What it is

A simple, privacy-friendly analytics dashboard[1]

Cookies

No cookie banner required[1]

Source

Open source under the AGPLv3 license[2]

Hosting

Built and hosted in the EU[1]

29websites

use it — 1.1% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months

#25of 133

tools in its category seen in our scans (we recognize 430)

10public pages

on UptimeCard — open any of them to see how that site is doing

In short: a small, readable analytics tool for owners who want traffic numbers without cookies. Plans start at $9 a month and scale with pageviews.[1]

1.99% of all websites we track run Plausible▲ 0.01 points since 20 Sep

Should you use Plausible?

The 10-second version, from the vendor’s own pages and what we see in our scans

Plausible fits if…

  • You want traffic stats on one page, without cookies or consent banners[1]
  • You want to host your analytics in the EU or run the software yourself[1]

Look elsewhere if…

  • You need a free analytics tool[3]Google describes free analytics solutions for businesses of every size.
Plans are priced by monthly pageviews, so cost grows with traffic; the price shown is for the lowest tier[1]
Funnels and user journeys are on the Business plan and above[1]

Plausible next to its closest alternatives

Other web analytics tools. Statements come from each vendor's own page; website counts and speed are ours.

PlausibleGoogle AnalyticsMatomo Analytics
Privacy and hosting
Cookie bannerNot required✓no cookies[1]Not stated on its home pageNot stated on its pricing page
HostingEU-hosted cloudor run it yourself[1]Not stated on its home pageCloud or on-premiseyou choose[4]
PriceFrom $9/molowest tier, then by pageviews[1]Free optionsplus a paid edition for enterprises[3]Not stated on its pricing page
What we see in our scans
Websites running it291.1% of 2,555 scanned sites1,36853.5% of 2,555 scanned sites411.6% of 2,555 scanned sites
Typical page load time3.3 s✓9 public sites4.4 s440 public sites—
Typical page weight4.6 MBtypical home page3.5 MB✓typical home page—

Scan rows count public pages only; a tool needs at least 5 measured sites to appear.

  • Google Analytics: Free analytics tools from Google[3]
  • Matomo Analytics: Analytics with cloud and on-premise hosting[4]

Choose Plausible if…

  • You want simple stats with no cookie banner and EU hosting[1]

Choose Google Analytics if…

  • You want a free tool for businesses of any size[3]

Choose Matomo Analytics if…

  • You want to choose between cloud and on-premise hosting[4]

Plans and what they cost

Prices shown for up to 10k monthly pageviews; higher traffic costs more[1]

Starter

$9/ month

One site with no retention limit

Growth

$14/ month

Everything in Starter, with more sites and team members

Business

$19/ month

Adds custom properties, funnels and user journeys

Enterprise is custom-priced and adds single sign-on, a managed proxy and priority support.[1]

Support and help for Plausible

How the vendor says you can reach it, and the public help community

Priority support

Priority support is listed for the Enterprise plan[1]

Plausible versions

The newest release, the series that still gets fixes, and what changed

Latest release

3.2.1[6]

Released 15 May 2026

Maintained series

3

How Plausible sites protect themselves

Share of the 29 sites we scanned that run each protection

HSTS59% · 17 sites

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS

reCAPTCHA17% · 5 sites

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse

Protections add up, they do not replace each other: a site can run all of them.

At a glance

UptimeCard's own scans and tests of 2,555 websites · refreshed weekly

How Plausible sites scoreout of 100 · hover or tap a score for details

47PerformancePooraverage site: 5091AccessibilityGoodaverage site: 8979Best practicesFairaverage site: 9392SEOGoodaverage site: 92

Page load time

Loads about 22% faster than the average site

Plausible sites
3.3 s
All sites
4.3 s

Most Plausible sites load in 2.2–5.0 s. Home page weight: 4.6 MB vs 3.3 MB for all sites. 9 public sites measured.

Who uses it?

Technology and Software is the biggest group

Technology and Software70%
Community Forums10%
Online Learning Platforms10%
Other10%

Share of 10 classified public sites. “× average” compares with all 961 public sites.

How Plausible sites are built

Closest partners. The number says how many times more often the tool runs on Plausible sites than on an average website. Hover a partner for its share of sites.

Tailwind CSS3×AWS Certificate Manager2×Sentry2×Microsoft Clarity2×Next.js2×HubSpot2×

Usually installed alongside

The bigger the bubble, the more of the 29 Plausible sites also run the tool. Colour shows what the tool does. Hover or tap a bubble for details.

Google Analytics52%Facebook Pixel21%Linkedin Insight Tag21%Google Tag Manager52%HubSpot21%DoubleClick Floodlight17%Microsoft Advertising14%Cart Functionality10%
AnalyticsTag managerMarketingAdvertisingOnline store

Similar tools in its category

Analytics: 430 tools known, 133 seen in our scans

Google Analytics1,368 sitesAlternativeFacebook Pixel468 sitesAlternativeLinkedin Insight Tag435 sitesAlternativeCloudflare Browser Insights218 sitesAlternativePiwik PRO Core181 sitesAlternativeHubSpot Analytics166 sitesAlternativeGoogle Ads Conversion Tracking140 sitesAlternativeHotjar113 sitesAlternativeMicrosoft Clarity234 sitesUsed together

How websites combine Plausible with other tools

Relationships found on the websites that use it, from the same map status pages show.

Overlaps with another 9Integrates with another 2Complements another tool 1

Websites using Plausible

29 websites use Plausible: 1.1% of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months. A selection is shown below.

Scores are out of 100: P Performance · A Accessibility · B Best practices · S SEO. Green 80+, yellow 65–79, orange 50–64, red below 50. The dot shows whether our last scan found the site failing (red) or not (green); Red, amber or blue: an active incident on the site's status page (outage, degraded, maintenance) or a failing scan; amber also means a certificate ending within 30 days. Hover the dot for details.

Who is behind Plausible

From its own pages and public records, with sources

Operated by

Plausible Insights OÜ[7]

The legal entity is incorporated in Estonia · since 2018[5][2]

Its story

  1. 2018

    Plausible started in December 2018, built by one developer as a simple privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. Site owners got basic traffic stats without a heavy analytics suite.[2]

  2. 2019

    Paid subscriptions launched in 2019. The project moved from a free side project to a subscription service rather than one funded by selling data.[2][1]

  3. 2020

    Plausible moved its code to the AGPL license in October. The reason given was that permissive licenses let companies that do not care about open source take advantage of the code.[8]

  4. 2024

    Plausible introduced the self-hosted, AGPL-licensed Community Edition in February. Anyone could run the analytics on their own server at no license cost.[8]

  5. 2024

    Stats API V2 arrived in October. Programmatic queries gained multiple dimensions, regular expression matching and AND, OR and NOT conditions, so reports could be pulled into other tools.[9]

  6. 2025

    Single sign-on arrived in July for teams. People could open Plausible through their identity provider instead of keeping a separate password.[9]

  7. 2026

    User journeys arrived in May. Owners could see the actual paths visitors take and where they drop off, beyond a fixed funnel of steps.[9]

Questions about Plausible

Does Plausible need a cookie banner?
Plausible says no cookie banner is required.[1]
Is Plausible open source?
Yes. It is open source under the GNU Affero General Public License Version 3.[2]
Is there a free trial?
Yes. There is a 30-day free trial and no credit card is required.[1]
Where is the data stored?
Visitor data is stored and processed in the EU on infrastructure owned by European companies.[5]
How many websites use Plausible?
We found Plausible on 29 of the 2,555 websites we scanned in the last 12 months (1.1%). 10 of them have a public status page.
What is Plausible often used with?
Among the websites we scan, Plausible is often found alongside Amazon Web Services (44.8% of its sites), React (34.5% of its sites), Next.js (31% of its sites).
What are the alternatives to Plausible?
Other analytics tools we recognize include Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Linkedin Insight Tag, Microsoft Clarity.

Is your website built with Plausible?

UptimeCard checks it around the clock, tells you the minute it stops answering, and gives your visitors a status page.

Monitor my site freeCreate a status page