Google Analytics is the world's most widely used free web analytics tool, adopted by about 85% of sites using a traffic analysis tool (W3Techs). The GA4 event model processes 25 million events per month free, deeply integrated with Google Ads and BigQuery.
Pirsch Analytics is a privacy-first web analytics tool founded in 2021 in Vienna, Austria, using no cookies with an about 4KB script, server-side tracking, and open-source self-hosting, with cloud plans from about $8/month.
Fathom Analytics is a privacy-first website analytics tool founded in Canada in 2018, tracking traffic without cookies with a script of only about 2KB and native GDPR compliance, while offering event-tracking APIs and webhooks for engineering integration, with subscriptions starting at about $14/month.
Plausible is an open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics tool founded in 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia, with an about 1KB script, no cookies, and out-of-the-box GDPR compliance, with cloud hosting from $9/month and free self-hosting, used by 1,000,000+ websites.
Matomo (formerly Piwik) was founded by Matthieu Aubry in 2007 in Auckland, New Zealand, as an open-source web analytics platform with 100% data ownership, used by 1,000,000+ websites, offering self-hosted and cloud deployment with GDPR compliance by default.
Fathom Analytics is a privacy-first website analytics tool founded in 2018 by Jack Ellis and Paul Jarvis in Canada, tracking traffic without cookies with a script of only about 2KB and native GDPR compliance, serving as a privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics.
Pirsch is a privacy-first web analytics brand founded in 2021 in Vienna, Austria; this document covers its privacy, self-hosting, and event-tracking depth - cookieless, about 4KB script, Go open-source self-hosting, and full data ownership.
Umami is an open-source lightweight web analytics tool created by Mike Cao in 2020, MIT-licensed, cookieless, and naturally GDPR compliant, with free one-command Docker self-hosting plus multi-site management, share links, and plugin support.
Splitbee is a modern web and product analytics tool founded in Germany in 2020, offering event tracking, funnels, retention, A/B testing, and heatmaps with an about 5KB script, a free tier of about 10,000 events per month, and a GPL open-source self-hostable core.
Simple Analytics is a privacy-first web analytics service founded in 2018 in the Netherlands, completely cookie-free with no personal data collection and out-of-the-box GDPR compliance, using an about 2KB single-pixel script with reference pricing from $9/month.
Shynet is an open-source, self-hosted, privacy-friendly web analytics tool created by US developer Mike Miles, built on Django, requiring no cookies, with multi-site and real-time stats and full user data ownership.
Kindmetrics is a US-based privacy-first website analytics tool with cookie-less tracking, a polished minimal dashboard, and team collaboration. It supports both cloud-hosted and self-hosted deployment, suiting personal site owners and small teams.
GoatCounter is an open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics tool maintained by Dutch developer Martin Tournoij, with a tracking script of only about 3.5KB. Both cloud hosting and self-hosting are free, making it a zero-cost Google Analytics alternative without cookies.
Counter is a minimal, privacy-friendly web analytics tool based in the United States, tracking traffic without cookies and defaulting to GDPR compliance, offering a lightweight alternative to Google Analytics with real-time core metrics.
Cabin Analytics is a privacy-friendly, lightweight website analytics provider headquartered in the United States. It delivers core traffic metrics without cookies or IP collection, using a low-footprint Golang + SQLite architecture with one-click Docker self-hosting, making it an ideal choice for privacy-conscious site owners and small businesses.
Clicky is an established real-time web analytics tool launched in 2005 by Roxer Software, known for visitor-level tracking, heatmaps, and session recording, with a free plan covering about 3,000 page views per day.
Open Web Analytics (OWA) was created by Peter Adams in 2006 as an open-source, PHP/MySQL self-hosted web analytics framework under the GPL license, with built-in heatmaps and click tracking, serving as a classic self-hosted alternative to Google Analytics.