Web Analytics
Count how many people visit your site, which pages they read, and where they came from — search, social posts, launch sites or newsletters.
The real choice
Cookie-free dashboard or full marketing suite. Cookie-free tools show pageviews, referrers, UTM campaigns and simple goals on one page and usually need no consent banner. Google Analytics is free and goes much deeper into campaigns and ads, but sets cookies, so EU visitors need a consent banner and some of them are never counted.
Pick by situation
Tap the ones that are you — the tools that fit light up below.- You want one page of traffic numbers without a cookie banner, and are fine paying from day one
Plausible AnalyticsFathom AnalyticsSimple Analytics - Your analytics data must stay on your own servers
UmamiPlausible Analytics - You want it free and your site already runs on Cloudflare or VercelCloudflare Web AnalyticsVercel Web Analytics
- You run Google Ads or need detailed campaign attribution and audiencesGoogle Analytics
- You already use PostHog for product analytics and want traffic numbers in the same place
PostHog - Your bill should stay flat as traffic changes from month to monthPlausible AnalyticsFathom Analytics
The contenders
Grouped by the side of the choice they answer, not ranked. Open a row for when to use it, the trade-off and what makers say.
Plausible Analyticsservice · open sourceOne page of traffic numbers with no cookie banner, with funnels and revenue goals on higher plans.
198+11 open source$19Starter 100k
Use it whenYou want a simple dashboard that a non-technical co-founder or client can read.
Trade-offNo free cloud plan after the 30-day trial; custom events count toward the pageview tier.
Used by Bank Statement Converter, Breadcrumb, Central, Cleanvoice AI, ColorPenguin and 193 more · in 11 open-source projects.
We use plausible analytics to gain actionable insights without relying on cookies, ensuring user privacy while promoting a transparent and straightforward approach.
Umamiservice · open sourceOpen-source website analytics you can self-host free, with a cloud free plan up to 100,000 events a month.
48$0Hobby
Use it whenYou want to own the data on your own server, or start free in the cloud.
Trade-offSelf-hosting means running a database and the upgrades; cloud data retention on the free plan is 6 months.
Used by Amami, Keplars, Ricly, the gist of, Uiverse.io and 43 more.
Ricly's website measures its visits with it: no cookies, so no consent banner for our visitors.
Fathom AnalyticsserviceA cookie-free dashboard with up to 50 sites on every plan.40$15100k
Use it whenYou run several small sites or products and want them under one subscription.
Trade-offNo free plan, and the trial is 7 days with a card; custom events count toward the pageview tier.
Used by Buttondown, Frontend Mentor, NoteWave, pgMustard, RailsDevs and 35 more.
We use Fathom Analytics for privacy-first website analytics as an alternative to Google Analytics.
Cloudflare Web Analyticsservice · free tierFree cookie-free visit counts for sites on any host, set up in minutes.
92$0Free
Use it whenYou need basic numbers for free and already have a Cloudflare account.
Trade-offNo custom events, goals or UTM reports; six months of history, and long-term data is aggregated.
Used by AgentConnect, AI Form Fill, Almeta ML, BeforeSunset AI, BurnLink and 87 more.
Google Analyticsservice · free tierFree, deep campaign and audience reporting tied to Google Ads and Search Console.410+10 open source$0Standard
Use it whenYou buy ads on Google or need multi-channel attribution.
Trade-offSets cookies, so EU visitors need a consent banner and some refuse to be counted; reports are complex for simple questions.
Used by 3D AI Studio, 88Guru, a DNS lookup tool, ADYOUNEED, Agiled and 405 more · in 10 open-source projects.
Cost: the cheapest plan that fits pageviews 100k pageviews, from list prices. Try your own numbers →
Cost as you grow
Each contender's cheapest usable plan as usage rises.
Before you choose
Add the script on launch day, before you post anywhere, so the first spike of traffic is counted. Tag every link you share with UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_campaign) so posts, newsletters and launch sites show up as separate sources. Set up two or three goals — sign-up clicked, checkout started — and leave funnels and per-user behaviour to product analytics.
- Installing it after launch, so the one traffic spike you most wanted to read was never counted.
- Sharing links without UTM tags, so traffic from newsletters, chat apps and mobile apps lands in "direct" and you can't tell which post worked.
- Counting your own visits and preview deploys, which can be most of the traffic on a new site; exclude yourself and non-production domains.
- Loading the script from the vendor's domain only, so ad blockers drop a sizeable share of visits on developer and tech audiences; proxy it through your own domain if the vendor supports that.
- Adding Google Analytics without a consent banner for EU visitors; it sets cookies, and EU rules require consent before setting non-essential ones.
Other options
Real choices most makers here won't need to weigh.
PostHogPart of product analyticsA web analytics dashboard in the same tool as funnels, session replays and feature flags.Decided alongside
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