Matomo vs Plausible Comparison 2026
Both cover analytics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Web analytics you can host yourself and keep
Privacy-first analytics without cookies
At a glance
- Plausible starts cheaper, at $9.
- Only Matomo has a free tier.
Side by side
Matomo | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $26 | From $9 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | None |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
Matomo
Web analytics you can host yourself and keep
Matomo answers the same questions as the analytics everybody already runs, with the difference stated on the page: the data belongs to whoever installs it. Two ways to run it sit side by side, a cloud subscription priced on monthly hits and an on-premise build that costs nothing to license. Heatmaps and session recordings are sold as additions rather than bundled. Self-hosting means owning a server and the upgrades that come with it, which is the real price of the free option.
Our note
Take the cloud plan unless somebody on the team already runs servers, because the free version's cost is measured in maintenance rather than money. Compare against Plausible and Fathom on hits rather than features, since all three answer the same questions and only the pricing shape differs.
Plausible
Privacy-first analytics without cookies
Plausible answers what a Google Analytics dashboard takes four clicks to answer, on one page, without cookies or a consent banner. The script is a fraction of the size, which shows up in a page speed score. There are no user-level reports at all, so anybody who needs to follow one visitor around is in the wrong tool.
Our note
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.