Matomo vs Statcounter Comparison 2026
Matomo is a full analytics suite that can be self-hosted free or run on Matomo Cloud from $26 a month for 50,000 hits. Statcounter is a visitor log, free forever for 5,000 sessions a month with 14 days of retention, showing a live feed of individual visits rather than only aggregates, then $18 a month for 20,000 sessions. Statcounter's own listing recommends using it alongside a modern analytics tool rather than instead of one, since the visitor feed answers a question the aggregate-first tools do not and answers little else.
Web analytics you can host yourself and keep
A visitor log with a lasting free tier
At a glance
- Statcounter starts cheaper, at $18.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
Matomo | Statcounter | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $26 | From $18 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| API | Yes |
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.
Statcounter
A visitor log with a lasting free tier
Statcounter has been counting visitors since before analytics became a discipline, and it still does the thing that made it useful: a live feed of individual visits rather than only aggregates, which is how somebody works out what one specific referral actually did. The free plan keeps two weeks of history for a small site. Paying buys longer retention, more sessions and session replay. It is a visitor log rather than a product analytics suite, and anybody wanting funnels and cohorts is looking at the wrong tool.
Why people weigh these two
- Statcounter instead of Matomo
- Statcounter keeps a visitor log with a lasting free tier, paid from $18.
- Matomo instead of Statcounter
- Matomo can be hosted yourself and keeps the whole history, from $26 with a free tier.
Which one should you pick
Pick Matomo if you want a complete analytics suite: aggregates, heatmaps and session recording as add-ons, with the option to self-host free for full data ownership. Cloud starts at $26 a month for 50,000 hits if a server is more than you want to manage.
Pick Statcounter to run alongside Matomo or another aggregate tool, not instead of one, since its own listing says as much directly. The free forever plan covers 5,000 sessions a month with a live feed of individual visits, useful for tracing what one specific referral actually did, which the aggregate view in Matomo answers far less directly.
Common questions
- Should Statcounter replace Matomo or run alongside it?
- Alongside it, by Statcounter's own recommendation. Its visitor feed answers a specific question, what did one visit actually do, that aggregate-first tools like Matomo answer less directly, but it does little else that a full analytics suite provides.
- Which has a free plan?
- Both do. Statcounter's Basic plan is free forever for 5,000 sessions a month with 14 days of retention. Matomo's free route is self-hosting on your own server, since Matomo Cloud itself has no free tier and starts at $26 a month.
- What does Statcounter show that Matomo does not emphasise?
- A live feed of individual visits rather than only aggregated totals, which is useful for tracing exactly what one referral or one visitor did. Matomo's strength is the opposite: broad, configurable reporting across a whole site's traffic.
- Which is cheaper at a similar volume?
- Statcounter's Premium at $18 a month for 20,000 sessions is cheaper than Matomo Cloud's $26 a month for 50,000 hits, though sessions and hits measure slightly different things, so treat this as a rough comparison rather than an exact one.
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.