Matomo vs Statcounter 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
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 | Not stated |
| Data export | Everything, in an open format | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | 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.
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.
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.