Growing an audience
Running the business
Both cover analytics. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
| Plausible | Short.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $9 | From $5 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | 30 days | None |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Everything, in an open format |
| Their cut | Not stated | Not stated |
| Runs on | Web | Web |
| Covers | Analytics | Link in Bio, Analytics |
| Works with | Nothing in particular | Nothing in particular |
| Founded | Not listed | Not listed |
| Reader rating | No reviews yet | No reviews yet |
| Live deals | None right now | None right now |
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
Not running a consent banner is a saving the price does not show. No cookies means no banner and no consent records to keep, and on a small site that is worth more than the gap between $9 a month and free analytics.
Link shortening with the analytics attached
Short.io is a link shortener for people who care what happened after the click: country targeting, deep links into apps, and click data you can pull out rather than only look at. Custom domains are on every plan including the free one. The pricing page also converts into about twenty currencies, which is rarer than it should be.
Our note
The free plan here does more than several paid plans elsewhere, which makes Short.io the sensible place to start. Move to Rebrandly if link galleries and brand polish matter more to you than the export.
Only on this side
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.