Matomo

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.

On-premise is free to license and costs whatever your server costs. Matomo Cloud starts at USD 26 a month excluding tax for 50,000 hits, with named steps up through 100,000, 300,000, 600,000, one million, two million, five million and above ten million. Extra hits are USD 2.6 per 5,000. Heatmaps and session recordings are an addition from USD 5 a month for 1,500 heatmap pageviews and 150 recordings. Annual billing is described as two months free.

Anybody who needs analytics they can point at in a privacy review, and who would rather pay for hosting than hand visitor data to an advertising company. Self-hosting makes it free for a technical owner. Somebody who wants analytics to work without becoming a system administrator should take the cloud plan and treat the free option as unavailable.