Plausible Analytics

Open Source

Privacy-friendly analytics. Free and unlimited if you self-host; the hosted version is paid.

Unlimited Free TierOpen Source

Free plan checked against Plausible Analytics's pricing page on 2 September 2026. Re-checked monthly.

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About Plausible Analytics

Plausible is a lightweight, privacy-friendly analytics tool and a common Google Analytics replacement. No cookies, no personal data, and no consent banner required.

Which half is free

This one needs care, because "Plausible is free" is only half true.

Self-hosting is genuinely free. Plausible CE is open source under AGPL and you can run it yourself at no cost, with no traffic cap. In their words: "Plausible CE is free to self-host."

The hosted version is not. plausible.io is a paid subscription with a free trial, and Plausible are explicit that it is what funds the project: "Our only source of funding is the managed cloud service: subscribers pay us directly." A trial is not a free plan, and we do not list it as one.

When you would pay

The moment you would rather not run a server. Self-hosting Plausible is not difficult, but it is yours to keep running — updates, backups, uptime. Paying for the cloud version buys that away, and funds the open source project at the same time.

If you want hosted analytics on a genuinely free plan, Umami and Matomo are the closer comparisons in this category.

We list Plausible because self-hosting is free and verifiable, not because the hosted product is. If that changes, tell us and we will re-check it.

Key Features

Privacy-friendly analytics

No cookies required

Lightweight script (<1KB)

Real-time dashboard

Goal tracking

UTM campaign tracking

Custom events

API access

Pros & Cons

Extremely lightweight

No cookie banners needed

Open source and self-hostable

Clean, simple dashboard

No free tier on the hosted version — a trial, then paid

Self-hosting means you own the upgrades, backups and uptime

Fewer features than a full product-analytics tool

The free plan in practice

What you can actually do on Plausible Analytics's free plan (Free to self-host — the managed cloud is paid only), where it stops, and when it's worth paying.

What you can do free

Plausible CE is free to self-host, with no usage cap
No cookies, no personal data, no consent banner needed
Open source (AGPL) — the whole product, not a cut-down edition

Where it stops

You run and maintain the server yourself
The managed cloud at plausible.io has no free plan, only a trial

When to upgrade to a paid plan

Plausible Analytics is open source, so self-hosting is free and unlimited. The only reason to pay is convenience: choose a hosted or cloud option when you'd rather not run and maintain it yourself, or need official support.

What's the free tier actually like?

Used Plausible Analytics's free plan? Tell people what it was really like — what you hit, what surprised you, whether the limits held. No account needed.

No comments yet. If you've used the free plan, you know something the pricing page doesn't say.