People look for a Google Analytics alternative when the free product stops fitting: event data is kept for 2 or 14 months unless the property is 360, rare dimension values collapse into an (other) row, and the setup assumes you also run Google's advertising tools. They move to a one-page privacy tool, an open-source suite, or a product-analytics platform, depending on whether they count pageviews or user actions.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: Ranking order favours the challenger over the household name, so the best-known vendors begin at place 4 where the category allows it. For Google Analytics users, the top three picks from our web analytics software ranking are Plausible, Matomo and Fathom Analytics. Pick Plausible if you want one readable page and a fixed price per pageview tier. Every one of the 11 products below comes from Best Web Analytics Software in 2026, with a note on how it departs from Google Analytics.
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Google's retention page lets a standard property keep user-level and event data for 2 or 14 months. Retention of 26, 38 or 50 months is marked 360 only. A shop that wants to compare this autumn with two years ago must export to BigQuery before the window closes, because a deleted event cannot be re-exported.
Google says tables have row limits, and that once a table passes its limit the rarest values are condensed under an (other) row. It treats any dimension with more than 500 values as high-cardinality, which a site with many URLs or campaign tags reaches fast. Standard properties also have a daily BigQuery export limit of 1 million events.
The Marketing Platform page offers Google Analytics 'free of charge' and routes Analytics 360 to 'Talk to Sales', with no price on the page. The agreement is between Google LLC and the account owner. For a buyer who wants a contract with a named price, a smaller vendor that publishes tiers is easier to budget.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing model | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Estonia | No free tier | Published | you want one readable page and a fixed price per pageview tier | #1 |
| Matomo | New Zealand | No free tier | Published | you need the data on your own server or want to keep a familiar report layout | #2 |
| Fathom Analytics | Canada | No free tier | Published | you run many small sites and want one allowance covering all of them | #3 |
| Simple Analytics | Netherlands | Yes | Published | you want to measure both tools side by side before you commit | #4 |
| Piwik PRO | Poland | No free tier | Published | you must pair analytics with a consent tool and a tag manager from one vendor | #6 |
| Umami | United States | Yes | Published | you want permissively licensed code you can host yourself, or cloud billing by events | #5 |
| PostHog | United States | Yes | Published | you want analytics, replays and feature flags from one vendor with a monthly free allowance | #7 |
| Mixpanel | Not stated by the vendor | Yes | Published | your questions are about funnels and retention for a product, not about website traffic | #8 |
| Amplitude | United States | Yes | Published | you want to analyse what signed-in users do, with no per-seat cost | #9 |
| Heap | United States | Yes | Published | you want interactions captured without defining each event in advance | #10 |
| Adobe Analytics | Not stated by the vendor | No free tier | See profile | you already buy other Adobe products and have analysts to run an implementation | #12 |
Estonia · Published
A one-page dashboard priced by monthly pageviews, with Starter for one site and 3 years of retention, Growth for up to 3 sites, and Business for 10 sites with 5 years. Trial is 30 days without a card, and Google Analytics stats can be imported. It is built around that overview page, not custom report building.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want one readable page and a fixed price per pageview tier.
More on Plausible: ranked 1 of 18 in web analytics software →
New Zealand · Published
Reports on the same kinds of data, with a Cloud plan billed by monthly hits (data stored in Frankfurt) and a free On-Premise Community edition you run yourself. The Cloud pricing page lists no data sampling and a Google Analytics importer. Heatmaps, funnels and similar plugins belong to paid On-Premise bundles.
Switch from Google Analytics if you need the data on your own server or want to keep a familiar report layout.
See the full Matomo entry, ranked 2 of 18 among web analytics software products →
Canada · Published
Pageview tiers from 100,000 up to 25 million a month, every plan with the same features and 50 sites included. The trial lasts 7 days and asks for a card. Fathom is cookieless and has event and revenue tracking and extra sites come in packs of 50.
Switch from Google Analytics if you run many small sites and want one allowance covering all of them.
Read our review of Fathom Analytics (position 3 of 18 on the web analytics software list) →
Netherlands · Published
A free hobby plan with 5 websites and 1 month of history, then paid tiers by pageviews with one user included and an extra charge per added user. Data stays in the Netherlands. A 30-day assisted proof of concept runs it next to GA4. The free plan needs a badge.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want to measure both tools side by side before you commit.
Simple Analytics, #4 of 18 in our web analytics software ranking →
Poland · Published
Analytics bundled with Tag Manager, a consent manager and a data-activation module. Business starts with up to 2M monthly actions and 25 months of retention on EU-operated hosting in Sweden, with a 30-day trial. Raw data access is API only on Business, and CSV exports to a warehouse are an add-on.
Switch from Google Analytics if you must pair analytics with a consent tool and a tag manager from one vendor.
Full verdict on Piwik PRO, which sits at number 6 of 18 for web analytics software →
United States · Published
Usage-based tiers where an event is a pageview or a stored event property: Hobby has 100K events, Pro 1 million, Business 10 million, with overage per extra event. The code is MIT-licensed and can be self-hosted. Heatmaps and session replays are on Business only.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want permissively licensed code you can host yourself, or cloud billing by events.
Full verdict on Umami, which sits at number 5 of 18 for web analytics software →
United States · Published
A product-analytics platform where analytics, session replay, flags and more are billed per product. The monthly free tier covers 1M analytics events and needs no card. Pay-as-you-go adds a card, with 7-year event retention. PostHog says self-hosted deployments are officially unsupported, though a Frankfurt cloud exists.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want analytics, replays and feature flags from one vendor with a monthly free allowance.
Our web analytics software guide puts PostHog at 7 of 18; read why →
Not stated by the vendor · Published
An event-analytics product, not a pageview counter. The free plan allows up to 1M events a month with unlimited seats and 10K session replays, while Growth goes to 20M events. Customer content can be hosted in the US or the European Economic Area. Its plans are sized by events, not by pageviews.
Switch from Google Analytics if your questions are about funnels and retention for a product, not about website traffic.
Why Mixpanel is #8 among 18 web analytics software products →
United States · Published
Product analytics with a free tier of 2M events a month and unlimited seats on every plan. Plus asks for a card and lifts the limit up to 70M events, and Growth is quoted. Free excludes custom events and formulas, behavioural cohorts and heatmaps. Its pitch is user behaviour, not acquisition reports.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want to analyse what signed-in users do, with no per-seat cost.
Check Amplitude in the ranked list (9 out of 18, web analytics software) →
United States · Published
Automatic capture of interactions, now part of Contentsquare. The free plan is capped at 10k monthly sessions with 6 months of history, Growth gives 12 months and its price is estimated after you install the snippet, and Pro and Premier are quoted. Session replay is an add-on on paid plans.
Switch from Google Analytics if you want interactions captured without defining each event in advance.
#10 out of 18 web analytics software products: read the Heap review →
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
An enterprise suite whose documentation covers Analysis Workspace, data feeds and Customer Journey Analytics. Raw data feeds can be delivered to a customer-configured Amazon S3, Google Cloud or Azure bucket. We could not read its product or pricing page, so cost and country are unchecked, and it is not a quick migration.
Switch from Google Analytics if you already buy other Adobe products and have analysts to run an implementation.
More on Adobe Analytics: ranked 12 of 18 in web analytics software →
Stay if you buy Google Ads, because the Marketing Platform page lists integrations with Google Ads, Search Ads 360, Display & Video 360 and Search Console, and no smaller vendor replicates those links natively. Stay if the 14-month event window is enough, the BigQuery export (daily and streaming, with a free sandbox) covers your warehouse needs, and nobody has to explain cookie consent. The cost of staying is that you work inside Google's retention, row limits and terms.
The BigQuery export has a daily and a streaming type, and a free sandbox with limits that incur charges when exceeded. Set it up first, since the retention page says deleted event data is gone after 2 or 14 months. Plausible and Matomo both list a Google Analytics import, which carries history across.
Fathom says to run it alongside existing analytics during its 7-day trial, and Simple Analytics offers a 30-day proof of concept next to GA4. Expect totals to differ, because tools count sessions, hits, pageviews or events differently. Agree on the metric before you compare.
If conversions feed Google Ads, moving analytics changes that connection. That follows from the integration list on Google's page, and no vendor page says how a given replacement handles it, so test the audience and conversion flow before you cancel.
Yes for the standard product: the Marketing Platform page says the tools are free of charge. Analytics 360 is a separate paid product sold through sales, and its page shows no price.
Standard properties can keep user-level and event data for 2 or 14 months. Longer settings (26, 38 and 50 months) are marked 360 only, and the 2-month limit always applies to age, gender and interest data.
Yes, to BigQuery, daily and streaming. A free sandbox works until its limits are exceeded, standard properties have a 1 million events a day export limit, and a re-export is not possible.
Plausible, Fathom and Simple Analytics each state they use no cookies or that no banner is needed. Whether that holds for your site depends on your own setup and your lawyer, not on the vendor page.
Matomo On-Premise (GPL v3 licence), Plausible Community Edition (AGPL) and Umami (MIT) can be self-hosted. PostHog states self-hosted deployments are officially unsupported.
Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Heap measure events and user behaviour. Each has a free tier (Heap up to 10k sessions), and each sizes its plans by events or sessions.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Author and fact-checker: Sebastiaan Smits. This page was last reviewed on 7 November 2026; our review process is public.
