Matomo alternatives: 11 web analytics tools compared

Teams reconsider Matomo when the free download turns into a server to patch, or when the Cloud price depends on a hits tier that is not shown beside each plan. The eleven alternatives below range from single-purpose counters to hosted suites, with German, Dutch, Estonian and Irish options near the top.

Short answer: Where a category has smaller vendors worth recommending, they occupy the first three places and the big brands come below them. For Matomo users, the top three picks from our web analytics software ranking are Pirsch, Simple Analytics and GoatCounter. Pick Pirsch if you want a German host and a cookie-free script instead of a PHP application. Every one of the 11 products below comes from Best Web Analytics Software in 2026, with a note on how it departs from Matomo.

Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.

Matomo

#2 of 15 in our web analytics software ranking

  • Pricing: Cloud tiers by monthly hits, published; On-Premise core is free, bundles paid
  • Established in: New Zealand
  • Built for: Teams that want full data ownership and a choice between hosting and renting
  • Not for: Buyers who want one flat price without plugin bundles
01

Why buyers look past Matomo

  1. 01

    Free software, but the bill sits in support and hosting

    Matomo's pricing page lists On-Premise Community as free with unlimited users and hits and forum support only. Email support starts with Team at 275 euro for up to 4 users and 5M hits a month, Business is 1 450 euro for 20 users, and Enterprise 3 400 euro for 50 users. The page does not say what period those euro amounts cover, so ask before budgeting.

  2. 02

    Self-hosting leaves patching to you

    Matomo's own FAQ tells On-Premise and self-hosted users to review the recommended PHP security updates. That is a fair division of labour for a team with a sysadmin, and a chore for one without. Where the data lives is also your decision: Matomo says On-Premise data can sit in any country you choose.

  3. 03

    Cloud pricing is steered by a hits ladder

    Matomo Cloud is sold in tiers of 50,000, 100,000, 300,000, 600,000, 1 million, 2 million and 5 million hits a month, and above 10 million you contact sales. The pricing page we read showed a single starting figure of 29 and no price per tier, so the cost of your own traffic only appears once you pick a tier in the calculator.

02

11 alternatives at a glance

In our order, challengers before brands
AlternativeHeadquartersFree optionPricing model Switch ifOur rank
PirschGermanyNo free tierPublishedyou want a German host and a cookie-free script instead of a PHP application#13
Simple AnalyticsNetherlandsYesPublishedyou want Dutch storage and a free tier for small sites#4
GoatCounterIrelandYesPublishedyour sites are small and you only need visit counts#14
PlausibleEstoniaNo free tierPublishedyou want a small Estonian vendor and a trial without a card#1
Fathom AnalyticsCanadaNo free tierPublishedyou run many sites and want one feature set at every tier#3
UmamiUnited StatesYesPublishedyou want permissively licensed code you can self-host or rent#5
Piwik PROPolandNo free tierPublishedyou want consent management and tags from the same EU vendor#6
PostHogUnited StatesYesPublishedproduct teams want replays and flags next to page statistics#7
Google AnalyticsUnited StatesYesPublishedyour marketing runs on Google Ads and you accept Google's terms#11
MixpanelNot stated by the vendorYesPublishedyou want event funnels and cohorts more than page reports#8
AmplitudeUnited StatesYesPublishedyou analyse product behaviour and can work through a sales quote#9
03

What each one does differently

Pirsch

Germany · Published

Servers in Germany host Pirsch, the product of Emvi Software GmbH, and the script sets no cookies. Pricing has two published steps tied to page views, retention is unlimited, and A/B tests, funnels and team seats are reserved for the upper step. Self-installation is a conversation with sales.

Switch from Matomo if you want a German host and a cookie-free script instead of a PHP application.

Pirsch holds rank 13 among 15 entries in our web analytics software guide →

Simple Analytics

Netherlands · Published

Amsterdam is home to this three-person, self-funded team, who say visitor data never leaves the Netherlands. A hobby tier is free for a single user and five sites, though history lasts a month and a badge shows. Paying customers are billed on pageviews plus a monthly fee for each extra user.

Switch from Matomo if you want Dutch storage and a free tier for small sites.

Where Simple Analytics stands: place 4 of 15 in the web analytics software ranking →

GoatCounter

Ireland · Published

One developer in Ireland, Martin Tournoij, runs GoatCounter, which tallies pageviews, referrers and campaigns with no unique visitor identifiers. Donations fund the hosted service, which stays free for reasonable public use, and anyone can host the software under a modified EUPL 1.2. Funnels are not offered, and nobody sells support.

Switch from Matomo if your sites are small and you only need visit counts.

Check GoatCounter in the ranked list (14 out of 15, web analytics software) →

Plausible

Estonia · Published

Based in Tartu, Plausible Insights OÜ calls itself bootstrapped and profitable, with ten people. Prices step up by monthly pageviews, and a 30-day trial asks for no card. Business is where funnels and revenue attribution begin; Starter is limited to one site, and the Community Edition you host omits funnels and user journeys.

Switch from Matomo if you want a small Estonian vendor and a trial without a card.

Read our review of Plausible (position 1 of 15 on the web analytics software list) →

Fathom Analytics

Canada · Published

Independence is the pitch from Conva Ventures Inc. of Canada: no venture backers, and each plan carries identical features across at least 50 sites. Pageviews set the price, with custom events counted in. A seven-day trial requires a card, and EU traffic is routed to European servers before anonymised figures land in the US.

Switch from Matomo if you run many sites and want one feature set at every tier.

See the full Fathom Analytics entry, ranked 3 of 15 among web analytics software products →

Umami

United States · Published

Umami Software, Inc., a Delaware firm, releases its code under the MIT licence, giving you a choice of self-hosting or Umami Cloud. Its free hobby tier covers one site with 100K events and six months of history. Business costs ten times Pro and holds session replays, heatmaps and white-labelling, which Pro (20 sites, ten members) lacks.

Switch from Matomo if you want permissively licensed code you can self-host or rent.

Open the Umami profile, 5th of 15 in the web analytics software guide →

Piwik PRO

Poland · Published

From Wroclaw, Piwik PRO SA sells a single suite: analytics, a tag manager, data activation and consent handling. Business is listed monthly for up to 2 million actions across 20 domains, and a 30-day trial is card-free. Because actions include tag loads, consent loads and API calls, busy sites can jump a tier; the list price also climbs 4% yearly.

Switch from Matomo if you want consent management and tags from the same EU vendor.

Piwik PRO review, listed at 6 of 15 web analytics software products →

PostHog

United States · Published

US-headquartered PostHog sells web analytics as one product among replay, flags and others, every one with its own free monthly allowance. Nothing is billed beyond that allowance until you attach a card. On the free plan you get one project and a year of history; the vendor's docs describe self-managed deployments as unsupported.

Switch from Matomo if product teams want replays and flags next to page statistics.

Why PostHog is #7 among 15 web analytics software products →

Google Analytics

United States · Published

No licence fee applies to the standard edition, which runs under Google LLC terms. Individual-level data is kept for 2 or 14 months, standard properties export at most 1M events a day to BigQuery, and larger needs point to the paid 360 tier. Its strength is the link to Google's ad and search tools.

Switch from Matomo if your marketing runs on Google Ads and you accept Google's terms.

Our web analytics software guide puts Google Analytics at 11 of 15; read why →

Mixpanel

Not stated by the vendor · Published

Events, not seats, drive Mixpanel's cost, so all plans include unlimited users and the free one covers 1M events a month. On Growth a slider prices volume up to 20M events and beyond that you need a quote. An EU project region can be chosen, but only when the project is first created.

Switch from Matomo if you want event funnels and cohorts more than page reports.

Where Mixpanel stands: place 8 of 15 in the web analytics software ranking →

Amplitude

United States · Published

San Francisco-based Amplitude counts events and includes unlimited seats, with 2M events a month free. Cohorts, heatmaps and two years of retention arrive on Plus, which asks for a card. Experimentation and complete forecasting belong to Growth, a plan whose price comes only from a sales conversation.

Switch from Matomo if you analyse product behaviour and can work through a sales quote.

Open the Amplitude profile, 9th of 15 in the web analytics software guide →

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Which alternative for which situation

  1. 01

    You want a European host and no server to patch

    Pirsch: Germany-hosted and cookie-free, with plans that step up by page views.

  2. 02

    You only need visit counts for small sites

    GoatCounter: Free to use for reasonable public sites, supported by donations; self-hosting is possible too.

  3. 03

    You want to keep running your own copy of the code

    Umami: MIT-licensed, so a self-run copy is allowed; Umami Cloud's hobby tier offers one website.

  4. 04

    You need consent management in the same suite

    Piwik PRO: Consent manager, tag manager and analytics arrive from one Polish vendor, trial without a card.

  5. 05

    You want replays and feature flags alongside web analytics

    PostHog: Separate free allowances per product, and billing starts only once a card is on file.

04

When Matomo is still the right choice

Matomo remains a sound choice when you want the data on infrastructure you control, with the code downloadable and unlimited users and hits on the free On-Premise edition. Cloud hosting in Frankfurt suits teams that want the same interface without running PHP. Matomo also describes a CNIL-approved setup for measuring without a consent screen, provided you configure anonymisation as its guide says. If you already patch servers routinely, the free edition is hard to beat.

05

What moving off Matomo involves

  1. 01

    Historical reports stay behind unless you export them

    Another tool starts counting from its first day, so a year-on-year comparison needs the old numbers elsewhere. Export the reports you reuse, or keep a read-only Matomo instance for a period before shutting it down.

  2. 02

    Goals, segments and custom dimensions are rebuilt by hand

    Matomo goals, segments and custom dimensions do not map directly onto another vendor's events. List those you actually read each month, then recreate only those. Run both scripts side by side for a few weeks to compare totals before you remove the old tag.

  3. 03

    The tracking code and consent notice change together

    If your cookie notice was written for Matomo's setup, review it when the script changes, since cookie use, anonymisation settings and hosting location may all differ in the new tool.

06

Questions about replacing Matomo

6 answers
Is Matomo really free?

The On-Premise Community edition is free with unlimited users and hits and forum support. Team, Business, Enterprise and VIP are paid support and feature bundles. Cloud hosting is paid and starts at a listed 29, with tiers by monthly hits.

Where does Matomo Cloud keep data?

Matomo's pricing page says Frankfurt, Germany, and its GDPR page says Cloud data is stored in the EU with no transfer to the US. On-Premise data lives wherever you install it.

Which alternatives can I run on my own server?

Umami (MIT licence), GoatCounter (modified EUPL 1.2), the Plausible Community Edition and Pirsch on an Enterprise quote can be self-run. PostHog's docs call self-managed deployments unsupported.

Which options are free for small sites?

Simple Analytics has a free plan for one user and five websites, Umami a hobby plan with 100K events, GoatCounter hosting for reasonable public use, Mixpanel 1M events, and Amplitude 2M events a month.

Do these tools remove the need for a cookie banner?

Not by themselves. Pirsch and GoatCounter describe cookie-free or identifier-free counting, and Matomo describes a CNIL-approved configuration. The legal decision stays with you and your adviser, so read each vendor's terms.

Which alternatives suit product analytics instead of page statistics?

Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog and Heap measure what users do inside a product. Heap says it is now part of Contentsquare. They take more setup than a page counter.

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Sources

Checked 3 November 2026
  • Matomo pricing: Cloud hit tiers, Frankfurt hosting, On-Premise Community, Team, Business, Enterprise and VIP prices.
  • Matomo FAQ: PHP security update notice for self-hosters.
  • Matomo GDPR page: CNIL approval, EU storage on Cloud, data location on On-Premise.
  • Pirsch: Hosting country, cookie use, plan structure, Enterprise install.
  • Simple Analytics: Dutch storage claim, free tier limits, billing basis.
  • GoatCounter: Donation funding, licence, scope of counting.
  • Plausible: Tiers, trial length, Community Edition gaps.
  • Fathom Analytics: Plan parity, trial terms, server regions.
  • Umami: Licence, hobby tier, Pro versus Business.
  • Piwik PRO: Suite parts, Business allowance, action counting, price rise.
  • PostHog: Per-product allowances, free plan scope, docs on self-managed.
  • Google Analytics: Retention settings, export cap, 360.
  • Mixpanel: Free event volume, slider, EU region.
  • Amplitude: Free volume, Plus and Growth features.
  • Heap: Ownership statement.
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Who wrote this

Last reviewed 3 November 2026

Sebastiaan Smits

Founder · Amsterdam, Netherlands

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 3 November 2026; our review process is public.

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