Plausible vs Matomo
Plausible is a hosted one-page report from a small Estonian company, with a self-run edition that leaves out several features. Matomo ships its code under the GPL v3 and can be rented in Frankfurt or installed on your own server, but funnels and heatmaps cost extra there. The choice is between a simple product with tiers and a flexible one with bundles.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderVendors 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.
Choose Plausible ifyou want a light traffic dashboard with no consent banner, one vendor in Estonia, and tiers that follow monthly pageviews.
Choose Matomo ifyou need to choose where the data sits, want heatmaps and session recordings in the same tool, and can manage bundles or a server.
Plausible and Matomo side by side
| Plausible | Matomo | |
|---|---|---|
| Our web analytics software rank | #1 of 18 | #2 of 18 |
| Established in | Estonia | New Zealand |
| List price, 4 November 2026 | 30-day trial without a card; Starter, Growth, Business and Enterprise (on request), scaled by monthly pageviews; Community Edition free self-hosted | Cloud tiers by monthly hits with a free trial; On-Premise Community free, Team, Business, Enterprise and VIP bundles by users and hits |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Built for | Marketing teams and small sites wanting a one-page traffic report without a consent banner | Teams that want full data ownership and a choice between hosting and renting |
| Not for | Teams needing session replay, heatmaps or per-user product analysis | Buyers who want one flat price without plugin bundles |
Both are reviewed in full in our web analytics software ranking: Plausible and Matomo.
Where they differ
Plausible 2 · Matomo 3 · open 0- 01
Hosting choices
Matomo offers Cloud with data stored in Frankfurt, or On-Premise where you pick the server location yourself. Plausible says it is made and hosted in the EU on European-owned infrastructure, and its free self-run Community Edition is AGPL-licensed. Matomo gives the wider choice of where data lives.
Edge: Matomo
- 02
What is behind the paywall
On Plausible, funnels, user journeys, the Stats API and ecommerce revenue attribution start on Business. On Matomo On-Premise, funnels, heatmaps, session recording and form analytics arrive with the Team bundle. Plausible has no heatmaps in what we read; Matomo does, at a price.
Edge: Matomo
- 03
Free self-hosted edition
Matomo's Community edition is free forever with unlimited users and hits, but gets forum support only. Plausible's Community Edition is free too, lacks funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO and the sites API, and is published twice a year. Matomo's free core is the less trimmed one.
Edge: Matomo
- 04
Effort to start
Plausible's route is one script tag, a one-page dashboard, a Google Analytics import on Starter and a 30-day trial without a card. Matomo Cloud also has a trial without a card, yet On-Premise means running PHP and MySQL yourself and choosing a bundle. Plausible asks less of a small team.
Edge: Plausible
- 05
Vendor profile
Plausible Insights OÜ of Tartu describes itself as bootstrapped and profitable with a team of 10 and no outside investors. Matomo's site is run by InnoCraft Limited, registered in New Zealand. For a buyer who wants a European company on the contract, Plausible fits.
Edge: Plausible
When neither fits
If you need per-user product analysis or a cheaper flat-rate script, look at Fathom Analytics or Umami instead.
Plausible or Matomo: questions
3 answersCan I run both for free on my own server?
Yes. Plausible Community Edition is AGPL-licensed and Matomo's On-Premise Community edition is free, though Plausible's version omits funnels and the sites API.
Does Matomo include heatmaps?
On-Premise, heatmaps and session recording come with the Team bundle and above, which is capped at 4 users and 5M hits a month.
Where is Matomo Cloud data stored?
In Frankfurt, Germany, according to the Matomo pricing page.
Sources
Checked 4 November 2026- Plausible homepage: tiers by pageviews, trial, EU hosting, team of 10, Starter Google Analytics import.
- Plausible self-hosting page: AGPL Community Edition, omitted features, twice-yearly release.
- Plausible imprint: Plausible Insights OÜ, Tartu, Estonia.
- Matomo pricing page: Frankfurt Cloud, hit tiers, On-Premise bundles, Team bundle features and limits, trial.
- Matomo terms: InnoCraft Limited, New Zealand.
- Matomo GitHub repository: GPL v3 licence, PHP and MySQL on your own server.