Google Analytics vs Plausible Analytics
Google Analytics and Plausible Analytics are both analytics tools. Google Analytics is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Plausible Analytics is aimed at small businesses and freelancers. Both have a free plan.
Google's free web and app analytics
Privacy-friendly, lightweight web analytics
| Pricing | Free | Paid · $9 |
| Starting price | Not published | $9/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Enterprise, Agencies | Small businesses, Freelancers, Developers |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2005 | EE · 2019 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Google Analytics if
Businesses running paid acquisition on Google or needing warehouse-level event data for free.
- Free with enormous capability
- Unmatched integration with Google Ads and Search Console
- BigQuery export enables custom analysis
Look elsewhere if: Small content or SaaS sites wanting simple, compliant traffic numbers.
Choose Plausible Analytics if
Content sites, agencies and SaaS marketing teams that want clear traffic numbers and compliance by default.
- Dramatically simpler than GA4 and faster to read
- Privacy compliance without banners; EU-hosted
- Open source with a real self-host option
Look elsewhere if: Product teams that need event-level user journeys, session replay or retention cohorts; look at PostHog or Mixpanel for that.
Google Analytics vs Plausible Analytics pricing
Google Analytics
- Google Analytics 4$0Standard property with data limits
- Google Analytics 360CustomEnterprise tier sold via Google sales; no public price
Plausible Analytics
- Starter$9/mo10k pageviews, 1 site; 2 months free if billed yearly
- Growth$14/mo10k pageviews, 3 sites, 3 team members
- Business$19/mo10k pageviews, 10 sites, 10 team members
- EnterpriseCustom10+ sites, 10+ team members
- Community Edition$0Self-hosted, AGPLv3 (plausible.io/self-hosted-web-analytics)
Google Analytics · Key features
- Event-based model across web and apps
- Explorations: funnels, paths, segment overlap, cohorts
- Google Ads integration and data-driven attribution
- Free BigQuery export of raw events
- Predictive audiences and anomaly detection
- Consent Mode and server-side tagging via Tag Manager
Cons
- Complex interface and steep learning curve
- Sampling and thresholds obscure data
- Consent requirements shrink EU data
Plausible Analytics · Key features
- Sub-1 KB script with no cookies; no consent banner needed in most jurisdictions
- Single-page dashboard with realtime, sources, pages, locations and devices
- Goals, custom events, funnels and ecommerce revenue tracking
- Google Search Console import for search queries
- Public or shared-link dashboards and scheduled email/Slack reports
- Stats API, Events API and open-source Community Edition for self-hosting
Cons
- Pricing scales with pageviews; high-traffic sites pay more than GA4's free
- No session replay, heatmaps or user-level funnels
- Limited segmentation compared with product analytics tools
Google Analytics vs Plausible Analytics: FAQ
Do Google Analytics and Plausible Analytics have a free plan?
Yes, both Google Analytics and Plausible Analytics have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.