Chartbeat vs Matomo (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Chartbeat if

• Fits if you run a news site and want to see live what readers are reading
• Works for editors who test headlines and images

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want product analytics, as it's aimed at publishers
• Skip it if you need a price: sales quotes it
• Tight if you want to try first, since there's no free plan or trial
• Watch out: single sign-on is Enterprise only, the highest of four tiers

Pick Matomo if

• Fits if your analytics data has to stay on your own servers
• Works for public bodies, EU sites and teams leaving Google Analytics

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you don't want to run a server and can't pay for the cloud
• Pricey if you self-host and want heatmaps, with the Team bundle at €230 a month billed yearly for 4 users
• Tight if you have more than 30 sites or 30 people on Cloud Business, or need over 24 months of raw data
• Watch out: self-hosted bundles are priced in euros only, and the free edition gets forum support only
• Watch out: the cloud trial's length isn't stated, and the cloud rises to $204 a month at 1M hits

Chartbeat

• No prices are published; plans are quoted by sales and based on website and native app pageviews.
• Plans come in four tiers (Essentials, Plus, Premium, Enterprise); Plus and above add a choice of performance suites.
• Single sign-on is listed only on the Enterprise tier.
• It is aimed at publishers and content teams rather than general product analytics.

Matomo

• Self-hosted premium bundles are priced in euros only; Cloud shows dollar prices to US visitors.
• On your own server, heatmaps, session recordings, funnels and A/B testing are paid plugins or bundles, not part of the free edition.
• Cloud Business caps you at 30 websites, 30 team members and 24 months of raw data; more needs Cloud Enterprise.
• Self-hosting means you run the server, updates and backups yourself, with forum support only on the free edition.

Chartbeat

Real-time dashboard

Concurrent pageviews, unique visitors and recirculation for every page, plus a Heads Up Display with scroll depth and placement ranking.

Historical reporting

13 months of trends in engaged time, traffic and topics, with reports that can be scheduled and exported as CSV.

Headline and image testing

Tests variants on a homepage with reader data, including AI-suggested headline variants. Part of the Testing suite.

Benchmarking

Compares your site with other publishers in Chartbeat's network using Cohorts, plus social video benchmarks via Tubular Viewpoint.

Reader Experience suite

Content recommendations for readers and conversion data that ties articles to registrations, subscriptions and donations.

Analytics Pro

Datastream integration for pushing real-time data into your own systems, and Data Lab for custom dashboards inside the app.

Matomo

Full web analytics without sampling

Traffic, campaigns, ecommerce, events, site search, visitor maps and visitor profiles, with report data kept forever and no data sampling.

Data ownership and privacy

Data stays on your own servers or in Matomo Cloud in Frankfurt, with a GDPR manager and privacy options for what is collected.

Heatmaps and session recordings

Included in Cloud Business and, for self-hosters, in the Team bundle and above; also sold as a separate plugin.

A/B testing, funnels and forms

A/B tests, conversion funnels, user flows and form analytics come with Cloud Business; on your own server they are premium plugins or bundles.

Google Analytics importer and APIs

Imports historical Google Analytics data, and offers HTTP Analytics and Tracking APIs plus log file analytics.

Tag manager

A built-in tag manager (30 containers on Cloud Business) to add and manage tracking codes without editing the site.

Chartbeat

Pricing could not be confirmed. See chartbeat.com.

Matomo

• Community (On-Premise)$0

  Free self-hosted edition you run yourself: unlimited users and hits, base features and community plugins, forum support.

• Cloud Business$26

  per month for up to 50,000 hits, billed monthly

  Hosted in Germany: 30 sites, 30 users, 24 months of raw data, heatmaps, recordings, A/B tests, funnels. $42 a month at 100,000 hits, $204 at 1M.

• Team (On-Premise)€230

  per month, billed annually (€275 billed monthly)

  Self-hosted plugin bundle for up to 4 users and 5M hits a month: heatmaps and recordings, funnels, custom reports, email support.

• Business (On-Premise)€1,209

  per month, billed annually (€1,450 billed monthly)

  Up to 20 users and 30M hits a month. Adds cohorts, multi-channel attribution, roll-up reporting, activity log and white label.

• Enterprise (On-Premise)€2,834

  per month, billed annually (€3,400 billed monthly)

  Up to 50 users and 100M hits a month, A/B testing, a customer success manager, onboarding and chat support.

• Cloud EnterpriseCustom

  Sold through sales for larger sites: custom allowances and raw data retention, email support and a customer success manager.

Chartbeat

No public discounts listed.

Matomo

• Annual discount

  2 months free with annual billing

  Matomo Cloud billed annually costs 10 times the monthly price, a 17% saving; the self-hosted bundles are also about 17% cheaper billed annually.

• Nonprofit

  Discount for eligible nonprofits

  Matomo says eligible nonprofit organizations and charities may receive a discount; they contact the team to learn more.