Matomo vs Piano Analytics (2026): which should you pick?

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

Pick Piano Analytics if

• Fits if you are a publisher or large brand that wants unsampled data
• Works for teams that want data from marketing, product and content in one model

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a price before talking to sales, as none is published
• Not for you if you want to try it first, as there is no trial
• Watch out: the compliance and speed figures, such as 95% of queries under 2 seconds, are the vendor's own claims
• Watch out: it is sold alongside Piano's other products, so scope may be larger than you want

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.

Piano Analytics

• Pricing is not published; the site points to a demo request.
• It is sold alongside Piano's other products, and the pages read describe an enterprise buyer.
• No free plan or self-serve trial is mentioned on the pages read.
• Compliance and speed figures (such as 95% of queries under 2 seconds) are the vendor's own claims.

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.

Piano Analytics

Unsampled event collection

Captures customizable events with bot filtering and tag verification; Piano says it processes over four trillion events a year without sampling.

Data Query

A query builder for exploring the data, whose reports can be saved and reused.

Workspaces dashboards

Off-the-shelf or custom reports can be placed on drag-and-drop dashboards.

Unified data model

Combines data from marketing, product, content, point-of-sale and other functions, available inside or outside the platform in real time.

Privacy and compliance

Piano states that the product is GDPR- and HIPAA-compliant, as certified by third-party auditors.

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.

Piano Analytics

Pricing could not be confirmed. See piano.io.

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.

Piano Analytics

No public discounts listed.