OpenPanel vs Plausible (2026): which should you pick?

Pick OpenPanel if

• Fits if you want web and product analytics in one tool
• Works for developers who'd self-host or pay by events

Look elsewhere if

• Tight if you want free Cloud, since there's only a 30-day trial
• Watch out: past your plan's limit, new events stop showing until the next period
• Watch out: self-hosted releases come a little after Cloud
• Watch out: yearly billing is ten months for twelve, and prices exclude VAT
• Not for you if you want an open-source free Cloud, which asks for a link back

Pick Plausible if

• Fits if you want traffic numbers without putting a cookie banner on your site
• Works for EU organizations leaving Google Analytics that want data kept in the EU

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to watch visits or follow one visitor's path
• Tight if you're on Starter, which covers one site
• Pricey if you need funnels or ecommerce revenue, which start on Business at $15.83 a month for 10k pageviews
• Watch out: there's no free hosted plan, and the free Community Edition is self-hosted, updated twice a year, with no funnels or SSO
• Pricey if traffic grows: Starter is $19 a month at 100k pageviews and $69 at 1M, and SSO is Enterprise only

OpenPanel

• Going past the plan limit does not bill extra: new events stop showing until the next period.
• Cloud has no permanent free plan; free use means self-hosting or the open-source program, which asks for a link back.
• Self-hosted releases arrive a little after Cloud.
• Yearly billing costs ten months instead of twelve; prices are shown excluding VAT.

Plausible

• There is no free hosted plan, only a 30-day trial; the free option is the Community Edition you run yourself.
• Stats are aggregate only: there are no session recordings or per-visitor profiles.
• Funnels, ecommerce revenue attribution, custom properties and the Stats API start on Business; SSO is Enterprise only.
• Prices rise with monthly pageviews, and sites above 10M pageviews a month need a custom Enterprise quote.

OpenPanel

Web and product analytics together

Visitors, referrers and pages without cookies, alongside funnels, retention, cohorts and user profiles in the same dashboard.

Session replay

Session replay and session tracking are listed as features in the product, with no separate add-on price on the pricing page.

Revenue tracking

Revenue figures can be shown next to traffic and events in the same views.

AI observability

Tracks cost, tokens and latency for AI model calls, and lets you pull numbers from your own AI assistant or agent.

Cloud or self-hosted

The cloud is hosted in the EU. The same code runs on your own infrastructure under the AGPL license.

SDKs for web and mobile

Install through a script tag or an SDK. The docs list SDKs including React, Next.js, Vue, React Native, Swift and Kotlin.

Plausible

No cookies or personal data

Counts visits without cookies, persistent identifiers or cross-site tracking, so the vendor says no cookie banner or GDPR consent is needed.

One-page dashboard

Visitors, sources, pages, locations and devices on a single page, with a real-time view that updates every 30 seconds and a consolidated view of all sites.

Goals, revenue and funnels

Codeless goals for pages, file downloads, form completions and outbound links; revenue tracking, funnels and user journeys come with Business.

Search and campaign data

Connects to Google Search Console for search queries, groups UTM campaigns into channels, and shows traffic arriving from AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Lightweight script

The tracking script is much smaller than Google Analytics', with automatic scroll depth tracking and built-in bot and referrer spam filtering.

Google Analytics import

Brings in historical Google Analytics stats so older data sits beside new Plausible numbers.

OpenPanel

• Self-hosted$0

  The same open-source code on your own servers with Docker Compose, with no event limits. You host it yourself.

• Cloud 5K$2.50

  per month for up to 5K events, billed monthly ($25 per year)

  Smallest Cloud step. Every feature is included; websites, team members and dashboards are unlimited.

• Cloud 100K$20

  per month for up to 100K events, billed monthly ($200 per year)

  Same features as every Cloud plan; only the monthly event allowance changes.

• Cloud 1M$90

  per month for up to 1M events, billed monthly ($900 per year)

  Price rises with events; the page also lists 10M at $350 a month and 50M at $900 a month.

• CustomCustom

  For more than 50M events a month, by request.

Plausible

• Starter$7.50

  per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($9 billed monthly)

  One site, 3 years of data, email and Slack reports, goals and custom events. Rises with traffic: $19 a month at 100k pageviews and $69 at 1M, billed monthly.

• Growth$11.67

  per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($14 billed monthly)

  Up to 3 sites and 3 team members, shared links, embedded dashboards and shared segments. $104 a month at 1M pageviews, billed monthly.

• Business$15.83

  per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($19 billed monthly)

  Up to 10 sites and members, 5 years of data, funnels, ecommerce revenue, custom properties, Stats API. $139 a month at 1M pageviews, monthly.

• EnterpriseCustom

  More than 10 sites or 10M pageviews: SSO, sites API, managed proxy, scheduled raw data exports and priority support.

• Community Edition$0

  Free AGPL release you host yourself, updated twice a year. No funnels, ecommerce revenue, SSO or sites API; community support only.

OpenPanel

• Annual discount

  Two months free on yearly billing

  Paying yearly costs ten months instead of twelve, for example $200 a year instead of $20 a month at 100K events.

• Other savings

  Free Cloud for open-source projects

  Open-source projects can get Cloud free up to 2.5M events in exchange for a link back to OpenPanel.

Plausible

• Annual discount

  2 months free with yearly billing

  Yearly billing costs 10 times the monthly price: Starter is $90 a year instead of $108, or $7.50 a month instead of $9.