Parse.ly vs Plausible (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Plausible grades higher than Parse.ly: 2.4 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Plausible grades higher on the free plan, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Plausible
Cookie-free, privacy-first website analytics made and hosted in the EU
Which one is for you
Pick Parse.ly if
- Fits if you run a news or content site and care which articles earn attention
- Works for a publisher on WordPress that wants article-level numbers
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a price on the page, as there isn't one
- Not for you if you need a free plan or trial, as none is listed
- Skip it if you want app or product analytics, since it's built for content publishing
- Watch out: the three tiers cap you at 1, 2 or 3 sites tracked
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
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAParse.lyWeak | 2.4GPAPlausibleFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThree tiers are named but no price is shown, so what it costs isn't public. | C100,000 pageviews puts Starter at $19 a month billed monthly; the $7.50 yearly price only covers 10k. That lands mid-category, and it climbs to $69 at 1M. The free Community Edition only counts if you run your own server. |
| Free plan and trial | FNo free plan or free trial is listed on the pricing page. | CThere's no free hosted plan, just a 30-day trial with no card. The free Community Edition is yours to keep, but you host it yourself, and it leaves out funnels, ecommerce revenue and SSO. |
| Features | CContent dashboard, conversion and attribution reports, a content API, a data pipeline and AI insights. It does the publishing job fully but isn't a general product-analytics tool. | CVisitors, sources, pages, goals, campaigns, Search Console queries and visits from AI tools, all on one page. It does the page counting job fully, and it's a smaller job: no recordings or per-visitor profiles, and funnels wait for Business. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. It's a dashboard and API to learn, not something you start with in five minutes. | BNo rating on record, but the hosted version is a small script and one dashboard page, with nothing else to configure. The free Community Edition is a different story: your own server and your own updates. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with a WordPress connection listed and an API. | BWeb only, no desktop or phone app. It works with Google Search Console, WordPress, Tag Manager, Google Data Studio and Slack, imports old Google Analytics data, and has an API. |
| Best for | analytics for publishers | simple visitor counts without a cookie banner |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Parse.ly and Plausible. How we grade
Where they differ
- Plausible is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Parse.ly also covers reports and dashboards.
At a glance
| Parse.ly | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Paid | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | $7.50 per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($9 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Plausible Community Edition: the free, AGPL-licensed release you host yourself. It leaves out funnels, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO and the sites API, and has community support only. |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day free trial of the cloud plans, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | WPVIP Inc. | Plausible Analytics |
| Price read from | Not confirmed | plausible.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Parse.ly
- The pricing page names three tiers (Content Performance, Content Value, Content Advocacy) but shows no prices, so costs are not public.
- The tiers are limited by sites tracked: 1, 2 and 3 sites respectively.
- Aimed at content publishing; it is not a general product-analytics tool for apps.
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.
Key features
Parse.ly
- Content analytics dashboard
- Real-time and historical reports on article performance, with more than 30 audience-centric metrics and 13 months of history on the entry tier.
- Conversion and attribution reporting
- Connects what people read to conversions. Conversions reporting, attribution analytics and audience segmentation start on the second tier.
- Content API
- An API for serving recommended content on your own sites, with customizable models and a WordPress block for placing it.
- Data pipeline
- Streams raw, event-level data from websites and apps into a data warehouse for analysts.
- AI insights
- Answers questions in plain English, tests headlines while content is live, and can be reached from AI assistants through a Parse.ly MCP connection.
- Video and geographic segmentation
- Video tracking and reports by region are listed on the third tier, alongside single sign-on.
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.
Plans
Parse.ly
Pricing could not be confirmed. See parse.ly.
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.
Ways to pay less
Parse.ly
No public discounts listed.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Parse.ly or Plausible?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Parse.ly has no price we could confirm, and Plausible starts at $7.50 per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($9 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Parse.ly or Plausible?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Plausible has a free plan. Parse.ly does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.