Plausible vs Simple Analytics (2026): which should you pick?

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

Pick Simple Analytics if

• Fits if you want a single page of traffic numbers with no cookie banner
• Works for someone leaving GA4 who wants to run both side by side

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want to follow individual visitors, as it records pageviews with no visitor IDs
• Tight if you stay free: 1 month of history and a badge shown on your site
• Pricey if you add team members, at $20 a month each
• Watch out: bills from $500 paid by bank transfer carry an extra 10% in fees

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.

Simple Analytics

• The free plan keeps only the latest month of data and requires a Simple Analytics badge on the site.
• The price follows pageviews, and the paid plan includes one user; extra users are $20 a month each.
• Bills from $500 can be paid by bank transfer, with an extra 10% in banking and service fees.
• It records pageviews and events without visitor IDs, so it does not follow individual users across visits.

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.

Simple Analytics

No cookies, no personal data

The service says it sets no cookies, collects no personal data and creates no visitor IDs, so it does not need a consent banner.

One-page dashboard

Traffic is shown on a single dashboard that needs no configuration, with a public live dashboard available to view as an example.

Run beside GA4

Can run next to Google Analytics 4 to record pageviews and events from visitors who reject consent, so the two datasets can be compared.

API and BI access

A full API and exports let teams pull the data into their existing reporting tools. An MCP server and an AI assistant are also listed.

Google Analytics import

Historical Google Analytics data can be imported so reporting does not restart from zero after a switch.

EU hosting

Data is stored in the EU, with primary infrastructure in the Netherlands, and leaves it only when a customer opts into a feature such as the AI assistant.

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.

Simple Analytics

• Free$0

  For hobby sites: 1 user, 5 websites, the latest month of data and a required Simple Analytics badge.

• Self-serve$20

  per month for up to 100k pageviews

  Price follows pageviews, up to 2.5M on the slider. Includes 1 user; each extra user is $20 a month. Annual billing shows 2 months free.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Quoted for your traffic, sites, data access and support needs; tied to a 30-day proof of concept run alongside GA4.

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.

Simple Analytics

• Annual discount

  2 months free on annual billing

  The pricing page shows an annual payment option labelled 2 months free; the yearly total depends on the pageview limit you pick.