Plausible vs W3Counter (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Plausible grades higher than W3Counter: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Plausible grades higher on ease of use and platforms. W3Counter grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan 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
W3Counter
Website analytics with live visitor tracking and hit counters
Which one is for you
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 W3Counter if
- Fits if you run one small site and want a live visitor view
- Works for people who still want a hit counter on the page
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you track several sites, as the free plan covers 1
- Tight if you need history, as free keeps 30 days and Plus 6 months
- Watch out: email reports and conversion tracking need Plus or Pro
- Not for you if your site gets 1 million page views a month or more
- Skip it if you want mobile or desktop apps, as it is web only
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAPlausibleFair | 2.2GPAW3CounterFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | 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. | BPlus is $149 a year for 3 sites, about $12 a month, just inside the cheaper quarter of analytics tools. |
| Free plan and trial | 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. | CA free plan for 1 website, but only 30 days of visitor history. |
| Features | 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. | CLive activity, a live map, traffic reports and hit counters cover the basics, with no replay or heatmaps. |
| Ease of use | 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. | CA tracking snippet to add to each site, and no store rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | 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. | CWeb dashboard only, with no apps or integrations listed. |
| Best for | simple visitor counts without a cookie banner | live visitor stats and hit counters for a small site |
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: Plausible and W3Counter. How we grade
Price against what you get
Plausible starts at $7.50 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. W3Counter starts at $12.42 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.0.
Plausible scores higher and starts $4.92 a month lower. Of the other website and product analytics tools on the chart, none scores higher than Plausible for less, and 17 score higher than W3Counter for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Plausible is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- W3Counter also covers reports.
At a glance
| Plausible | W3Counter | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $7.50 per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($9 billed monthly) | $149 per year for 3 websites, billed annually ($19 per month billed monthly) |
| Free plan | 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. | 1 website, 30 days of visitor history, the analytics dashboard, Live Activity and Live Map. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of the cloud plans, no credit card required | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Plausible Analytics | Awio Web Services LLC |
| Price read from | plausible.io | w3counter.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
W3Counter
- Only available for websites receiving fewer than 1 million page views per month.
- The Free plan covers 1 website and keeps 30 days of visitor history; Plus keeps 6 months and Pro 12 months.
- Email reports and conversion tracking need Plus or Pro.
- Web dashboard only, with no mobile or desktop apps listed.
Key features
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.
W3Counter
- Live Activity
- Visits appear as they arrive, and each one can be opened to see the referral source and the path through your pages. Included on every plan.
- Live Map
- New visits show up on a world map at approximate locations. Included on every plan.
- Traffic reports
- Referral sources, search traffic, campaigns, popular landing pages, locations, devices and browsers.
- Conversion tracking
- An optional conversion code records signups, sales or other goals you define. Available on Plus and Pro.
- Email reports
- Daily, weekly or monthly summaries of visits, page views and conversions, with top referrers and pages. Available on Plus and Pro.
- Hit counters
- Classic visitor counter badges in dozens of retro designs that you can color and place on a page.
Plans
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.
W3Counter
Free$0
1 website with 30 days of visitor history, the analytics dashboard, Live Activity and Live Map.
Plus$149
per year for 3 websites, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)
6 months of visitor history, the Active Now dashboard, email reports and conversion tracking.
Pro$399
per year for 10 websites, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
12 months of visitor history, plus the Active Now dashboard, email reports and conversion tracking.
Ways to pay less
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.
W3Counter
- Annual discount
Annual billing saves $79 to $189 a year
The pricing section states that annual billing saves $79 a year on Plus ($149 against $19 a month) and $189 a year on Pro ($399 against $49 a month).
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Plausible or W3Counter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Plausible is cheaper to start with: $7.50 a month, against $12.42 a month when paid by the year for W3Counter. Plausible starts at $7.50 per month for up to 10k pageviews, billed yearly ($9 billed monthly), and W3Counter starts at $149 per year for 3 websites, billed annually ($19 per month billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Plausible or W3Counter?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Plausible and W3Counter have a free plan.
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.