# Countly review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Self-hosted product analytics for web, mobile and desktop apps Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Countly is a product analytics and engagement platform for mobile, web and desktop apps. It can run on your own servers, as the free open-source Lite edition or the paid Enterprise edition, or in a dedicated private cloud called Flex that Countly operates and bills monthly by usage. - **Category:** Website & Product Analytics - **Made by:** Countly Ltd. (since 2013) - **Website:** https://countly.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you want the full platform: Flex starts at $175 a month. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Countly has a free plan, and paid plans start at $175 per month and up. - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Countly Lite: the open-source core, self-hosted on your own server, with community support only and no SLA. - **Free trial:** 14-day free trial of Flex. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Countly Lite | $0 | Open-source core you host yourself, with 20+ plugins including dashboards, profiles, crashes, funnels and retention. | | Countly Flex | $175 per month and up | Dedicated private-cloud instance billed monthly by usage (MAU). Includes Advanced Analytics; Adaptivity and Intelligence are add-ons. | | Countly Enterprise | Custom | Self-hosted or in your own cloud, priced per deployment and billed annually, with every capability and dedicated support. | Read from https://countly.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Countly before buying. ## Key features - **Mobile, web and desktop analytics:** SDKs for iOS, Android, JavaScript, macOS, Windows and Linux apps feed one data layer with real-time events, sessions and user profiles. - **Engagement tools:** The Adaptivity capability covers push notifications, in-app messages, journeys, A/B tests, surveys and hooks, acting on the same data. - **Funnels, retention and flows:** The Intelligence capability adds funnels, retention, flows, formulas, crash reporting and the Drill query tool. - **Data control:** Data can be masked, transformed and validated as it is collected, and the vendor says it has no default access to Flex or Enterprise data. - **Cee AI agent and MCP:** Cee is Countly's AI agent, part of the Intelligence add-on on Flex. Your own AI can also connect to Countly through MCP. - **Choice of hosting:** Run it on your own infrastructure, including air-gapped networks, or on Flex in the Google Cloud region you choose. ## Good for - Teams that must keep product data on their own infrastructure - Mobile and desktop app makers who want analytics and push in one tool - Developers who want a free open-source analytics server ## Worth knowing - Flex is billed by monthly active users rather than seats; the page gives only a $175 starting price and an estimator. - On Flex, Adaptivity and Intelligence are paid add-ons, and the uptime SLA is an add-on. - Enterprise has no published price and is billed annually per deployment. - Lite is self-hosted with community support only and does not include the full platform, such as Cee, Drill and Journeys. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Countly tracks web, mobile and desktop apps, with a free open-source Lite you host yourself and a hosted Flex from $175 a month. But Lite leaves out parts such as Cee, Drill and Journeys. Flex is billed by monthly active users and adds paid extras. - **Value for money: C.** Flex from $175 a month, above the category's dearer-quarter start of $159. Lite is free if you host it, which is a C by our rule. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Lite is free with 20+ plugins and community support, and Flex has a 14-day trial. Lite needs your own server. - **Features: C.** Analytics, engagement, funnels and retention. Lite lacks Cee, Drill and Journeys, which are in the full platform. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. Flex is hosted for you, but Lite means running a server. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** A web dashboard. The listing names no integrations. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Countly's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among website and product analytics tools - Countly's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 18 of the 58 other website and product analytics tools we grade, and level with 13. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 40 of 58) and worst on platforms and integrations (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $175 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 27 of the 32 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 26 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/analytics ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** The plain part of Countly you could make: surveys. What surrounds it you could not. The 4 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 27 of the 58 other website and product analytics tools grade higher. It costs $2,100 a year. Countly is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself. - You could make: Surveys: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: A tracking script and a database that counts every visit. - You could not: Splitting visitors between versions and telling you which won. - You could not: An API that other software can build on. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Web analytics, Open source, Self-hostable, A/B testing, Surveys, AI features, Public API ## Alternatives - [Matomo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/matomo): Open-source web analytics you can host yourself or in Matomo's cloud. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/countly-vs-matomo) - [PostHog](https://toolgpa.com/tools/posthog): Open-source product analytics with replays, flags and surveys. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/countly-vs-posthog) - [Mixpanel](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mixpanel): Event-based product analytics with replays, flags and experiments. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/countly-vs-mixpanel) - [Amplitude](https://toolgpa.com/tools/amplitude): Product analytics with session replay, experiments and in-app guides. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amplitude-vs-countly) - [Piwik PRO](https://toolgpa.com/tools/piwik-pro): Privacy-focused analytics suite with tag and consent management. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/countly-vs-piwik-pro) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://countly.com/pricing - https://countly.com/ - https://countly.com/lite Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/countly Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).