Best Web Analytics Tools 2026: Independent Ranking of Google Analytics Alternatives
We rank tools that count visits to your website — pageviews, visitors, traffic sources — using only facts from the vendors' own sites: the monthly price for 100,000 pageviews, whether there is a permanent free plan, whether the tool works without cookies out of the box, whether the vendor says you can run it without a consent banner, whether data can be stored in the EU, data export or an API, open source code, self-hosting and the year the service started. Every fact links to an official page with a check date. Session-recording and heatmap tools (Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity) are outside this ranking. We do not use reviews or accuracy tests we cannot repeat, and paid placements never change the Score. This site itself runs no analytics scripts.
| # | Company | Who it serves | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GoatCounter | 80 | $0.00 | Yes | Yes | Not verified | Free plan No cookies Open source Self-hosting |
| 2 | PostHog | 79 | $0.00 | Yes | No | Yes | Free plan EU data Open source Self-hosting |
| 3 | Umami | 79 | $0.00 | Yes | Yes | Not verified | Free plan No cookies Open source Self-hosting |
| 4 | Plausible Analytics | 75 | $19.00 | No | Yes | Yes | No cookies EU data Open source Self-hosting |
| 5 | Simple Analytics | 73 | $22.34 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free plan No cookies EU data |
| 6 | Pirsch Analytics | 70 | $12.00 | No | Yes | Yes | No cookies EU data Self-hosting |
| 7 | Amplitude | 64 | $0.00 | Yes | No | Yes | Free plan EU data |
| 8 | Matomo | 58 | $42.00 | No | No | Yes | EU data Open source Self-hosting |
| 9 | Mixpanel | 57 | $0.00 | Yes | No | Yes | Free plan EU data |
| 10 | Google Analytics 4 | 53 | $0.00 | Yes | No | Not verified | Free plan |
| 11 | Fathom Analytics | 50 | $15.00 | No | Yes | No | No cookies |
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- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- Not verified
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- No cookies by default
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Details Visit site ↗ 86% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- No
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Cons
- Sets cookies by default
Details Visit site ↗ 100% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- Not verified
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- No cookies by default
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Details Visit site ↗ 86% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $19.00
- Free plan
- No
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- No cookies by default
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Vendor says no consent banner is needed
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a trial
Details Visit site ↗ 100% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $22.34
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- No cookies by default
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Details Visit site ↗ 87% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $12.00
- Free plan
- No
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- No cookies by default
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Vendor says no consent banner is needed
Cons
- No permanent free plan, only a trial
Details Visit site ↗ 94% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- No
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Cons
- Sets cookies by default
Details Visit site ↗ 81% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $42.00
- Free plan
- No
- Works without cookies by default
- No
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Vendor says no consent banner is needed
- Open source code
Cons
- High price for 100,000 pageviews
- Sets cookies by default
- No permanent free plan, only a trial
Details Visit site ↗ 100% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- No
- Data stored in the EU
- Yes
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- Data can be stored in the EU
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Cons
- Sets cookies by default
Details Visit site ↗ 71% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $0.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Works without cookies by default
- No
- Data stored in the EU
- Not verified
Pros
- Low price for 100,000 pageviews
- Raw data export or API
- Has a permanent free plan
Cons
- Sets cookies by default
- Vendor says visitor consent is needed
Details Visit site ↗ 73% backed by facts
-
- Price for 100,000 pageviews per month
- $15.00
- Free plan
- No
- Works without cookies by default
- Yes
- Data stored in the EU
- No
Pros
- No cookies by default
- Raw data export or API
- Vendor says no consent banner is needed
Cons
- Data stored outside the EU
- No permanent free plan, only a trial
Details Visit site ↗ 87% backed by facts
Not ranked yet: not enough verified data
These services are known to us, but we haven't verified enough facts to rank them fairly.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics (56% backed by facts)
- Piwik PRO (49% backed by facts)
- Yandex Metrica (56% backed by facts)
How we calculate the Score
30%
Price
Monthly list price in USD of the cheapest plan that covers 100,000 pageviews a month with monthly billing: $0 scores 100, $50 or more scores 0 (weight 3). A free plan counts as $0 if its stated limit covers 100,000 pageviews (one pageview = one event or hit for tools that count events). Annual discounts and trials are ignored; prices in euros are converted at the ECB rate. If the price is shown only by a calculator script, the fact stays empty. Also a permanent free hosted plan, not a trial (weight 2).
35%
Privacy
Whether the tool works without cookies or other visitor identifiers by default (weight 2), whether analytics data can be stored in the European Union, by default or as a region you choose (weight 2), and whether the vendor states that its analytics can run without a cookie consent banner, by default or with a documented setting (weight 1). The last one is the vendor's own claim, not legal advice: rules differ between countries.
25%
Data ownership
Whether you can take your data out — raw data export or a documented API to read your statistics, on any plan (weight 2), whether the source code is published as open source (weight 1) and whether you can run the tool on your own server (weight 1).
10%
Track record
How long the vendor or product has existed: 20 years or more scores 100 (weight 1). Where the vendor does not publish a founding year, we use the creation date of its official code repository.
How to choose a web analytics tool
Count your real traffic
Look at your monthly pageviews or events over the last year and add room to grow. Plans are priced by traffic, and some tools stop counting or charge for overage when you exceed the limit.
Decide what you need to measure
Simple traffic stats — pages, sources, countries — fit lightweight tools. Funnels, cohorts and user journeys need product analytics, which usually means more data about each visitor.
Check cookies and consent
A tool without cookies and personal data can make your site faster and your consent banner simpler. Read the vendor's privacy and data processing documents and sign the data processing agreement if your visitors are in the EU.
Keep your data portable
Make sure you can export raw data or read it through an API, and how long history is kept. Open source tools you can host yourself give you full control, at the cost of running a server.
Frequently asked questions
Which web analytics tool is best?
The tool in first place has the highest Score under our open method, but the Score does not measure report depth or how well a tool fits your work. A shop with ad campaigns needs different features than a blog. Compare the price for your traffic and the facts that matter to you.
Why do you compare prices at 100,000 pageviews?
Vendors price by traffic in different steps, so one traffic level makes them comparable. We take the cheapest plan with monthly billing that covers 100,000 pageviews; a free plan counts if its stated limit covers that volume. Product analytics tools count events, and we treat one pageview as one event.
Do I need a cookie banner for analytics?
It depends on the tool and your country. Tools that set no cookies and collect no personal data often say no banner is needed, and we record that claim with a link. It is the vendor's statement, not legal advice — check your national regulator's guidance.
Why are Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity not here?
They record sessions and draw heatmaps — behaviour analytics, a different job from counting traffic. Comparing them on the same facts would be unfair to both groups.
What does an empty fact mean?
We could not confirm it on an official page, sometimes because the price is drawn by a script or the vendor's site refused automated access. An empty fact scores zero and lowers data completeness. A tool with too little data is not ranked.