About 24; min
Vercel Analytics, Plausible, and Fathom are privacy-focused alternatives to Google Analytics. All three promise simple, GDPR-compliant analytics without cookie banners. But the pricing and feature sets differ enough that the right choice depends on whether you need developer metrics, marketing data, or just a visitor counter that respects privacy.
Quick Pricing Comparison
| Tool | Free Tier | Paid Starting At | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Unlimited | $0 (free forever) | Free (you pay with data) |
| Plausible | 30-day trial | $9/mo (10K pageviews) | Per pageview |
| Fathom | 30-day trial | $14/mo (100K pageviews) | Per pageview |
| Vercel Analytics | Included with Vercel Pro | $20/mo (Pro plan) | Per project (bundled) |
| Umami | Free (self-hosted) | $9/mo (cloud, 100K events) | Self-hosted free / cloud per event |
Why Not Just Use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics 4 is free and powerful. But three issues push teams toward alternatives:
- GDPR compliance: GA4 sends data to Google’s US servers. EU privacy regulators in France, Austria, and Italy have ruled this violates GDPR. Using GA4 in the EU requires a cookie consent banner — and 30–40% of visitors decline, creating a data gap
- Complexity: GA4’s event-based model is powerful but confusing. Setting up conversion tracking, custom dimensions, and attribution models takes hours of configuration. Most small teams use 5% of GA4’s features
- Data ownership: Google uses your analytics data to improve its advertising products. If you’d rather your visitor data not feed Google’s ad machine, privacy-first tools keep data between you and your visitors
If none of these concern you, GA4 at $0 is unbeatable. The tools below are for teams where privacy, simplicity, or compliance matter more than free.
Plausible: The Privacy Default
Plausible charges by pageviews with a sliding scale:
| Monthly Pageviews | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| 10K | $9 |
| 100K | $19 |
| 200K | $29 |
| 500K | $49 |
| 1M | $69 |
| 2M | $89 |
| 5M | $129 |
| 10M | $169 |
Plausible’s Strengths
- No cookie banner needed: Plausible uses no cookies and collects no personal data. GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliant without consent banners. This alone improves data accuracy — you see 100% of visitors, not the 60% who accept cookies
- One-page dashboard: Everything on one screen: visitors, pageviews, bounce rate, visit duration, sources, pages, countries, devices. No clicking through reports or configuring dashboards. Open Plausible, see your data, close it
- Under 1 KB script: Plausible’s tracking script is under 1 KB — 45x smaller than GA4’s script (~45 KB). Zero performance impact on your site’s load time
- Open source: Self-host Plausible for free (AGPL license). The cloud version starts at $9/month. Self-hosting eliminates recurring costs but requires server management
- EU-hosted: Data stays on EU servers (Hetzner, Germany). For EU companies, this eliminates the US data transfer issue that plagues GA4
- Goal tracking: Track button clicks, form submissions, and custom events. Not as deep as GA4’s event system but covers 80% of what small teams need
Plausible’s Limitations
- No user-level data: By design, Plausible doesn’t track individual users. No cohort analysis, no user journeys, no retention curves. If you need product analytics, use Mixpanel or PostHog
- No e-commerce tracking: No revenue tracking, no purchase funnels, no product performance. E-commerce sites need GA4 or a dedicated product analytics tool
- Limited segmentation: Filter by source, page, country, or device — but no custom segments or advanced filtering combinations
Fathom: Premium Privacy Analytics
Fathom’s pricing tiers:
| Monthly Pageviews | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| 100K | $14 |
| 200K | $24 |
| 500K | $44 |
| 1M | $64 |
| 2M | $84 |
| 5M | $124 |
Fathom costs more than Plausible for low traffic ($14 vs $9 at 100K pageviews) but the gap narrows at higher volumes. At 5M pageviews, Fathom costs $124 vs Plausible’s $129 — essentially the same.
Fathom vs Plausible
| Feature | Plausible ($9+) | Fathom ($14+) |
|---|---|---|
| Starting pageviews | 10K for $9 | 100K for $14 |
| Custom domains | No (plausible.io/yourdomain) | Yes (track.yourdomain.com) |
| Uptime monitoring | No | Yes (included) |
| Email reports | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes (self-hostable) | No (proprietary) |
| EU data isolation | EU-hosted by default | Optional EU isolation |
| Ad blocker resistance | Moderate (known domain) | Better (custom domain tracking) |
| Script size | Under 1 KB | ~2 KB |
Fathom’s key advantage: custom tracking domains. Instead of loading a script from fathom.com (which ad blockers may block), Fathom serves the script from your own domain (e.g., track.yoursite.com). This bypasses most ad blockers and DNS-level blocking, capturing 10–20% more visitors than Plausible in markets with high ad blocker adoption.
Fathom also includes uptime monitoring — ping your site every 30 seconds and get alerted if it goes down. This saves a separate uptime tool ($5–$10/month from Better Stack or Pingdom).
Umami: The Free Self-Hosted Option
Umami is the most popular self-hosted analytics tool. MIT licensed (more permissive than Plausible’s AGPL), unlimited everything when self-hosted, and a clean dashboard that rivals Plausible’s simplicity.
Deploy Umami on a $5/month VPS (Vercel, Railway, or a basic DigitalOcean Droplet) and you have privacy-focused analytics for unlimited sites and unlimited pageviews at $5/month total — regardless of traffic volume. At 5M monthly pageviews, Umami self-hosted costs $5. Plausible costs $129. Fathom costs $124.
Umami’s Trade-off
You manage the deployment: updates, database maintenance, backups, and scaling. If your VPS goes down, your analytics stop collecting data. For technically capable teams, this is trivial. For marketing teams without DevOps, the cloud version ($9/month) or Plausible is safer.
Vercel Analytics: Best for Next.js
Vercel Analytics comes free with the Vercel Pro plan ($20/user/month). If you already host on Vercel, analytics costs $0 extra. Web Analytics covers basic traffic data (visitors, pageviews, sources). Speed Insights ($10/month add-on) tracks Core Web Vitals from real users.
The main limitation: Vercel Analytics only works on sites hosted on Vercel. If your site runs on Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or self-hosted infrastructure, Vercel Analytics isn’t an option.
Cost Comparison
Small blog (10K monthly pageviews)
| Tool | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| GA4 | $0 |
| Plausible | $9 |
| Umami (self-hosted) | $5 (VPS) |
| Fathom | $14 (100K included — overkill) |
| Vercel (if on Vercel Pro) | $0 extra |
SaaS marketing site (500K monthly pageviews)
| Tool | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| GA4 | $0 |
| Plausible | $49 |
| Fathom | $44 |
| Umami (self-hosted) | $10 (larger VPS) |
| Vercel | $0 extra (if already on Pro) |
High-traffic media site (5M monthly pageviews)
| Tool | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| GA4 | $0 |
| Plausible | $129 |
| Fathom | $124 |
| Umami (self-hosted) | $20 (dedicated VPS) |
Who Should Pick What
Keep Google Analytics If:
- You need advanced features: e-commerce tracking, conversion attribution, audience segments, funnel analysis
- You run Google Ads and need the Ads ↔ Analytics integration for ROAS tracking
- Budget is $0 and you’re OK with cookie consent banners
- You need to track user journeys across multiple sessions
Pick Plausible If:
- GDPR compliance without cookie banners is a requirement
- You want the simplest possible analytics (one-page dashboard, 2 minutes per day)
- Open-source and self-hosting options matter to you
- EU data hosting is needed for regulatory compliance
- Budget is under $50/month for analytics
Pick Fathom If:
- Ad blocker resistance matters (custom tracking domains capture more data)
- Bundled uptime monitoring saves you a separate tool subscription
- You want privacy analytics at 100K pageviews for $14 (better value than Plausible at that tier)
- Custom domain tracking is important for brand consistency
Pick Umami If:
- You want free analytics at any traffic volume (self-hosted)
- Your team can manage a simple VPS deployment
- MIT license (most permissive) matters for your use case
- You want maximum control over your analytics data and infrastructure
Pick Vercel Analytics If:
- Your site is already hosted on Vercel Pro (analytics is free and automatic)
- Core Web Vitals tracking from real users would help your performance optimization
- You want analytics with zero setup (one toggle in Vercel dashboard)
Best privacy analytics: Plausible at $9/month — GDPR-compliant, no cookies, one-page dashboard, open-source. The default recommendation for privacy-conscious teams.
Best ad blocker resistance: Fathom at $14/month — custom tracking domains capture 10–20% more visitors than domain-based scripts. Plus free uptime monitoring.
Best free option: Umami self-hosted — unlimited everything at $5/month hosting. The best value in analytics for technical teams.
Keep GA4 if: You need e-commerce tracking, Google Ads integration, or advanced attribution. No privacy tool matches GA4’s depth for marketing analytics.
Don’t overthink it: If you just want to know how many people visit your site and where they come from, any tool on this list works. Pick the one that matches your budget.
FAQ
Do privacy analytics tools capture less data than GA4?
Yes, by design. They don’t track individual users, sessions across visits, or build audience profiles. But they capture 100% of visitors (no cookie consent loss) vs GA4’s 60–70% (after consent decline). More visitors tracked × less data per visitor often produces better aggregate insights than fewer visitors tracked × deep individual data.
Can I use Plausible/Fathom alongside GA4?
Yes. Many teams run both: GA4 (with consent banner) for deep marketing analytics, and Plausible/Fathom for accurate visitor counts. The privacy tool captures everyone; GA4 captures consenting users with more detail.
Will ad blockers block these tools?
Some ad blockers block Plausible and Umami because they’re on known analytics domain lists. Fathom’s custom domain feature avoids most blockers. Self-hosted Umami on your own domain is the most blocker-resistant option. No analytics tool is 100% immune to blocking.
Is self-hosted Plausible really free?
The software is free (AGPL license). You pay for hosting (~$5–$20/month VPS). Note: Plausible’s AGPL license requires you to share any modifications you make to the code. If you just run it unmodified, this doesn’t affect you. Umami’s MIT license has no such requirement.
