Plausible Analytics

What it is

Plausible is website analytics that shows the numbers most people actually use, on one page: visitors, sources, pages, countries, devices, goals. There are no cookies, no persistent identifiers and no cross-site or cross-device tracking, and the data is hosted in the EU and does not leave it.

That design has a legal consequence worth understanding. Because it does not use cookies or track people across sites, it removes the reason for the cookie banner that analytics normally forces onto your site. Goals, custom events, segments, annotations and Google Analytics import are included from the entry tier, with funnels and user journeys on Business.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits businesses that want to know whether their marketing works without running a surveillance apparatus to find out, and European companies that would rather not defend an American analytics setup to a regulator. It also fits anyone who has opened the default alternative, felt lost, and never went back.

It is a weaker fit for teams doing deep behavioural analysis: cohort retention, individual user paths across sessions, or attribution modelling across many campaigns. That depth is exactly what Plausible chooses not to build, so if you need it, this is the wrong tool rather than a cheaper one.

Pricing

Plausible is paid, with no free plan and a 30-day trial that does not require a credit card. Starter is $9 per month for up to 10,000 monthly pageviews. Growth is $14 per month and adds up to 3 sites, team management, shared links and embedded dashboards. Business is $19 per month and adds up to 10 sites, 5-year data retention, API access, funnels and user journeys. Enterprise covers more than 10 sites with higher API limits, SSO, a managed proxy and raw data exports.

Pricing scales with your monthly pageviews, so the number to check is traffic, not features. Compare it against the real cost of free analytics, which is a cookie banner, a compliance question and a tool nobody enjoys opening.

Set it up

Official guide: Add the Plausible tracking script

1. Register for Plausible with your full name, email address and a password, then click "Start my free trial". The trial lasts 30 days and needs no credit card. Plausible emails you a four-digit code, so enter it. Your account is now active.
2. Add your website. In the "Domain" field, enter your domain without "https://" and without "www.", for example yourdomain.com. Your site now appears in your Plausible account.
3. Find your tracking snippet, which is a short piece of code that counts visits. Open the Sites page, click the menu icon on the right of your site and choose "Settings". In the "General" section, scroll to the "Tracking" area and click "Review" next to "Site installation". You now see the snippet to copy.
4. Install the snippet on every page. On WordPress, install the Plausible plugin from your WordPress dashboard instead, which needs no code. Otherwise paste the snippet into the head section of your site's code, the hidden top part of each page. Wix and Squarespace have a custom code setting for this, but it needs a paid plan from them, billed separately. Your site now loads the snippet.
5. Open your own website in a new browser tab, then reload your Plausible dashboard. An ad blocker, a VPN or a privacy-focused browser can block the snippet, so your own visit does not appear. Turn the blocker off for your site first. You now see your visit in the stats and a banner that shows the result of the installation check.
6. Set up one goal, which is a page visit that counts as a success, such as the thank-you page after a contact form. In your site settings open "Goals" and click "+ Add goal". Choose "Pageview" and enter the page path, which is the part of the address after your domain, such as /thank-you. Click "Add goal". You now see the goal listed at the bottom of your dashboard.
7. Share your numbers. In your site settings, open "Visibility", find "Shared links" and click "Add shared link". Enter a name, and set a password because anyone who has the link can see your stats without one. Viewers need no Plausible account and see only this one dashboard. The link now appears in the links list.

When this works, your website sends visits to Plausible, you have one goal that counts a real result, and someone can read your numbers through a link without logging in. Plausible has no free plan, so after the trial you pick a plan: Starter is $9/mo for up to 10k monthly pageviews.

On Business ($19/mo): up to 10 sites, 5-year data retention (how long your stats are kept), API access (other software can read your numbers) and funnels (a chain of pages that shows where visitors drop off).

Strengths and limitations

The strength is that it is legible and defensible at once. One page holds the stats, and the privacy design removes a compliance conversation instead of adding one.

The limitations are depth and price shape. There is no free tier, so this is a small permanent cost where the mainstream option is free at the point of use. Deep behavioural analysis is out of scope by design. And because pricing follows pageviews, a viral month costs more, which is worth knowing before it happens.