Guide
Google Analytics alternatives
A comparison of the best Google Analytics alternatives
Why don't I just use Google Analytics?
In short:
- GA is not GDPR-compliant.
- GA has a very large bundle size compared to alternatives.
- GA is more aggressively blocked by ad-blocking scripts than alternatives.
- GA's interface is complex and confusing, especially for basic use cases.
These answers may be insufficient to get you to go from "using a free tool" to "paying for a tool", but if you are interested in the cottage industry of alternatives to Google Analytics, this page is for you.
Which alternative should I use?
Our pick
Fathom
Fathom is the best alternative to Google Analytics for most people. Fathom, Plausible, and Pirsch are all really solid choices and the difference between them is negligible; Fathom wins out due to slightly more advanced filtering features and its publicly consumable API.
Other good options:
- While Clicky suffers from a dated interface, it is by far the most affordable option for high-volume sites. If you're extremely price-sensitive, Clicky is a great option.
- Pirsch has, in my opinion, the nicest interface of any of these tools, and if you're very persnickety about your microinteractions it may be worth losing out on some of the other features of the other tools.
Why should I trust you?
I have personally used every single one of these tools listed, and built integrations with most of them. In addition, I've used (and bemoaned) Google Analytics through its many iterations, and am intimately familiar with its shortcomings and advantages.
(While Buttondown, the newsletter tool I built, does connect with some of these tools, I do not use affiliate links or receive any compensation for recommending any tool listed here. I have no angle except to save you time clicking through a bunch of pricing pages.)
Okay, gimme the deets.
| Service | Size (bytes) | 10k | 100k | 1m | 10m | API? | Open source? | Uptime monitoring? | Buttondown integration? | Whitelabeling? |  Fathom | 1600 | — | $14.00 | $54.00 | $124.00 | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |  Plausible | 940 | $9.00 | $19.00 | $69.00 | $169.00 | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | — |  Pirsch | 1100 | $5.00 | $10.00 | $45.00 | $129.00 | — | — | — | — | — | 4350 | — | $9.00 | $49.00 | — | ✓ | — | — | — | — |  GoatCounter | 3525 | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ | — | — | — |  Clicky | — | — | $0.00 | $9.99 | $19.99 | ✓ | — | ✓ | — | ✓ |  Matomo | 22851 | $23.00 | $39.00 | $189.00 | $1,790.00 | — | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | 1251 | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | — | — | — |  Squeaky | 516000 | $20.00 | $236.00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1200 | $19.00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
|---|
Plus some caveats and miscellany:
- Clicky actually tiers its prices by daily page views rather than monthly. I've converted its pricing to monthly page views for the sake of comparison,.
- Cabin has an unlimited tier at $19/mo, with a somewhat scary "fair use applies" caveat attached to that number.
Doesn't Cloudflare have a tool?
They do! Cloudflare offers Web Analytics, which on paper looks like a great option for existing Cloudflare users. However, at the time of this writing Cloudflare Web Analytics is missing two huge pieces of functionality:
- You can only access data for the previous six months
- You cannot filter or group data by UTM parameter
Things that don't quite match up
There are a number of adjacent services that don't quite fit into this comparison, but are worth mentioning:
Posthog
Posthog is a great tool, but it's not really a Google Analytics alternative. Posthog is a product analytics tool, more focused on competing with Amplitude or Mixpanel than Google Analytics. If you're looking for a product analytics tool, Posthog is a great choice, but it's not a good fit for most people looking for a Google Analytics alternative.
Piwik
Piwik is a little more involved and enterprise-focused than the drop-and-browse solutions outlined above that are at parity with one another. It is for sure privacy-compliant and has a lot of features, but focuses more on intranet use cases and data privacy features.
What about [other provider]?
Email me! I'll add it.
Gee, it sure is awfully nice of you to compile this resource and keep it up to date. What can I ever do to thank you?
Tell your friends about Buttondown, the best way to add email subscriptions to your newsletter.
Suggest a change
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What customers say about Buttondown
I, like almost everyone else I've seen talk about Buttondown, am IMMENSELY happy and impressed with your customer service. It turns out we can have nice things, which is really refreshing.
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It's already so refreshing compared to the mega companies.
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The killer feature for me: Buttondown will take an RSS feed then automatically slurp up the content (in their words) and then send it to our subscribers. Job done. They seem like a good company too, so I’d say this is a winner.
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As a recent user of Buttondown, they are super on the ball. A week ago I discovered a security vulnerability and reported it on Friday afternoon. They acknowledged and fixed it in under two hours. On a Friday night! Talk about going above and beyond for your users!
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I love it! It lets me breathe, not compete as I write with other writers.
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It’s a pleasure working with you. Thank you! (And what a contrast with Mailchimp, where I spent two weeks and a dozen of emails trying find out why our form goes down sometimes (only sometimes), and never really got a real answer.)
—Anton Sotkov, Software Engineer, IA
Buttondown exemplifies how I wish most software worked, and I hope to achieve a similar thing with the software I develop in the future.
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It feels incomparably good to be able to email just like a guy named Justin when you have a
@buttondown
question 15 minutes before you’re about to blast a Geistlist email. (Not a guarantee but wow this guy is human-level good.)
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Enter Buttondown, Justin Duke’s lovely little newsletter tool. It’s small, elegant, and integrates well. And it is also eminently affordable.
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have been on Buttondown for ~18 months and I can't recommend it enough.
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There is a caring person on the other side of this software, which is one of the things I like the most about Buttondown.
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I’d also like to add that @buttondown is an absolute joy to use. Hats off, Justin!
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Shoutout to
@buttondown
and
@jmduke
for building an amazing bootstrapped product for newsletters, all while being very open to feedback and connecting directly with customers 🙏
Easily one of the most enjoyable product experiences I've had.
—Den Delimarsky, Head of Ecosystem, Netlify
if you are looking for "newsletter tool for hackers" i tentatively believe the answer is @buttondown
full api, compose in markdown, good docs for setting up domain auth, simple subscribe form HTML that you style yourself (or not)
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I worked with @buttondown and asked for some new payment support beyond the supporter single tier / pay-what-you-want options.
Justin was great and built it in just a couple days.
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I write nonfiction and I use @buttondown buttondown.email/Changeset - indie, GREAT personal customer support, very nice default styling, all the options I want including ones to protect my readers' privacy
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I use @buttondown because it does exactly what I need (manage subscribers and send markdown emails), not more and not less 👍 As a bonus it's made by an indie dev which I love!
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imo @buttondown is easily one of the best-designed services i’ve used in recent years, if you have a substack you should really consider switching!
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I'm very thrilled that I can just write in Markdown without having to deal with email builders and all that crap.
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Thanks again for all the help! You’ve really turned something super complex into something super easy – sending new issues is as simple as firing off a text message.
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I’ve used similar tools in the past and Buttondown is by far the simplest to use and most promising.
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As a developer who has hated every email system I've ever used this is so nice.
—Drew Hornbein
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