Plausible Analytics

What Plausible Is

Plausible is lightweight, open-source, cookie-free web analytics. Think of it as the antithesis of GA4’s complexity.

Script size: ~1KB (gzipped) vs GA4’s ~45KB
Infrastructure: EU-hosted on Hetzner servers in Germany
Founded: 2019, profitable, bootstrapped
Data ownership: You own it. No third-party data sales. Open-source codebase.

Key Differences from GA4

Aspect	Plausible	GA4
Cookies	None	Required
Consent banner	Not needed (EU legal)	Required
User-level tracking	No	Yes
BigQuery export	No	Yes
Audience building	No	Yes
Dashboard complexity	1 page	Requires learning
Custom dimensions	Event properties only	Dimensions + metrics
Ecommerce tracking	Basic	Detailed item-level
Funnel analysis	No	Yes

Real talk: Plausible trades depth for simplicity. You’ll see pages, referrers, countries, devices. You won’t see individual user journeys. This is a feature, not a limitation.

Implementation

Direct script embed (recommended)

Add this to your site’s <head>:
```
<script defer data-domain="yourdomain.com" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>
```
That’s it. Pageviews auto-track. No configuration needed.
Why not GTM?

You can load Plausible via Google Tag Manager, but you shouldn’t. Here’s why:
- Plausible’s entire value proposition is being lightweight and unblocked
- Ad blockers block GTM more aggressively than direct script loads
- If you’re using GTM, you might as well use GA4
If you need GTM for other tags, load Plausible directly. Don’t tunnel it through GTM.
Self-hosted via Plausible Community Edition

Want data residency control? Deploy Plausible CE yourself:
Terminal window
```
git clone https://github.com/plausible/analytics
cd analytics
# Configure env variables
docker-compose up
```
Requires Docker, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse. Good for teams with strict data residency requirements. Free forever.

Custom Events

Plausible supports event goals via JavaScript API:

// Basic event
plausible('Signup');

// Event with properties (max 30 properties per event)
plausible('Purchase', {
  props: {
    plan: 'premium',
    price: '99',
    currency: 'USD'
  }
});

// Form submission
document.querySelector('form').addEventListener('submit', (e) => {
  plausible('Form Submission', {
    props: {
      form_name: e.target.name,
      form_type: 'contact'
    }
  });
});

// File download
document.querySelectorAll('a[download]').forEach(link => {
  link.addEventListener('click', () => {
    plausible('File Download', {
      props: {
        filename: link.getAttribute('href')
      }
    });
  });
});

Proxy Setup for Ad Blocker Avoidance

If ad blockers are crushing your tracking (>20% traffic loss), proxy Plausible through your own domain.

Via Nginx

location /js/script.js {
  proxy_pass https://plausible.io/js/script.js;
  proxy_ssl_verify off;
}

location /api/event {
  proxy_pass https://plausible.io/api/event;
  proxy_ssl_verify off;
}

Then update your script tag:

<script defer data-domain="yourdomain.com" src="/js/script.js"></script>

Via Cloudflare Workers

export default {
  async fetch(request) {
    const url = new URL(request.url);

    if (url.pathname === '/js/analytics.js') {
      return fetch('https://plausible.io/js/script.js');
    }

    if (url.pathname === '/api/event') {
      return fetch('https://plausible.io/api/event', {
        method: request.method,
        headers: request.headers,
        body: request.body
      });
    }

    return new Response('Not found', { status: 404 });
  }
};

What You Give Up vs GA4

Be clear about trade-offs:

No funnel analysis — Can’t visualize drop-off across steps
No path exploration — Can’t see how users move through pages
No ecommerce item-level data — See total revenue, not which products sell
No custom dimensions — Can only add properties to events, not pages
No segments — Can’t split data by user groups
No BigQuery export — Stats API and CSV export only
No audience building — Can’t create lists for remarketing
No cross-device tracking — Mobile and desktop visits are separate

If any of these are requirements, pick GA4 or a compromise tool like Fathom.

Pricing

10K pageviews/month: $9
100K pageviews/month: $20
1M pageviews/month: $200
Self-hosted CE: Free

No free tier. The company makes money from subscriptions, not selling your data. Pricing is straightforward — more traffic = more cost.

When to Choose Plausible

✅ Good fit:

Content sites, blogs, documentation
SaaS marketing sites
Developer tools
Teams that value privacy as a selling point
Sites that need GDPR compliance without consent banners
Teams tired of GA4’s complexity

❌ Bad fit:

Ecommerce (need item-level data)
Complex B2B funnels
Teams that need BigQuery export
Heavy remarketing requirements

Plausible vs GA4 Detailed Comparison Feature-by-feature breakdown of all analytics capabilities

Privacy-First Analytics Guide Why cookie-free analytics matter and how to implement

Migrating from GA4 to Plausible Step-by-step setup and data mapping

Fathom Analytics Plausible's closest competitor with EU isolation