Plausible vs Google Analytics (2026): AGPL or GA4?

Plausible docs screenshot of the top-graph visitor metrics on the simple dashboard — Plausible docs top-graph.png. Source · License: AGPL-3.0.

Google Analytics 4 Predictive Audiences UI used to identify the commercial product — GA4 UI used to identify the commercial analytics product. Source · License: Google product screenshot.

Verdict. Choose Plausible v3.2.1 if you want an AGPL-3.0 cookie-free Elixir dashboard you can self-host. Choose Google Analytics if you want Google’s hosted GA4 product. Choose Umami for MIT/TypeScript, or Matomo for a GPL PHP stack. We have no sourced accuracy, privacy-audit, or performance test against GA4.

Compare Plausible Analytics and Google Analytics.

Dimension	Plausible Analytics	Google Analytics	Source
License	AGPL-3.0 (LICENSE.md, 2026-10-21)	Proprietary (Google Terms of Service)	plausible/analytics LICENSE.md; policies.google.com/terms
Price (software)	free self-host community edition; cloud sold separately	hosted Google product (quota/price not copied here)	Plausible README; Google Analytics marketing page
Current release (this check)	v3.2.1 (GitHub, 2026-05-15)	GA4 hosted SKU; version string not copied	GitHub Releases plausible/analytics; marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/
Community snapshot (2026-10-22)	29,593 stars / 1,913 forks; last push 2026-10-21	Not a public GitHub product in this check	GitHub API plausible/analytics
Stack	Elixir / Phoenix	Hosted Google service	GitHub language field; Google Analytics page
Cookies (project claim)	cookie-free (README / description) — not independently audited	Google Analytics cookies/identifiers are out of scope of this page	Plausible README; we did not audit either script
Quality vs GA4	Not independently tested	Not independently tested	n/a

When to choose which

AGPL cookie-free self-host dashboard: Plausible — Copied license and README labels (v3.2.1). We did not audit the script.
Hosted Google Analytics 4: Google Analytics — That is the commercial product. Not a quality score.
MIT TypeScript self-host: Umami — See Plausible vs Umami (v3.4.0, 39,493 stars in the 2026-10-21 hub snapshot).
Full PHP analytics suite: Matomo — GPL-3.0, 5.14.1 on the Google Analytics hub.

Read the entity pages: Plausible and Google Analytics (identification only). Hub: Google Analytics alternatives. OSS pair: Plausible vs Umami. Full-stack row: Matomo.

Plausible vs Google Analytics at a glance

Plausible is a privacy-first web analytics app. plausible/analytics on 2026-10-22: AGPL-3.0, 29,593 stars / 1,913 forks, last push 2026-10-21, latest release v3.2.1 (2026-05-15). README: cookie-free Google Analytics alternative; cloud or self-hosted community edition. Elixir.

Google Analytics is Google’s hosted product (GA4). Identification: Google Analytics. Marketing host opened 2026-10-22: marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics. We did not copy a quota table.

Cookie-free is a project claim, not a forkalt script audit. Star count is not quality. AGPL-3.0 extends copyleft to network use — read LICENSE.md if you will offer it as a service.

When to pick each

Need a small cookie-free dashboard and accept AGPL: Plausible v3.2.1.
Need hosted GA4: Google Analytics.
Need MIT and a TypeScript codebase: Umami — Plausible vs Umami.
Need a long-standing PHP analytics suite: Matomo 5.14.1.
Need workflow automation, not analytics: Zapier alternatives.

FAQ

Plausible vs Google Analytics — is Plausible a drop-in GA4 replacement?

No sourced document we opened claims GA4 event-model or BigQuery export parity. Plausible’s README describes a cookie-free, privacy-first dashboard. That is a project claim, not a forkalt script audit.

Is the community edition free?

The git tree is AGPL-3.0 (LICENSE.md, 2026-10-21). Self-host is the community edition. The project also sells cloud. Network-copyleft conditions apply if you offer Plausible as a service. Not legal advice.

Should I pick Umami or Matomo instead?

Umami is MIT / TypeScript. Matomo is GPL-3.0 PHP/MySQL. See Plausible vs Umami and Google Analytics alternatives. We have no sourced bake-off.

Did you measure tag size or accuracy against GA4?

No. Performance and accuracy rows stay untested.

Sources & verification

Last verified 2026-10-22 · Last updated 2026-10-22· Edited by forkalt editors · Editorial policy

License notes are not legal advice. Read the original LICENSE. Trademark & disclaimer.