The best Google Analytics alternative in 2026 for most teams is Open Analytics: one cookieless script with revenue attribution, funnels and an AI-queryable dataset, from $9/mo. Plausible and Fathom are strong for a simple cookieless dashboard, Umami and Matomo are the free self-host options, and Simple Analytics is the most privacy-maximal. All are cookieless, so none needs a consent banner.
Google Analytics 4 is free at almost any scale, so an alternative has to earn the switch on something else. For most people leaving GA4 that something is one of three things: a cookie banner they no longer want, data that a privacy-first tool never sends to an ad network, or a dashboard they can read without a course. Every tool below is cookieless and needs no consent banner in the EU; where they differ is what they count and how far they go past a pageview.
The one thing to check before the price: the meter
Two tools can both say "$9 a month" and mean completely different things, because some meter pageviews and some meter events. A pageview is one page load. An event is a pageview or anything you tag — a signup, a purchase, a click. If you only ever look at pages, a pageview meter stretches further for the money; if you tag conversions, an event meter is the honest comparison. Read that line on every plan before the number beside it.
The seven alternatives, ranked by fit
- 01
Open Analytics
That's usOne cookieless script that follows a visitor from first pageview to payment, with the dataset queryable by an AI agent.
Price: From $9/mo for 50,000 events (a pageview or anything you tag), 3-day free trial.
Strengths
- Revenue attributed back to the visit and source that earned it
- Built-in MCP server: ask your analytics in plain English
- Realtime journeys, funnels and Core Web Vitals in one script
- Open source (AGPL) and self-hostable
Trade-offs
- Newer than Plausible or Fathom
- Meters events, so tagged conversions count
- No free plan, only the trial
The default lightweight, open-source pick: one clean page of numbers, nothing to configure.
Price: From $9/mo for 10,000 pageviews (custom events count toward the same meter).
Strengths
- Open source and self-hostable
- Simplest dashboard in the category
- EU-owned and EU-hosted
Trade-offs
- Meters pageviews, so tagged events eat the same allowance
- No revenue attribution back to the source
- No per-visitor journey
- 03
Fathom
Flat pricing for people with many sites or high, untagged traffic.
Price: From $15/mo for 100,000 pageviews across unlimited sites.
Strengths
- Unlimited sites on every plan
- Generous pageview allowance
- Imports from Universal Analytics and GA4
Trade-offs
- Aggregate-only by design: no individual visitor trail
- Custom events share the pageview meter
- Hosted product is closed source
- 04
Umami
The free self-host choice, with a hosted tier if you would rather not run a server.
Price: Free self-hosted; Umami Cloud free for 100,000 events on one site, then $20/mo for a million.
Strengths
- Genuinely free if you run your own Node and PostgreSQL
- Open source (MIT)
- Clean, familiar dashboard
Trade-offs
- Self-hosting is yours to maintain and back up
- No payment-provider revenue attribution
- Importers are limited
The most privacy-maximal option: no visitor IDs at all, by design.
Price: From $20/mo at the low end of its pageview slider, plus $20 per extra user; a free 30-day-history plan exists.
Strengths
- No visitor identifiers whatsoever
- A free tier, rare in this category
- Embeddable public charts
Trade-offs
- Priced per user on top of the slider
- No cross-session anything, on purpose
- Deliberately shallow by design
- 06
DataFast
An events-metered tool aimed at founders who want revenue in the same view.
Price: From $9/mo for 10,000 events on a single website.
Strengths
- Meters events, so the comparison with us is straight
- Revenue-minded from the start
- Cookieless mode available
Trade-offs
- Entry plan is one website only
- Default script uses a first-party cookie for attribution
- Younger, smaller importer set
- 07
Matomo
The heavyweight for teams that want GA-level depth they can host themselves.
Strengths
- The deepest feature set of the open-source options
- Self-hostable with full data ownership
- Long track record
Trade-offs
- Heavier to run and to read than the rest
- Some features are paid plugins on top
- Closer to GA's complexity than away from it
Side by side
| Tool | From | Meters | Open source | Revenue attribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Analytics | $9/mo | Events | Yes | Yes |
| Plausible | $9/mo | Pageviews | Yes | No |
| Fathom | $15/mo | Pageviews | Lite only | No |
| Umami | Free / $20/mo | Events | Yes | No |
| Simple Analytics | $20/mo | Pageviews | Scripts only | No |
| DataFast | $9/mo | Events | No | Partial |
| Matomo | Self-host / paid cloud | Events | Yes | Via plugins |
Prices were checked against each product's own pricing page on 2026-08-07 and change often. Read the current plan, and the meter it counts, before you commit.
So which one
- You want revenue tied to its source and an AI-queryable dataset in one script: Open Analytics.
- You want the simplest possible switch off GA4: Plausible.
- You run many sites or have high untagged traffic: Fathom.
- You want to pay nothing and are happy to run a server: Umami or Matomo.
- You refuse any visitor identifier at all: Simple Analytics.
Open Analytics is the events-metered, revenue-aware option with an AI-queryable dataset. Try it free for three days.
Start free trialFrequently asked questions
- What is the best Google Analytics alternative?
- For most teams, Open Analytics: it is cookieless, meters events, attributes revenue back to its source, and its dataset is queryable by an AI agent, from $9 a month. If you want the simplest possible dashboard, Plausible; if you self-host for free, Umami or Matomo. The right pick depends on whether you need depth, self-hosting or bare simplicity.
- Is there a free alternative to Google Analytics?
- Yes. Umami and Matomo are free if you self-host them, and Umami Cloud has a free tier for 100,000 events on one site. Simple Analytics offers a free plan limited to 30 days of history. The hosted, no-server options (Open Analytics, Plausible, Fathom) start at $9–15 a month.
- Do Google Analytics alternatives need a cookie banner?
- The privacy-first ones do not. Open Analytics, Plausible, Fathom, Umami and Simple Analytics are cookieless and collect no personal data, so a site using them needs no consent banner, including in the EU. GA4 itself sets cookies and generally does require one.
- Can I import my Google Analytics history into these tools?
- Partly. Fathom imports from Universal Analytics and GA4, and Simple Analytics imports GA4 pageviews. Open Analytics imports from Plausible, Fathom, Simple Analytics, DataFast, Seline and Rybbit, so moving between privacy tools is usually easier than moving off GA — GA4 famously could not even import its own predecessor's data.