Every Privacy-First Analytics Tool Compared (2026)
There are now enough privacy-first analytics tools that choosing one has become its own problem. I’ve tried most of them, so here’s my take on what each does well and where each falls short.
Quick overview first, then the details.
| Tool | Starts at | Free tier? | Self-host? | Script size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HushStats | $5/mo | Yes | No | <1 KB |
| Plausible | $9/mo | No | Yes | ~1.5 KB |
| Fathom | $15/mo | No | No | ~2 KB |
| Simple Analytics | $19/mo | Limited | No | ~3 KB |
| Pirsch | $6/mo | No | No | ~2 KB |
| GoatCounter | ~$5/mo | Yes | Yes | ~3.5 KB |
| Umami | usage-based | Yes (1M events) | Yes | ~2 KB |
Plausible
The market leader, and probably the first name people think of when they hear “Google Analytics alternative.” They’ve earned it — the product is polished, the feature set is deep, and the open-source community is active.
Where Plausible shines: goals and conversion tracking, funnels, custom event properties, Google Search Console integration, revenue tracking. If you need to measure how marketing campaigns convert, Plausible handles it. They’re also EU-hosted and AGPL open source, so you can self-host if you want full control.
Where it pinches: price. $9/month for 10K pageviews is the entry point, scaling to $69/month at 1M. No permanent free tier — just a 30-day trial. For a well-funded business, this is fine. For a side project making $0, it’s a hard sell.
Fathom
Fathom’s philosophy is refreshing: one tier, all features, pay based on traffic. No feature gating, no upsells, no “upgrade to unlock goals.” You get everything from day one.
Their strongest selling point is permanent data retention — your analytics history is never deleted. If you care about year-over-year trends, that’s genuinely valuable. The interface is clean and opinionated in a good way.
The downside is cost. $15/month for 100K pageviews makes Fathom the most expensive option per-pageview. No free plan, no self-hosting. If budget is a factor, it’s a tough ask.
Also worth noting: Fathom went through an ownership change in late 2024 when co-founder Paul retired and Jack Ellis took full control. Still independent and bootstrapped, but a smaller team than before.
Simple Analytics
Simple Analytics leans into radical transparency — they publish their own revenue, customer count, and growth metrics publicly. They also auto-collect events like outbound link clicks, file downloads, and email link clicks without any setup, which is genuinely useful.
They have a clever interactive quiz tool on their site that compares analytics platforms across seven dimensions. Good marketing, and honestly, kind of fun.
The main barrier is pricing ($19/month starting) and a limited free plan that only retains 30 days of data. The interface can also feel a bit cluttered compared to Plausible or Fathom.
Pirsch
The sleeper pick. Pirsch is built in Germany, priced aggressively ($6/month), and has a few features you won’t find anywhere else: a built-in URL shortener, A/B testing, and white-labeling for agencies.
If you run an agency and want to embed analytics in client dashboards under your own brand, Pirsch is basically the only privacy-first tool that does this well. The import tool (supporting GA, Plausible, and Fathom migrations) is also a nice touch.
The community is smaller than Plausible’s, and it’s not open source. If either of those things matter to you, look elsewhere.
GoatCounter
GoatCounter is the most indie product on this list — built and maintained by one developer, Martin Tournoij. That comes with trade-offs: the interface is basic, the feature set is minimal, and if Martin decides to move on, that’s it.
But it’s free for personal and small business use, it’s open source, and it has a pixel tracking option that works without JavaScript — handy for email newsletters or environments where JS isn’t available. There’s an earnestness to GoatCounter that I find appealing. It does one thing, simply.
Umami
Umami is the strongest option if you want to self-host. The deployment docs cover 20+ platforms (Vercel, Railway, DigitalOcean, etc.), the interface is modern, and the cloud tier gives you 1M events/month free.
The feature set has been growing fast — funnels, user journeys, retention analysis — though it’s not as mature as Plausible’s yet. Self-hosting obviously means you’re responsible for uptime, updates, and backups. If that sounds like fun rather than work, Umami is worth a look.
HushStats
Full disclosure: this is us.
We built HushStats to be the cheapest hosted option that doesn’t feel cheap. Free plan with 3 sites and 10K views, Pro at $5/month, Business at $12/month. The script is under 1KB. Everything runs on a global edge network.
We now offer custom events, outbound link tracking, file downloads, 404 detection, UTM campaigns, Core Web Vitals, scroll depth, page performance scores, smart insights, timeline annotations, interactive filtering, channel grouping, previous period comparison, CSV export, public shared dashboards, and a Stats API. We don’t have funnels or revenue tracking yet — if those are critical, Plausible is the better fit.
We’re also the newest tool on this list, which means less of a track record. If longevity matters to you, Plausible and Fathom have been around longer.
How to actually decide
Forget features for a second. Ask yourself these questions:
Do I need conversion tracking? If yes: Plausible.
Do I want to self-host? If yes: Plausible or Umami.
Am I running an agency? If yes: Pirsch (white-labeling).
Do I want zero feature gating and infinite retention? If yes: Fathom.
Do I just want basic traffic stats and don’t want to pay much? HushStats or GoatCounter.
Every tool on this list respects your visitors’ privacy. Every one of them is better than GA. The differences between them are real but smaller than the difference between any of them and Google Analytics. Pick one, install the script, and check it once a week.
The best analytics tool is whichever one you actually remember to look at.