Hark.

Google Analytics alternatives

Seven Google Analytics alternatives, compared honestly.

Google Analytics is free, but it sets cookies, needs a consent banner in the UK and EU, and buries the everyday numbers under dozens of reports. These are the tools people move to instead, with what each costs and who it suits.

We make Hark, so it's listed first. Every other entry says what it does better than us, and every price comes from the tool's own site.

Tool Paid plans from Free option Cookie banner Open source
Hark $5/mo for 100K pageviews 14-day trial, no card Not needed No
Plausible $9/mo for 10K pageviews 30-day trial, no card; free to self-host Not needed Yes
Fathom $15/mo for 100K pageviews 7-day trial, card required Not needed No
Matomo $26/mo for 50K hits (Cloud) Free trial, no card; free to self-host Usually, unless you turn cookies off Yes
Umami $20/mo for 1M events (Pro) Hobby plan: 1 site, 100K events a month, 6 months' history; free to self-host Not needed Yes
Simple Analytics £20/mo for 100K pageviews Free plan: 5 sites, 1 month's history; 14-day trial, no card Not needed No
Cloudflare Web Analytics Free Free Not needed No

Checked on 27 October 2026. Prices are monthly, in each tool's own currency; Matomo's pricing page shows no currency symbol. Whether you need a banner depends on where your visitors are. Spot something out of date? Email [email protected] and we'll fix it.

1. Hark

$5/mo for 100K pageviews

Ours. A one-page dashboard that updates the moment a visitor arrives, with a live world map, funnels and journeys on every plan, and an MCP server so AI assistants can read your stats or set a site up.

Good for

  • The lowest price at 100K pageviews of the paid tools here
  • Watching visitors arrive live, and a public live dashboard
  • Funnels, journeys and custom properties without a higher plan

Watch out for

  • No REST API, Google Analytics import or email reports yet
  • Not open source, and one login per account
  • Hosted in London, not the EU

See Hark Watch the live demo

2. Plausible

$9/mo for 10K pageviews

The best-known cookieless option: open source, hosted in the EU on European-owned infrastructure, and broader than most, with revenue goals and Google Analytics and Search Console imports.

Good for

  • Data that has to stay in the EU, or self-hosting
  • Bringing your Google Analytics history with you
  • Revenue attribution and a Stats API, on its Business plan

Watch out for

  • Funnels, custom properties and the API need the Business plan, from $19/mo
  • The entry plan covers one site and 10K pageviews

Plausible's site Hark vs Plausible, in detail Source: Plausible plans

3. Fathom

$15/mo for 100K pageviews

Simple, cookieless analytics with every feature on every plan, 50 sites included, and your history kept for as long as you're a customer.

Good for

  • Lots of small sites: 50 come with every plan
  • Keeping every year of history
  • Email reports, an API and Google Analytics import

Watch out for

  • No funnels on its feature list
  • The trial needs a card

Fathom's site Hark vs Fathom, in detail Source: Fathom pricing

4. Matomo

$26/mo for 50K hits (Cloud)

The oldest open-source alternative and the closest to Google Analytics in depth. Self-host the free On-Premise edition, or use Matomo Cloud, hosted in Frankfurt.

Good for

  • Replacing Google Analytics report for report
  • Self-hosting with no limit on hits
  • Teams that want full ownership of raw data

Watch out for

  • Sets cookies by default; they can be turned off with one line of its tracking code
  • Closer to Google Analytics in complexity, too

Matomo's site Hark vs Matomo, in detail Source: Matomo pricing Source: Matomo cookieless FAQ

5. Umami

$20/mo for 1M events (Pro)

Open-source, cookieless analytics that's popular with developers, with a free cloud plan for one site and a free self-hosted version.

Good for

  • A free hosted plan for one small site
  • Self-hosting on your own server
  • Larger sites: 1M events and 20 sites on Pro

Watch out for

  • The free plan keeps 6 months of history, Pro 2 years

Umami's site Hark vs Umami, in detail Source: Umami pricing

6. Simple Analytics

£20/mo for 100K pageviews

Cookieless, EU-hosted analytics (mostly in the Netherlands) with a clean dashboard, plus goals, email reports, GA4 import and an AI assistant.

Good for

  • A free plan across several sites, if a month of history is enough
  • EU hosting
  • An enterprise plan with API and BI access

Watch out for

  • Extra users cost £20/mo each

Simple Analytics's site Hark vs Simple Analytics, in detail Source: Simple Analytics pricing

7. Cloudflare Web Analytics

Free

Free, privacy-first pageview counts from Cloudflare, with no cookies, local storage or fingerprinting. Your site doesn't need to be behind Cloudflare's proxy.

Good for

  • Basic traffic numbers at no cost
  • Sites already on Cloudflare, where it can be switched on without code

Watch out for

  • No custom events or goals
  • Six months of history, and data older than 7 days is sampled to about 10%

Cloudflare Web Analytics's site Hark vs Cloudflare Web Analytics, in detail Source: Cloudflare Web Analytics Source: Cloudflare Web Analytics FAQ

Or stay on Google Analytics

If you run Google Ads, need cross-device user journeys, or have analysts who already live in GA4 and BigQuery, none of these will replace it. It's free and it can do almost anything. The cost is a consent banner, and the visitors who decline it go uncounted.

Hark vs Google Analytics, including where GA is the better choice

How to choose

  • Free, and pageviews are enough: Cloudflare Web Analytics, or Umami's free plan for one site.
  • You'll run your own server: Matomo, Plausible or Umami, all open source.
  • Data must stay in the EU: Plausible, Simple Analytics, or Matomo Cloud.
  • Many small sites: Fathom, with 50 on every plan.
  • Every GA report, without Google: Matomo.
  • Live visitors, funnels and an MCP server for AI, at the lowest price: Hark.

Questions

What's the best free Google Analytics alternative?
For a hosted service, Cloudflare Web Analytics is free with no limits on pageviews but no goals, and Umami's free plan covers one site with 6 months of history. If you can run a server, Matomo, Plausible and Umami can all be self-hosted for free.
Do Google Analytics alternatives need a cookie banner?
Most of the tools here store nothing on the visitor's device and collect no personal data, which is why they're usually run without a consent banner. Matomo is the exception: it sets cookies unless you turn them off. Check the rules where your visitors are.
Can I run an alternative alongside Google Analytics?
Yes. The scripts are small and independent, so many people run both for a few weeks and compare the numbers before removing Google Analytics. Expect the cookieless tool to count more visitors where people decline GA's consent banner.
Which alternative is closest to Google Analytics?
Matomo, which has the most reports and can be self-hosted. The others deliberately do less, so the numbers you check every day fit on one page.
Try Hark free for 14 days See pricing