Plausible Has a Free API — Privacy-Friendly Analytics Without Google

#analytics #api #webdev #tutorial

Google Analytics Is Overkill for Most Projects

Plausible is a lightweight, privacy-friendly analytics tool. Self-hosted version is free and includes full API access.

API Access

import requests

SITE_ID = "yourdomain.com"
API_KEY = "your_plausible_api_key"
BASE = "https://plausible.io/api/v1"  # or your self-hosted URL
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}

Get Current Visitors

def realtime_visitors():
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/stats/realtime/visitors",
                     headers=HEADERS, params={"site_id": SITE_ID})
    return r.json()

print(f"Current visitors: {realtime_visitors()}")

Get Aggregate Stats

def get_stats(period="30d", metrics="visitors,pageviews,bounce_rate,visit_duration"):
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/stats/aggregate", headers=HEADERS,
                     params={"site_id": SITE_ID, "period": period, "metrics": metrics})
    return r.json()["results"]

stats = get_stats()
print(f"Visitors (30d): {stats[visitors][value]}")
print(f"Pageviews: {stats[pageviews][value]}")
print(f"Bounce rate: {stats[bounce_rate][value]}%")

Get Top Pages

def top_pages(period="30d", limit=10):
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/stats/breakdown", headers=HEADERS,
                     params={"site_id": SITE_ID, "period": period,
                             "property": "event:page", "limit": limit,
                             "metrics": "visitors,pageviews"})
    return r.json()["results"]

for page in top_pages():
    print(f"{page[pageviews]:>5} views | {page[page]}")

Top Traffic Sources

def top_sources(period="30d"):
    r = requests.get(f"{BASE}/stats/breakdown", headers=HEADERS,
                     params={"site_id": SITE_ID, "period": period,
                             "property": "visit:source", "metrics": "visitors"})
    return r.json()["results"]

for s in top_sources():
    print(f"{s[visitors]:>5} visitors from {s[source]}")

Why Not Google Analytics

Feature	Plausible	Google Analytics
Privacy	No cookies	Tracks everything
GDPR	Compliant (no banner)	Needs consent
Script size	1KB	45KB
Page speed impact	None	Measurable
Self-hostable	Yes	No
API	Simple REST	Complex
Free	Self-hosted	Yes