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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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Plausible Has a Free Privacy-Friendly Web Analytics Tool

#analytics #opensource #privacy #webdev

Plausible is a free, open-source web analytics tool that's a privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics. No cookies, no tracking scripts, fully GDPR compliant.

What Is Plausible?

Plausible gives you all the website analytics you need in a simple, clean dashboard — without invading your visitors' privacy.

Why developers switch from Google Analytics:

  • No cookies (no cookie banner needed!)
  • GDPR, CCPA, PECR compliant out of the box
  • Script is <1KB (vs 45KB for GA)
  • Simple dashboard (no 100-page reports)
  • Self-hostable
  • Open source

Quick Start

Cloud (free trial)

Sign up at plausible.io, add one script tag:

<script defer data-domain="yoursite.com" 
  src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>
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Done. Analytics start immediately.

Self-Host (free forever) 

git clone https://github.com/plausible/community-edition
cd community-edition
docker compose up -d
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Your own analytics at http://your-server:8000.

What You Get

  • Visitors: Unique visitors, page views, bounce rate, visit duration
  • Sources: Referrers, UTM campaigns, search terms
  • Pages: Top pages, entry pages, exit pages
  • Locations: Country, region, city
  • Devices: Browser, OS, screen size
  • Goals: Custom events, pageview goals, revenue tracking
  • Funnels: Multi-step conversion tracking

All on ONE dashboard. No clicking through 50 reports.

Script Size Comparison

Analytics Script Size Cookies GDPR Compliant
Google Analytics 45KB Yes Needs consent
Matomo 22KB Yes Needs config
Plausible <1KB No Yes by default
Umami 2KB No Yes by default

Plausible's script is 45x smaller than Google Analytics.

Custom Events

Track button clicks, signups, purchases:

// Track a custom event
plausible("Signup", { props: { plan: "Pro", source: "homepage" } });

// Track revenue
plausible("Purchase", { revenue: { amount: 29.99, currency: "USD" } });
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API Access 

curl "https://plausible.io/api/v1/stats/aggregate?site_id=yoursite.com&period=30d&metrics=visitors,pageviews,bounce_rate" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
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Build custom dashboards, integrate with your tools.

Framework Integration

Next.js 

import PlausibleProvider from "next-plausible";

export default function App({ Component, pageProps }) {
  return (
    <PlausibleProvider domain="yoursite.com">
      <Component {...pageProps} />
    </PlausibleProvider>
  );
}
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Nuxt 

// nuxt.config.js
modules: ["vue-plausible"],
plausible: { domain: "yoursite.com" }
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Plugins available for WordPress, Ghost, Hugo, Gatsby, and more.

Self-Hosted vs Cloud

Feature Self-Hosted Cloud
Cost $0 (your server) $9-19/mo
Data ownership 100% yours On Plausible servers
Maintenance You manage Managed
Updates Manual Automatic
Email reports Yes Yes
API Yes Yes

Who Uses Plausible?

With 21K+ GitHub stars:

  • Privacy-conscious companies
  • EU businesses avoiding GDPR headaches
  • Developers who hate cookie banners
  • Content creators wanting simple analytics
  • Anyone tired of Google Analytics complexity

Get Started

  1. Add one script tag (cloud) or run Docker (self-host)
  2. No configuration needed
  3. See your analytics immediately
  4. No cookie banner required

Simple, fast, private analytics in 30 seconds.

Tracking web data at scale? Check out my web scraping tools on Apify — collect structured data from any website. Custom scrapers available: spinov001@gmail.com

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