Plausible Analytics

Plausible Analytics is a lightweight and privacy-friendly web analytics tool, often considered an alternative to Google Analytics. It’s designed to provide essential website insights without negatively impacting site speed or visitor privacy. Here’s what Plausible Analytics offers:

Key Features and Benefits

1. Simplicity and Ease of Use: Plausible Analytics is known for its straightforward and easy-to-understand interface. It aims to provide all essential site traffic insights on one page, eliminating the need for complex reports or custom dashboards.
2. Lightweight Script: The script of Plausible Analytics is 45 times smaller than Google Analytics, contributing to faster site load times and a reduced carbon footprint. For instance, a site with 10,000 monthly visitors can save approximately 4.5 kg of CO2 emissions per year by switching to Plausible.
3. Privacy-Focused Analytics: Plausible does not use cookies and does not collect personal data, ensuring visitor privacy. This approach means there’s no need for cookie banners or GDPR consent, making it a compliant choice for websites concerned with privacy laws.
4. Comprehensive Tracking Features: Despite its simplicity, Plausible offers a range of tracking capabilities, including goal conversions, e-commerce revenue, outbound link clicks, file downloads, and 404 error pages. It also supports custom events and dimensions for deeper analysis – all of which Conversion Bridge makes use of in the data it sends over to Plausible.
5. Dashboard Sharing and Team Collaboration: Plausible allows users to share their analytics dashboard publicly or privately. It supports team collaboration with multiple user roles and the ability to embed the dashboard directly on a website.
6. Open Source Software: The source code of Plausible Analytics is available on GitHub, allowing for transparency and community contributions.
7. Smooth Transition from Google Analytics: Plausible facilitates easy migration from Google Analytics, including the ability to import historical Universal Analytics data (but no support for GA4…yet).

Pricing

Plausible offers various pricing tiers based on monthly page views, starting from $9 per month for up to 10k page views. Their pricing is structured to accommodate different sizes of businesses, from individuals to large enterprises.

Plausible Analytics presents a viable option for those looking for a simple, lightweight, and privacy-respecting web analytics tool. Its user-friendly interface, commitment to minimal data collection, and transparent business practices make it a compelling choice, especially for users concerned about privacy and ease of use.

Issues with Plausible Analytics

Plausible has a lot going for it that I love, but one issue bothers me: The need to manually set up each of your custom events for conversion tracking. Plausible requires you to login and type in your custom events before they appear in your stats. I feel this is an unnecessary step that causes added friction to getting your site fully set up with Plausible.

Thankfully, with Conversion Bridge, all your conversion tracking events get automatically synced via their API and you do not need to worry about this step!

Is Plausible Analytics the Best Google Analytics Alternative?

In exploring alternatives to Google Analytics, I’ve found myself increasingly intrigued by Plausible Analytics. It’s not just another analytics tool; rather, it positions itself as a potent contender in the privacy-focused analytics space. In my testing and usage, several factors make Plausible a serious alternative worth considering.

Firstly, the simplicity of Plausible’s interface is a breath of fresh air. Unlike Google Analytics, which can sometimes feel overwhelming with its myriad of features and complex navigation, Plausible offers a streamlined, user-friendly experience. This ease of use is something I particularly appreciate, as it allows for quick access to the most important data without unnecessary complexity. If working with clients, you shouldn’t need to provide any tutorials on how to use it – just get them a login and most clients should be able to pick up without any instruction.

Another key aspect where Plausible shines is its commitment to privacy. In today’s digital landscape, where privacy concerns are increasingly at the forefront of users’ minds, Plausible’s approach to data collection is both ethical and compliant with stringent privacy laws like GDPR. This commitment resonates with me and, I believe, with many others who are cautious about how their online data is used.

I think Plausible is one of the top Google Analytics alternatives that Conversion Bridge integrates with because of the level at which you can pull out important source and conversion data. It offers a compelling package that balances essential analytics functionality with a commitment to user privacy, setting it apart in a crowded field of analytics tools.

Feature comparison for Plausible Analytics

Derek Ashauer is the lead developer of the Conversion Bridge WordPress plugin. He has helped build hundreds of custom websites using WordPress and helped business grow using marketing strategies and various analytic platforms. He now focuses his energy and experience to build highly-rated and helpful WordPress plugins.