As of 30 Oct 2026, the panel rates Plausible Analytics 2.5/5 and Simple Analytics 3/5 in Web Analytics. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 4 of the 6 judges pick Plausible Analytics and 1 picks Simple Analytics, 1 calls it a tie. Plausible Analytics scores higher on 1 of 7 criteria (Goals, events, funnels & e-commerce). Simple Analytics scores higher on 6 of 7 criteria (Pricing transparency, Consent-free operation & data minimisation, Data access, export & self-hosting, plus 3 more). Provenance — Plausible Analytics: EU-Made; Simple Analytics: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
Simple Analytics holds the higher mean on six of seven criteria — consent and privacy 6.7 to 5.7, data ownership 6.3 to 5.5, sovereignty 6.2 to 5.5, pricing transparency 5.0 to 3.8, implementation 5.7 to 5.3, traffic reporting 5.0 to 4.8 — while Plausible Analytics carries the judge leans on six: 4–1 on traffic reporting, conversions and events, and implementation; 3–1 on data ownership and sovereignty; 2–1 with three ties on consent and privacy. Pricing transparency is the one criterion where no judge leans Plausible Analytics (0–2, four ties); its pages price only the 10k monthly pageview band, with Enterprise at 'Contact us'. The weighted totals divide the bench: four favor Plausible Analytics 7.4–8.0 against 6.3–7.0, the skeptic reads it 0 to Simple Analytics' 7.2, and the public-sector bench reads both 0. Both list EU-only data residency and founder-held ownership, with entities in Estonia and the Netherlands.
Choose Plausible Analytics if
You need conversions and events coverage — four judges lean Plausible Analytics there, mean 4.5 to 4.2.
Your team builds on documented APIs and exports and wants a 30-day trial with no credit card — the implementation lean is Plausible Analytics 4 to 1.
Your data protection officer leads procurement — that weighted total reads Plausible Analytics 7.6 to 7, with an automatically applicable data processing agreement and visitor data stated to be processed on servers owned by European companies and never to leave the EU.
Your buying committee resembles the e-commerce lead, agency developer and growth analyst — their totals read 7.5, 8 and 7.4 against 6.3, 6.8 and 6.7.
Choose Simple Analytics if
You need published prices beyond an entry band before signing — pricing transparency means 5.0 to 3.8, no judge leans Plausible Analytics (0–2 with four ties), and its pages price only the 10k monthly pageview band with Enterprise at 'Contact us'.
Your reviewer scores like the skeptic bench — its weighted total reads Simple Analytics 7.2 to Plausible Analytics 0.
You need a consent-free position argued against named law — Simple Analytics cites ePrivacy Article 5(3), Germany's TTDSG and the UK PECR, drops IP addresses rather than storing or hashing them, and its consent and privacy mean reads 6.7 to 5.7 (leans split 2–1 with three ties).
Your contracting requires a Dutch entity — jurisdiction is listed as the Netherlands — noting that the captured pages give different figures for the contracting entity.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Skeptic
Has seen "no cookie banner needed" on a tool that fingerprints every visitor, "EU-hosted" on a proxy in front of a US data store, and "unlimited" data history that ends with the subscription. Reads that a product is "GDPR-compliant" and asks which ruling the vendor means, what is stored per visit, whether the history can be exported in a format another tool imports — and what leaving would cost.
Plausible Analytics
Simple Analytics
This judge's pick
Criterion by criterion
Traffic, sources & campaign reports
Plausible Analytics
Every report I would ask for is documented: pages, entry and exit pages, channels, sources, referrers, UTM tags, countries down to city, browsers, operating systems and devices, a real-time view updating every 30 seconds, filters with saved personal and site segments, annotations, email reports and a consolidated view across sites, with Search Console data shown alongside the traffic. Custom properties double as custom dimensions in the API, and the counting method is published (a daily hash, 30-minute session timeout). What I could not find: any statement that reports are unsampled, configurable channel grouping, or evidence that every report can be rebuilt from the raw data.
Simple Analytics
Pages, referrers, UTM source/medium/campaign/content, countries and device breakdowns are shown with cross-report filters, UTM drilldown into devices and countries, weekly or monthly client email reports, shared and public dashboards, annotations, and one-click bot and referral-spam removal. We found no public information on date comparisons, configurable channel grouping or roll-up reporting across sites, and the vendor states plainly that it cannot guarantee every visit is recorded.
Goals, events, funnels & e-commerce
Plausible Analytics
The documented set is broad: pageview goals without code changes, custom events with properties, outbound links, file downloads, form submissions, 404s and scroll depth tracked automatically, funnels in three types with drop-off per step and revenue per step, revenue goals filterable by source, campaign, entry page, country and device, user journeys, and WooCommerce and Shopify revenue integrations. Still missing for the top rating: product-, cart- and checkout-level e-commerce, cohort and retention reports, compared attribution models, and any way to send conversions back to Google Ads or Meta — I found no public information on those.
Simple Analytics
Goals are built on defined events, custom events go through a documented function with metadata, outbound clicks, emails and downloads are tracked automatically, and multi-step funnels show where visitors drop off, with conversion rates on signup events and an events explorer. We found no public information on e-commerce revenue tracking, shop-system plugins, attribution models, cohorts, or conversions sent back to ad platforms.
Consent-free operation & data minimisation
Plausible Analytics
This is the strongest consent-free case I can check on paper: no cookies, no persistent identifiers, no cross-site or cross-device tracking, a published counting method (daily salt hash over IP address and User-Agent, salt deleted every 24 hours, raw IP and User-Agent never stored), URL query parameters discarded except campaign and referral parameters, and an independent legal assessment by a data protection expert supporting consent-free processing under GDPR, CCPA and PECR via legitimate interest, with the code open to inspection. The gaps: no citation of §25 TDDDG or the CNIL exemption, no per-data-type retention settings, and no supplied wording for the customer's privacy policy.
Simple Analytics
No cookies or browser storage, IP addresses dropped rather than stored or hashed, no fingerprinting or device identifiers, no cross-site profiles, and the per-visit fields are listed (page URL, referrer, UTM, time zone as country proxy, anonymised user agent) with the counting method published — no session timeout, an external referrer starts a visit. The position is argued against named law (ePrivacy Article 5(3), PECR, TTDSG), the collection script is open source, and the vendor candidly writes that cookieless is a technical choice, not a legal exemption. No external audit or authority recognition of the consent-free mode is cited — SOC 2 is stated as in progress — and retention appears only as plan history length rather than settings per data type.
Data access, export & self-hosting
Plausible Analytics
The data has exits: a documented stats API with filters, segments and custom-property dimensions, an events API and a sites API, per-report CSV exports, a site-settings export in the same format as the CSV import so it can be reimported into another Plausible site, GA4 history import, daily raw event exports to S3-compatible storage on Enterprise, and an AGPL-licensed self-hosted edition with its own install guide. But read the fine print: dashboard CSVs are capped at the top 300 entries per report (100 for pages), the raw export sits behind Enterprise, the Community Edition explicitly omits funnels, user journeys, e-commerce revenue goals, SSO and the sites API, and both dashboard export and the stats API stop working without an active subscription — only the site-settings export survives to get the data out before deletion.
Simple Analytics
Raw page views and events export through the dashboard and a raw export API in CSV, JSON, Parquet and four other formats with field selection, alongside stats, export and admin APIs, warehouse export via CloudQuery, BI connectors, and a GA4 historical import; the terms state the customer owns the analytics data and everything is deleted on account deletion after a stated 90-day backup window. We found no public information on a self-hosted edition, and the export API requires a plan that includes it without the captured pages showing which plans those are.
Installation, integrations & performance
Plausible Analytics
Installation is documented end to end: a head snippet with a testing tool, an official WordPress plugin with WooCommerce revenue tracking and proxy mode, guides for thirteen named platforms including Shopify, automatic single-page-app routing plus a hash-based tracker, Android, Swift, Flutter and Qt SDKs, a Google Tag Manager template, a first-party script proxy, server-side collection via the events API, team roles up to single sign-on on Enterprise, and a public status page reporting 99.99% uptime over 90 days. Script weight is stated comparatively — 135KB less JavaScript per visitor than Google Analytics. I found no published SLA, no white-label option and no named protocol for the single sign-on; the self-hosted edition comes with community support only.
Simple Analytics
Installation is one async script stated at under 5 KB with a lighter variant, automatic pageviews in single-page apps, an official WordPress plugin and guides for Webflow, Squarespace, Wix, Ghost, Cloudflare, Netlify, Google Tag Manager and frameworks from Next.js to Django, an own-subdomain proxy to bypass ad blockers, server-side event sending from the backend, a setup wizard, and a candid warning that the noscript fallback increases bot traffic. We found no public information on mobile SDKs, granular per-site roles, single sign-on, or a public status page with uptime history.
European sovereignty
Plausible Analytics
The chain checks out where it matters for visitor data: the contracting entity is Plausible Insights OÜ in Tartu, Estonia (imprint with registration number 14709274), hosting is on Hetzner in Falkenstein, Germany with the statement that visitor data never leaves the EU, the CDN is Bunny in Slovenia and the database on UpCloud in Finland, and a DPA is published and applies automatically to all customers. Two reservations keep this from the top: Paddle (payments), Postmark (the email reports) and several optional processors appear on the list without a stated location, and no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification is claimed anywhere I read. The self-hosted Community Edition, installable on any server in any country, is the exit door — with the caveat that you also own the security patching.
Simple Analytics
Dutch entity and VAT ID, EU-owned and self-funded, primary infrastructure in the Netherlands on named hosts (Hetzner, Leaseweb, Worldstream, Bunny), and a subprocessor list that names each provider's location and exactly which data it sees, with the stated boundary that visitor data is collected, processed and stored by EU providers only. US subprocessors are confined to billing (Stripe), scheduling, code hosting and an opt-in AI feature sending aggregated data to OpenAI, and a data processing agreement page is published with signing of customer agreements offered. The captured pages give different figures for the contracting entity — a B.V. in Amsterdam under one Chamber of Commerce number, a sole proprietorship in Bussum under another — and the only certification mentioned is SOC 2 in progress.
Pricing transparency
Plausible Analytics
Starter at €9/month for up to 10k monthly pageviews on one site, Growth at €14/month for 3 sites, Business at €19/month for 10 sites, two months free on yearly billing, a 30-day trial with no credit card, and a self-hosted edition with no fees to the vendor. A buyer still cannot compute the full annual cost: the pageview bands for Growth and Business are not given, there is no stated overage handling, the captured pages give no VAT treatment or minimum term, and single sign-on and scheduled raw exports live on an Enterprise plan priced only as 'Custom Contact us'.
Simple Analytics
A free tier with stated limits (one user, five websites, one month history), a paid entry at "€20 /month", usage-based scaling on data points with the averaging method described, overage handling (email notice, one week to raise the limit, then automatic upgrade), "+€20/mo per extra user", published surcharges (Bitcoin +10%, bank transfers from €500 at an additional 10%), three currencies, and cancellation at any time with access until the paid period ends. The price ladder above the entry tier, the plan mapping for features such as the export API, and VAT treatment are not on the captured pages, and enterprise is custom quoted.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Plausible Analytics
Simple Analytics
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting location
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting options
Not determined
Not determined
Open source
Not determined
Not determined
Data processing agreement
Not determined
Not determined
Transfer impact assessment
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
Questions about Plausible Analytics and Simple Analytics
Which is better, Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics?
As of 30 Oct 2026, the panel rates Simple Analytics higher: 3/5 against 2.5/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 4 of the 6 judges pick Plausible Analytics and 1 picks Simple Analytics, 1 calls it a tie. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics European?
Plausible Analytics is European (EU-Made). Simple Analytics is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.
Where do Plausible Analytics and Simple Analytics store customer data?
Per the vendors’ own pages as captured — Plausible Analytics: Default not stated; pages mention the EU and Germany. Simple Analytics: Default not stated; pages mention the EU.
Do Plausible Analytics and Simple Analytics have a free plan?
As of 30 Oct 2026, Simple Analytics’s own pages state a free plan; Plausible Analytics’s pages as captured do not. Each product page links the pricing page it was read from.