You self-host it, you own the data, your visitors' browsing habits stay on your servers. GDPR compliance without the headache of cookie consent banners (in most configurations).

GPL v3, used by over a million websites including government agencies and universities. It tracks page views, sessions, referrers, goals, e-commerce conversions, basically everything Google Analytics does.

Self-hosting is free with no feature limits. Their cloud-hosted version starts at $23/mo for 50K hits. On-premise premium plugins (like A/B testing, funnels, custom reports) cost $229/year per plugin or $629/year for the bundle.

The catch: Matomo's self-hosted interface feels dated compared to modern analytics tools like Plausible or PostHog. It's powerful but overwhelming: hundreds of reports, dense UI, lots of configuration. And the PHP/MySQL stack means you need traditional web hosting, not just a static server. For teams that just want pageviews and referrers, Plausible or Umami are simpler.

**Self-hosted (free):** Full analytics suite: page views, goals, e-commerce, heatmaps (basic), session recording (basic), SEO reports. No user or site limit. Requires PHP + MySQL/MariaDB.

**Premium plugins (on-premise, paid):** - A/B Testing: $229/yr - Funnels: $229/yr - Multi-Channel Conversion Attribution: $229/yr - Roll-Up Reporting: $229/yr - Full bundle: ~$629/yr

**Cloud hosted:** - $23/mo for 50K hits - $49/mo for 100K hits - $109/mo for 250K hits - $219/mo for 1M hits - Premium features included in cloud plans

**The math:** A site with 200K monthly hits: self-host for free (+ ~$10-20/mo server) or pay $109/mo cloud. Google Analytics is free but you're the product. Plausible Cloud is $19/mo for 200K hits but far simpler.

Matomo

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