This page lists the free plans and free trials of 10 web analytics services that indie developers often use. For each one we show whether there is a free plan or only a trial, the event or pageview cap, the number of sites, data retention, the vendor's own cookie and GDPR wording, commercial use, whether a card is needed, and any self-hosted option. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pages, which are linked in each row. Three services offer a trial only, and vendors count usage in different units (events, pageviews), so the table keeps each vendor's own wording. Figures were last checked on 22 October 2026. The cookie and GDPR column quotes each vendor's own claims and is not legal advice. Free plans change often, so check the linked page before you decide.
Last checked
All figures are from the vendors' US English pages.
Published free plan and trial terms for web analytics services, from each vendor's own pages
Vendor
Free plan or trial
Event or pageview cap
Sites
Data retention
Cookie-free / GDPR claim (vendor's words)
Commercial use
Card required
Self-host option
Notes
Source URLs
Checked (22 Oct 2026)
Plausible
Trial only: 30 days ("30-day free trial")
not stated for the trial; Starter plan: "Up to 10k monthly pageviews" at "$9 /month"
not stated for the trial; Starter: "One site"; Growth: "Up to 3 sites"
not stated for the trial; Starter: "3 years of data retention"
"No cookies, no persistent identifiers, no cross-site or cross-device tracking." "By using Plausible, you do not need cookie banners for analytics or to collect consent for tracking."
not stated
No: "No credit card required"
Yes: "Plausible Community Edition (CE) is the free, self-hosted, AGPL-licensed release"
Plans are priced by monthly pageviews ("Traffic based plans that match your growth"). Self-hosted: "Premium support is not included. Self-hosting is community supported only."
"Umami does not use cookies, does not collect personal data, and does not track users across websites." "Yes, Umami is fully GDPR and CCPA compliant."
not stated
not stated
Yes: "Umami is open-source and can be self-hosted for free."
"Each website pageview counts as one event." Paid plans have a "14-day free trial"; Pro is "$20 / month" with "1 million events per month included". Email reports and the streaming API are "not available in the self-hosted version".
"Analytics 1M events" per month ("Resets monthly."); "Usage stops at the free tier limits"
"1 project" (pay-as-you-go: "6 projects – up from 1")
"1-year data retention" for events; "Recordings on the free plan are retained for 1 month."
Pricing page: not stated. Docs: "If you use PostHog with cookies on your website (for logged out users), you should also use a cookie banner to enable people to give and withdraw their consent for using cookies."
not stated
No: "No credit card required"
Yes: "We offer a free Docker Compose deployment under an MIT license." ("self-hosted deployments are officially unsupported")
"On the free plan, any additional events are permanently dropped". The free allowance also covers other products, for example "Session replay 5K recordings". "Adding projects doesn't add extra free usage."
Trial only: 7 days ("7-day free trial"); "Do you offer a free plan? Nope"
Set by the plan chosen for the trial; lowest plan: "$15/month Up to 100,000 monthly pageviews"
"50 sites included" ("Every plan includes at least 50 sites")
"Full analytics history while subscribed"
"No cookie banners required"; "No cookies, so no consent banner for analytics"
not stated
Yes: "7-day free trial. Card required"
not stated
"Pageviews and custom events share your allowance across all sites". Extra sites "in packs of 50 for $10/month". Over the limit: "we keep collecting your data throughout."
Yes: "Free for hobby sites"; "Simple Analytics is free forever."
"Our free plan offers unlimited pageviews." ("we have a fair use policy")
"5 websites" ("1 user")
"1 month history"; "Any traffic data older than 30 days will be automatically deleted from our servers."
"No cookies, no consent banners, no personal data"; "Simple Analytics is GDPR compliant from installation."
not stated (the free plan is described as "Free for hobby sites")
No: "no creditcard required"
not stated
Free plan: "Badge required". Sign-up starts a "14-day free trial (no credit card required)", then you pick a paid plan or the free plan. Paid self-serve plan shown at "$20 /month" for "100k pageviews".
Trial only: 30 days ("free 30-day trial with no credit card required")
not stated for the trial; Standard: "$6 per month for 10,000 monthly page views"
not stated for the trial; Standard: "50 Websites"
not stated for the trial; Standard: "Unlimited Data Retention"
"Because Pirsch does not use cookies to collect data, there is no need for consent banners"; "fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PECR"
not stated
No: "no credit card required"
Enterprise only: "On-premise Installation" listed under Enterprise
"Custom events and 10% of events for session extensions count towards your monthly page view limit." At the limit: "We will continue to collect data for your sites for a further five days."
not stated as a number: "free for reasonable public usage"; "sending millions of pageviews/day isn't"
"You can use an account on any number of sites/domains"
not stated
"Identify unique visits without cookies or persistently storing any personal data"; "GoatCounter probably doesn't require a GDPR consent notice"
Yes, within limits: "Running your personal website or small-to-medium business on it is fine"
not stated
Yes: "self-hosted app"; "You can self-host GoatCounter easily"
"Donations are accepted via Github Sponsors to cover server costs." Terms: "It is your responsibility to ensure that all local laws regarding data collection are followed (e.g. GDPR)."
"Included Projects Unlimited" (Hobby); events "are shared across all projects"
"Reporting Window 1 Month" (Hobby)
"without using any third-party cookies"; "no personal identifiers that track and cross-check end users' data across different applications or websites, are collected"
No: "Our Hobby plan is for personal, non-commercial use."
not stated
not stated
Over the limit: "a three day grace period will start before Vercel will stop capturing events", then "Wait 7 days before Vercel will start collecting events again" or upgrade. Pro: "$0.03 per 1K events".
Yes: "Google Analytics gives you the tools, free of charge"
not stated on the pages checked (collection limits page: "There is not limit on the number of distinctly named events for web data streams.")
not stated
Settable: "you can set the retention period of user-level data to: 2 months 14 months"; "For all other event data, you can set retention to: 2 months 14 months 26 months (360 only)"
"The GA4 JavaScript tags use first-party cookies to distinguish unique users as well as unique sessions from a single user." "Google Analytics is a data processor under GDPR"
not stated (page: "free of charge, to understand the customer journey and improve marketing ROI")
not stated
not stated
Paid tier is "Analytics 360". "The two-month retention period is always applied to age, gender, and interest data regardless of your settings."
Yes: "Privacy-first, lightweight, accurate web analytics—for free"; "Available on all plans"
not stated
"Not proxied through Cloudflare 10"; "Proxied through Cloudflare No limit"
"Currently, you can access data for the previous six months."
"Cloudflare Web Analytics does not use any client-side state, such as cookies or localStorage, to collect usage metrics." GDPR claim: not stated on the pages checked.
not stated
not stated
not stated
"We retain unsampled beacon data for the past 7 days, after this point data is aggregated down to around 10%." Rules for proxied sites: "Free 0".
Region: US. Figures are the published free-plan or trial terms on each vendor's own English (US) pages in USD on 22 Oct 2026.
"not stated" means the vendor's pages that were checked did not state the value. It does not mean "included", "not included", "allowed" or "not allowed".
Trial only: Plausible ("30-day free trial"), Fathom ("7-day free trial"; "Do you offer a free plan? Nope") and Pirsch ("free 30-day trial with no credit card required") publish no free plan. Where the page gives no trial limits, the cell reads "not stated for the trial" and then shows the lowest paid plan as the vendor lists it. Fathom's trial runs on the plan you choose ("Choose a plan and add your card to start a 7-day free trial.").
Units differ by vendor and are not converted. Umami counts events ("Each website pageview counts as one event."), PostHog counts "events", Vercel counts "page views and custom events", Fathom says "Pageviews and custom events share your allowance across all sites", and Pirsch counts "Custom events and 10% of events for session extensions" toward its page view limit.
The cookie-free/GDPR column quotes each vendor's own claim. It is not a legal assessment. GoatCounter's wording is hedged ("probably doesn't require"). Google Analytics says its tags "use first-party cookies". PostHog's docs say to use a cookie banner "If you use PostHog with cookies on your website".
Over the free limit: PostHog "any additional events are permanently dropped"; Vercel Hobby has "a three day grace period" before it stops capturing events; Simple Analytics applies "a fair use policy"; GoatCounter says "sending millions of pageviews/day isn't" fine.
Commercial use is stated by two vendors only: Vercel's Hobby plan "is for personal, non-commercial use", and GoatCounter says "small-to-medium business" use "is fine". Simple Analytics describes its free plan as "Free for hobby sites".
Cloudflare's site limit depends on setup: "Not proxied through Cloudflare 10", "Proxied through Cloudflare No limit". Its data after 7 days "is aggregated down to around 10%".
Self-host: "not stated" means the pages checked do not offer a self-hosted version. Pirsch lists "On-premise Installation" under Enterprise only. PostHog says "self-hosted deployments are officially unsupported".
Sources: only each vendor's own pricing, docs, privacy and terms pages. No third-party sites.
Region: US English pages and USD prices, standard self-serve plans.
Figures are quoted as the vendor writes them, including the vendor's own unit (events, pageviews, page views). We did not convert, total or estimate any figure.
"Trial only" means the vendor publishes no free plan; the trial length is shown.
The cookie-free/GDPR column quotes the vendor's own claim. It is not a legal assessment.
Where a value was not stated on the vendor's pages, the cell reads "not stated". This does not mean "included", "not included", "allowed" or "not allowed".
