Google Analytics is hired to count website visits and show where they came from. For many companies the cost is not a license but the time and the consent work around it, and the job can be done by a lighter tool. Below: the realistic replacements, what to export, and the privacy questions to settle first.
It is installed on the site on day one, usually by whoever built it, and it is wired into advertising before anyone thinks of it as a system. By the time someone asks what it costs, years of history and a few campaigns depend on it.
The sticking point is rarely the dashboard. It is the history that cannot follow you, the conversion goals the ad accounts read, and the fear of an unexplained dip in the numbers right after a switch.
That is fair. A change of tracking tool changes the numbers a little, and the people who read them need to know why before the first board meeting after the switch.
Only alternatives we have checked. An open-source project is listed with the license its repository reports, on the date shown; one whose license could not be read as a single standard id is not offered as open source. Read the license guide before running any of them.
| Alternative | Kind | License | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Open source | AGPL-3.0 | Plausible repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Umami | Open source | MIT | Umami repositoryChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
Each feature below is what the product's own page or README says, linked to where we read it on the date shown. Pros and cons are limited to what those pages state and to what the path itself changes. We do not rank products on quality.
| Plan | Price as published | Includes | Read from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible Starter | $9 per month | Hosted version; pageview limit set by the slider, starting at 10k monthly pageviews | Plausible pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Plausible Growth | $14 per month | Hosted version; pageview limit set by the slider, starting at 10k monthly pageviews | Plausible pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
| Plausible Business | $19 per month | Hosted version; pageview limit set by the slider, starting at 10k monthly pageviews | Plausible pricingChecked Oct 25, 2026 |
List prices for the hosted version of one alternative, as printed on its page on the checked date, per month in US dollars and excluding tax. They may differ at checkout. No price for Google Analytics was read from Google's own pages, so none is shown. Running the open-source version yourself has no license fee but needs a server and upkeep.
Website analytics is two jobs that arrive in one tool: counting visits for the people who run the site, and feeding conversion signals to advertising. The first job is small and portable. The second is where a replacement can quietly break something that costs money.
Most small companies read a handful of numbers: visits, where they came from, which pages, which campaign. That is the part a lighter tool covers. Decide the list of numbers first, then see which option produces them.
Samples are made up and are not Google Analytics's prices. Type in the figures from your own invoice or order form.
The honest yearly cost of running open-source software yourself, set against the bill it replaces, with the seat count where it stops paying.
Paid seats against seats in use: what the idle ones cost a year, and what you save by right-sizing at renewal.
Arithmetic only, not tax, accounting or legal advice. Check the figures against your own order form.
Run both tools side by side for a full month before turning the old one off. In outline:
List the reports anyone has opened in the last quarter and who asked for them. Anything nobody opens does not need a replacement.
Write down every goal or conversion that an ad platform, CRM or dashboard reads from the property. These are the dependencies that cost money when they break.
Pull the yearly totals, the channel and campaign tables and any figure quoted outside the company. Save them as files in the shared drive with the date range in the filename.
Add the new tool's script to a staging copy of the site first and confirm a visit from your own browser is recorded. Check that it respects the consent choice you configured.
Install it on the live site while the old one keeps recording. After two weeks, compare visits, top pages and top sources. Tools count differently, so expect gaps; the question is whether the trend and ranking agree.
Recreate the goals the ad platforms and dashboards read, in the new tool, and switch those readers over one at a time.
Update the privacy policy and consent banner to describe what the new tool collects. Have counsel review the wording.
After a clean month, remove the old script, end any paid agency or add-on contract inside its notice window, and keep the exports.
Run the vendor report for QuickBooks Online or Xero, then open the free audit.
General information, not legal advice. See cancelling without penalties. Last reviewed Oct 25, 2026. Product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them.
Send us the export and see which lines are worth a second look. A connected version is planned. Google Analytics is one of the lines worth a look.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
| Self-hosting, per year | Amount |
|---|---|
| Hosting, backups, tooling | 720.00 |
| Admin and restore-test time | 2,640.00 |
| Total | 3,360.00 |
| One-off set-up (not in the yearly total) | 1,200.00 |
The saving holds only if the time is real. Price the admin hours at what that person's time costs the company, not at zero.
Worked example. Type over it.
Result
“In use” is your call: last sign-in in the past 30 or 90 days from the vendor's admin report. A seat for someone on leave is not idle.