Google Analytics alternative: when Plausible or Matomo is a better fit than GA4

For many Dutch websites, Google Analytics 4 consistently fails to track a significant proportion of visitors: it only begins to track fully once consent has been given, and ad blockers and some browsers block the script. Privacy-friendly tools such as Plausible and Matomo track visitors without cookies and suffer from this gap to a much lesser extent. However, they do provide less in-depth analysis, and their figures cannot be compared on a like-for-like basis with those from GA4. Which tool is right for you depends on the questions you want to answer with your data.

We now track four client sites using Plausible instead of GA4, and use it to generate our monthly reports for those sites. Below, we set out why we do this, what you gain from it and what you lose.

Why GA4 doesn’t track some of your visitors

GA4 is free, but you pay for it with your data. Since Consent Mode v2, your site will only send complete measurement data to Google if a visitor accepts cookies. By default, visitors who refuse are not counted at all; in the advanced settings, they are only counted via signals that do not use cookies.

Google fills that gap with estimates, but only once a certain threshold is exceeded. A property must receive at least 1,000 events per day for seven consecutive days from visitors who refuse consent, as well as a sufficient number of visitors who do give consent (according to Google’s own explanation). Most SME websites don’t manage that. For them, a bounce is simply a visitor who disappears from the reports.

On top of that, there are ad blockers. Browsers such as Brave and extensions such as uBlock Origin block the Google Analytics script by default. The extent of this varies greatly depending on the target audience: an audience of developers and marketers is far more likely to block adverts than an audience looking for a plumber.

The result is that, in GA4, you’re looking at a subset of your visitors without knowing how large that subset is. For trends, this is sometimes manageable. But when it comes to determining how many people actually visited your site, or how many enquiries a page generates, it’s a fundamental problem.

How Plausible and Matomo do things differently

Plausible does not set cookies or use any other form of browser storage. To count visitors, it generates a daily identifier from the IP address, the browser and a random value, which is discarded every 24 hours. The IP address itself is not stored. As a result, no cookie banner is required for tracking, and you can also see visitors who opt out of GA4. Plausible costs from $9 per month for a single site with 10,000 page views, and the code is publicly available.

Matomo is the best-known open-source alternative to Google Analytics and, in terms of functionality, is closer to GA4: it includes segments and e-commerce, whilst funnels and heatmaps are available as paid plug-ins. You can run it for free on your own server or subscribe to the cloud version for a few tens of euros a month. Please note: Matomo uses cookies by default. You can set it to track without cookies, but you’ll need to configure it that way yourself.

There are other options, such as the Dutch Simple Analytics, Fathom and the open-source Umami. The choice between these tools is less important than the choice of approach: counting without tracking the visitor.

What you lose out on when you switch

A fair comparison starts with what you stand to lose, because it’s no small thing.

• No visitors over several days. Plausible only recognises a visitor within the same day. If someone returns on Monday and Thursday, they are counted twice. Questions such as ‘How often does someone return before requesting a quote?’ cannot be answered.
• No travel via devices. For Plausible, someone who searches on their mobile and places an order on their laptop counts as two people.
• No target audiences for adverts. With GA4, you can create remarketing lists that you can use directly in Google Ads. Plausible and a cookie-free version of Matomo cannot do this, and that is precisely why they are permitted to track data without consent.
• Less draught. If you’re looking for comprehensive e-commerce analytics – broken down by product, by stage of the checkout process, and with links to a data warehouse – Plausible won’t quite cut it. Matomo offers more, but that brings you closer to the issues of cookies and consent.
• Costs and maintenance. Plausible charges per site and per number of page views, so the bill increases in line with your traffic. A self-hosted Matomo server is free to licence, but someone has to maintain it: updates, backups and security. Matomo itself alerts users of self-hosted installations to security updates that they need to apply.
• This script can also be blocked. Ad blockers also recognise Plausible and Matomo. If you want to close that loophole, you’ll need to run the script via your own domain. It’s a minor technical adjustment, but one that you’ll need to sort out.

The figures cannot be compared with GA4, and there’s no need to do so

Compare Plausible with GA4 and you’ll see differences – often in the tens of per cent. That doesn’t mean either of them is wrong. They simply measure different things.

Plausible also tracks visitors who refuse cookies, and counts a returning visitor anew each day. GA4 only tracks those who give consent (or estimates the rest), but recognises a returning visitor for months on end. A ‘user’ in GA4 and a ‘visitor’ in Plausible are therefore two different things, even though the words sound similar.

Our advice: choose one source per question and stick to it. If you want to know how many people read a page, check Plausible. If you want to know how an advert performed, check Google Ads. If you’re running both tools side by side for a while, use that time to familiarise yourself with the differences, not to gloss over them.

Google Ads works perfectly well without GA4

A common concern is that, without GA4, you can no longer manage your Google Ads. That’s not true, and the reason is interesting: even with GA4, Google Ads specialists usually advise against direct linking for conversions.

Google itself highlights the differences. For conversions imported from GA4, you won’t see view-through conversions, as these require Google Ads’ own conversion tracking. Cross-device conversions are only visible if Google Signals is enabled, and imported data comes delivered within 24 hours. For a bidding strategy that focuses on recent conversions, this represents a disadvantage.

That is why we measure conversions for Google Ads using Google Ads’ own conversion tag, supplemented by enhanced conversions and, where possible, offline conversions from the CRM. GA4 is not required for this. Plausible and Google Ads do not conflict with each other: Plausible tells you how your site is being used, whilst Google Ads measures the performance of your adverts.

One point is worth noting. The Google Ads conversion tag is itself subject to the consent rules. Plausible does not resolve the gap in your ad measurement; for that, you need a properly configured cookie banner and enhanced conversions. You can read about how to set this up at Outsourcing Google Ads.

Is it really that simple from a legal point of view?

Almost, but not quite. The Telecommunications Act permits analytical cookies that have little impact on privacy without consent; however, consent is required for cookies that track browsing behaviour to create profiles. Plausible does not set any cookies at all and does not store IP addresses, so it is on the safe side.

However, Plausible does briefly process an IP address to convert it into a day code and a location, which means the GDPR still applies. You should therefore enter into a data processing agreement and mention the tool in your privacy notice. With Matomo, it depends on how you configure it: if you use cookies, you need consent; if you don’t use cookies and use truncated IP addresses, you usually don’t. If you’re unsure about your situation, consult a data protection adviser. We are not lawyers, and the supervisory authorities each focus on a different aspect of the matter.

When do you choose one or the other?

Plausible is well suited to websites where your main aim is to find out how many people visit, where they come from, which pages they view and how many enquiries this generates. Think of service providers, lead generation and content sites, particularly those with a small team that doesn’t have time for a comprehensive GA4 setup.

GA4 remains the logical choice if you want to delve deep into e-commerce, use remarketing via Analytics or link your data to BigQuery. Just bear in mind that you’ll miss out on some of your visitors, and target your adverts using the Google Ads conversion tag.

Matomo is a good option if you want the depth of analysis offered by GA4 whilst retaining control over your own data, and you have someone to manage the setup. You could also use a combination: Plausible for traffic, the Google Ads conversion tag for your adverts, and GA4 only where you really need it.

What we’ve noticed in practice

For the four sites we track using Plausible, we get a more accurate picture of the traffic: no gaps caused by rejected cookies, and no more debate about a cookie banner driving down the figures. We also notice what’s missing. Plausible doesn’t track new users or engaged sessions in the same way as GA4 does, so in our reports we focus on visitors, sources, pages and requests.

Whether it’s the right choice for your site depends on what you do with the data. Do you want to know how your tracking is currently performing, or are you torn between GA4 and an alternative? At analytics and data we’ll keep an eye on your metrics and conversions. And if you do decide to carry on with GA4, our Guide to Google Analytics 4 get you started.