The question is rarely “which one is best”. It is “what can I actually run”. This page compares what each tool needs, and says plainly when another one is the better choice.
Facts taken from the public documentation of each project, October 2026
| PlotBird | Matomo | Plausible | Umami | GoatCounter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Needs | PHP + MySQL | PHP + MySQL | Elixir + ClickHouse | Node + PostgreSQL/MySQL | Go binary |
| Runs on shared hosting without SSH | yes | yes | no | no | rarely |
| Installer in the browser | yes | yes | no | no | no |
| Cookies by default | no | yes | no | no | no |
| Country from a local IP database | bundled | plugin | bundled (MaxMind) | bundled | no |
| Schema upgrades without a shell | yes, from the UI | yes | no | no | no |
| Tracker size | 1.3 KB | ~20 KB | ~1 KB | ~2 KB | ~3 KB |
| Feature depth | small | huge | medium | large | small |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | MIT | own |
Tracker sizes are the ones each project states for its own script. “Runs on shared hosting” means PHP or a binary the host already provides — not a container platform.
Five honest verdicts, including the ones that do not favour PlotBird.
You have ordinary hosting with PHP and MySQL, no SSH, and no way to run Docker. You want the country data to work on the first day without downloading a database, and you would rather have a small tool that installs in five minutes than a platform you configure for a week.
You need funnels, e-commerce tracking, campaign reports or a plugin ecosystem. Matomo also runs on PHP and MySQL, so the hosting argument does not separate the two: the difference is weight and scope.
It sets cookies by default, so plan for a consent banner. matomo.org
You have a VPS with Docker and want a mature, polished product with a team behind it. Plausible needs Elixir and ClickHouse, which is a different class of server than shared hosting.
You already run Node, or your host offers it. Umami is MIT-licensed and has a broader feature set than PlotBird. If your hosting is Node-based, it is a perfectly reasonable starting point.
You want a single binary and the smallest possible footprint, and you do not need country reports. It is the leanest option in this list, and it shows.
You need session recordings, heatmaps or A/B testing. Those are different products, and this whole list is the wrong category for them.
PlotBird, Plausible, Umami, Matomo and GoatCounter are the trademarks of their respective owners. The names are used descriptively to compare software, without any affiliation, endorsement or partnership.
That is the whole point. Upload the archive, finish the wizard in the browser, paste one script tag. 1.3 KB, no cookies, country data included.
AGPL-3.0-or-later, no telemetry, no accounts anywhere. github.com/plotbird/analytics
PlotBird