Matomo
Open-source self-hosted analytics, formerly Piwik
- HQ🇳🇿 New Zealand
- Founded2007
- LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later
- ReferenceRead full review
Matomo vs Simple Analytics
Two privacy-first web analytics tools, compared side-by-side on the same axes. Data is descriptive — no rankings, no editorial winners.
Updated May 1, 2026
15 of 34 verified checks differ
Source: vendor docs & pricing pages
Simple Analytics
No-cookie analytics with AI-powered insights
- HQ🇳🇱 Netherlands
- Founded2018
- LicenseProprietary (closed-source SaaS)
- ReferenceRead full review
Which one is for you
Three concrete frames to decide. Not a winner — a fit check.
Pick Matomo if
You need a real GA4 replacement with goals, funnels, ecommerce, custom dimensions. Simple Analytics is a flat counter by design.
You need ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA. Simple Analytics doesn't ship enterprise compliance certifications.
You can self-host on PHP + MariaDB. Matomo on-prem is free for unlimited sites.
Pick Simple Analytics if
You want minimum-friction setup. Simple Analytics is one script tag and a NL-hosted dashboard. Matomo Cloud needs configuration.
You want AI Insights for natural-language queries. Matomo doesn't ship a comparable feature.
You're a content site or marketing page where pageviews + sources is the report your CMO actually reads.
Pick neither if
You're tracking app events. See App Analytics.
You need a free option. Matomo on-prem is free if you self-host; otherwise look at GoatCounter free tier.
Real cost on 100k pageviews/month
Matomo Cloud's add-ons make it heavier; Simple Analytics is monolithic.
| Line item | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Base plan (100k pv) | +$39/mo Matomo Cloud Business | +$19/mo Simple Analytics Business |
| Goals + funnels | Included Included | — Not available |
| Heatmaps & recordings | +$25/mo Premium plugin | — Not available |
| AI Insights | — Not available | Included Included |
| All-in monthly | $64/mo Matomo Cloud + heatmaps | $19/mo Simple Analytics Business |
Matomo on-prem self-host is free; figure $20/mo VPS + 6 hr/mo ops. Simple Analytics is SaaS-only.
Three things each tool quietly can't do
Limits the marketing pages won't list. Each tool has them — knowing which kills the deal saves a migration.
Matomo can't…
Stay minimal. The dashboard density is enterprise-flavored. If you want Simple Analytics's clean five-card view, Matomo can't fake it.
Run on a $5 VPS. Needs ~2GB RAM minimum.
Ship AI-driven natural-language insights. Not a feature; you read the dashboard yourself.
Simple Analytics can't…
Goals + funnels. Flat counter by design.
Self-host. SaaS-only.
Compliance certifications. Has GDPR posture but no SOC 2 / ISO 27001.
At-a-glance
Five facts that most often qualify or disqualify a tool early.
| Matomo | Simple Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Price floor | $29/mo | Free |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting model | SaaS + self-host | SaaS only |
| Data residency | EU | EU |
| Cookieless | No | Yes |
Privacy posture
Frameworks claimed and sub-processors disclosed under DPA.
Frameworks claimed
| Framework | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| GDPR | Held | Held |
| CCPA | Held | Held |
| UK PECR | Held | Held |
| SOC 2 Type II | Not held | Not held |
| ISO 27001 | Held | Not held |
| HIPAA | Not held | Not held |
Sub-processors
Matomo (5)
-
InnoCraft Ltd Legal entity (data processor for Cloud customers) 🇳🇿 New Zealand
-
AC3 Cloud Services AWS reseller / contract holder for Matomo Cloud (data stays in EU) 🇳🇿 New Zealand
-
Amazon Web Services Cloud hosting (servers, MySQL database — EU region) 🇮🇪 Ireland
-
Stripe Payment processing (Cloud subscriptions) 🇮🇪 Ireland
-
Help Scout Customer support inbox 🇺🇸 United States
Simple Analytics (4)
-
Simple Analytics B.V. Legal entity (data processor for customer's site visitors) 🇳🇱 Netherlands
-
Hetzner Online GmbH Cloud hosting (servers, database) 🇩🇪 Germany
-
-
Postmark Transactional email 🇺🇸 United States
Pricing at common traffic levels
Cheapest published plan from each vendor that covers the listed pageview volume. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
| Traffic | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| 10k pv/mo | $29/moEntry | $15/moSimple |
| 100k pv/mo | $39/mo100k | Custom — contact sales |
| 500k pv/mo | Custom — contact sales | Custom — contact sales |
| 1M pv/mo | Custom — contact sales | Custom — contact sales |
Volumes between tiers follow each vendor's published pricing model. "Custom" indicates the vendor does not publish a price for that volume on their pricing page.
Feature matrix
All 38 verified checks across 4 categories.
Tracking & Reporting (15)
| Feature | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Pageviews & visitors | Yes Pageviews + visits + visitors |
Yes Pageviews + visitors |
| Live visitor count | Yes Visitors in real-time widget |
No Last 5-min view instead |
| Top pages report | Yes Pages report (drillable) |
Yes By visitors/views |
| Top referrers | Yes Channels report (drillable) |
Yes Referrer + UTM |
| UTM campaign tracking | Yes Full attribution model |
Yes Source/medium/campaign |
| Country & city breakdown | Yes Country, region, city |
Partial Country-level only; city-level not exposed (privacy by design) |
| Device, browser, OS | Yes Full device/OS/browser breakdown |
Yes Device + browser |
| Bounce / engagement | Yes Bounce rate |
No By design |
| Time on site | Yes Full session timeline |
No By design |
| Custom events | Yes Multi-dimensional events |
Yes sa_event() JS API + auto-events.js for downloads/outbound/mailto |
| Goals / conversions | Yes Multi-step + revenue tracking |
Yes Goals dashboard with histograms; URL pattern + custom event matching |
| Funnels | Partial Cloud Business+ included; Self-host: $229/yr premium plugin |
No No funnel feature; goals dashboard but no multi-step funnel reports |
| Outbound link tracking | Yes Auto + manual |
Yes Auto via data-attribute |
| File download tracking | Yes Auto + file-type categorization |
Yes Auto via data-attribute |
| 404 / error tracking | Yes Plugin |
No No native 404 report |
Privacy & Compliance (9)
| Feature | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless by default | Partial Opt-in mode (one-line JS or admin toggle); cookies on by default |
Yes Truly cookieless: no cookies, no localStorage, no fingerprinting; referrer-based unique-visit detection (no salted hash) |
| No personal data collected | Partial Configurable; off by default, CNIL mode masks last 2 octets |
Yes IPs are dropped entirely (not just anonymized); no fingerprinting, no User-Agent stored verbatim |
| GDPR-compliant out of the box | Partial CNIL exemption (FR); DSK (DE) + Garante (IT) require case-by-case DPA review |
Yes Vendor claims "no cookie banner needed" — argues GDPR scope does not apply (no PII collected) |
| Data hosted in EU | Yes AWS Frankfurt EU; InnoCraft (NZ) operates under EU adequacy decision |
Yes Worldstream + Leaseweb (NL) + Bunny CDN (Slovenia) — encrypted at rest, only SA holds keys |
| Data hosted in US | Yes US data center option |
No EU-only — no US data residency option |
| Self-hostable | Yes Free |
No SaaS only |
| Open source | Yes GPL |
No Closed-source SaaS |
| Data retention period | Configurable Default 180 days raw (CNIL); max 25 mo; aggregated unlimited |
Configurable Simple plan: 3 yr · Team: 5 yr · 90-day permanent purge after account deletion |
| Bot & spam filtering | Yes IAB list + custom |
Yes Honored by default; opt-out via data-collect-dnt="true" attribute |
Setup & Integrations (10)
| Feature | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Script weight (KB) | 23 ~23 KB gzipped (~218 KB uncompressed); same comparison basis as peers |
3 Async, "heavily compressed"; vendor states 3 KB |
| Single-snippet install | Yes Also GTM |
Yes Single async <script> tag in <head>; SPA-aware auto-detection |
| WordPress plugin | Yes Bundled plugin (full Matomo runs in WP); 100,000+ installs |
Yes Official WP plugin documented under Integrations |
| Proxy / first-party domain | Yes Configurable proxy/CDN; no native SaaS proxy |
Yes Custom domain proxy via CNAME (scripts. + queue.) bypasses ad-blockers |
| Public API | Yes Reporting + Tracking + Custom Reports APIs (REST/JSON/XML/CSV) |
Yes Stats API + Export API (raw rows) + Admin API |
| Data export (CSV/JSON) | Yes CSV/JSON/XML/RSS |
Yes CSV |
| Google Search Console connector | No No native GSC connector; pull via API |
No No native GSC connector; export to Looker Studio + Power BI available |
| Email digests | Yes Scheduled email reports |
Yes Email reports (daily/weekly/monthly) |
| Slack / webhook alerts | No No native; via plugin |
Partial Webhook configurable; no native Slack integration documented |
| Public shareable dashboard | Yes Anonymous viewer permission |
Yes Mini-websites + embeddable charts |
Pricing & Plans (4)
| Feature | Matomo | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier exists | No 21-day trial only on Cloud; Self-host is free forever |
Yes Free tier (5 sites, 1 user, fair-use cap) + 14-day trial on paid plans |
| Entry price ($/mo) | 29 Cloud Starter (50k hits/mo, 30 sites) |
15 Simple plan: 20k datapoints/mo, 10 sites, 1 user, 3-yr retention |
| Price at 100k pageviews | — Business tier — custom pricing |
— Datapoint-based pricing — vendor doesn't publish a 100k-pageview tier benchmark |
| Unlimited sites on entry plan | Yes Cloud: 30 sites on Starter; Self-host: unlimited |
Partial 5 sites Free · 10 sites Simple · 20 sites Team |
Continue exploring
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