GA4 is a powerful tool, but its data retention policies (up to 14 months for event-level data) and its consent requirements under GDPR have pushed many clients to evaluate alternatives. Here is our assessment.
Plausible
Lightweight ( 1KB script), GDPR-compliant without a consent banner, and genuinely privacy-preserving (no cookies, no cross-site tracking). Missing: funnels, user segmentation, and any behavioural analytics. Best for: content sites that need basic traffic metrics.
Matomo
The most GA4-like alternative. Self-hosted (you own your data), full-featured, GDPR-compliant. The self-hosting requirement is a burden for smaller clients — Matomo Cloud is available but expensive.
PostHog
Product analytics platform with session recordings, feature flags, and A/B testing. Open source and self-hostable. Best for: SaaS products and web apps where you need to understand user behaviour in depth.
Our recommendation
Most of our studio clients run GA4 + Plausible in parallel. GA4 for deep analysis, Plausible for quick metrics without consent overhead.
