Matomo
A Matomo alternative
Matomo is the largest open source analytics tool and, self hosted, it is free with no pageview limit. We are not going to pretend that can be undercut on price. The difference is elsewhere: for them cookieless measurement is a mode you switch on and pay for with lost data, for us it is the only mode there is.
Free plan with no time limit. No card. Setup takes a minute.
Why people look for something else
Rarely because of Matomo itself. Usually because they worked out what it costs to keep it in the shape it was meant to run in.
- 01
Free means free to licence, not free to run
Matomo On-Premise has no licence fee and no pageview limit. It does have a server, a database that grows with your traffic, upgrades, backups and cron jobs that have to finish overnight so the reports are there in the morning. That is real work, just paid in hours instead of euros.
- 02
Cookieless is something you switch on, not the default
The default configuration writes first party cookies. Turning them off is one line in the tracking code, but Matomo own documentation states plainly what it costs: you lose the split between new and returning visitors. So you choose between measuring without consent and the one number many people reach for analytics to get.
- 03
In their cloud you pay from the first pageview
Matomo Cloud starts at 29 EUR a month for 50,000 actions. An action is every pageview, but also every event and every file download, so the ceiling arrives sooner than the pageview figure suggests. There is no free plan, there is a trial.
- 04
Half of what looks like Matomo is a separate plugin
Funnels, heatmaps, session recordings, form analytics, cohorts and A/B tests are premium plugins, sold separately and priced by number of users. A feature list from the marketing pages therefore describes a setup that costs a fair amount even when you host it yourself.
The differences, row by row
The Matomo column describes the self hosted version in its default configuration, because that is how most people run it. Where the cloud behaves differently, it says so.
| metuno | Matomo | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs the server | We do | You do, or they do from 29 EUR a month |
| Written to the device | Nothing, in any mode | First party cookies by default, cookieless to enable |
| Price of measuring without cookies | None, that is how it always works | You lose new versus returning visitors |
| Free plan | One site, no pageview limit | Unlimited when self hosted, cloud has a trial only |
| Cloud price | 49 EUR a month for the account | From 29 EUR a month for 50,000 actions |
| Funnels and goals | On both plans, no surcharge | Goals included, funnels are a premium plugin |
| Heatmaps and session recordings | Absent, deliberately | Premium plugins |
| Person level data | Impossible by design | Available, visitor profiles included |
| Script weight | 1.6 kB brotli compressed | Many times more, depending on plugins |
| Time to the first report | One line in your page | Install and configure, or a cloud account |
Which one to choose
This is a question about whether you want a server and how much you want to know about individual people. Both answers are reasonable.
Choose metuno if
- you do not want to maintain a server or a database that grows with your traffic
- you want certainty that nothing lands on a visitor device, without configuring anything
- five numbers you can read in ten seconds beat several dozen reports
- you have a few small sites and want to measure them free, permanently
- you prefer a price on the page to a quote based on seat count
Choose Matomo if
- you want the data physically on your own machine and accept running the server
- you need heatmaps, session recordings, A/B tests or form analytics
- you work with individual visitor data and join it to your own systems
- you want to import your Google Analytics history rather than start from zero
- your traffic is large and you already have the server: then it is simply cheaper
Questions that come up most often
- If Matomo is free, why pay you?
- The licence is free, running it is not. A server, a database, upgrades, backups and background jobs are work that does not disappear because the software costs nothing. If you enjoy that work, or have someone who does it, Matomo is cheaper, and that is the honest answer.
- Is Matomo without cookies not the same as you?
- Close, but not the same. With cookies off, Matomo stops telling new visitors from returning ones, which their own documentation names as the cost of the change. We never have that split and we say so on the front page, instead of leaving a choice between two modes, one of which needs a banner.
- Will you migrate my Matomo data?
- We do not import history. The definitions of a visitor and a visit differ, so a shared chart would show a step at the point you switched rather than a change in traffic. Run both side by side for a month and compare directions and proportions, not values.
- Can I get session recordings or heatmaps?
- No, and we do not plan to. A session recording is a record of what one person did on your site, which is exactly the kind of data this tool is built not to collect. If you need them, that is a real reason to choose Matomo.
- Is your data in the European Union too?
- Yes, the servers are in Warsaw and no service from outside the Union is connected to them. On this particular point we do not differ from Matomo Cloud, and we are not going to present it as our advantage.
See what is left once you subtract the server
One line in your page and the first numbers a few minutes later. No install, no upgrades, no overnight jobs.
Quellen
- Matomo Cloud and On-Premise pricing, Matomo, 2026
- Premium plugins for the self hosted version, Matomo, 2026
- How to go cookieless in Matomo and what it costs, Matomo, 2026
Matomo is a trademark of InnoCraft Ltd. We are not affiliated with them. This comparison describes publicly available pricing and documentation, checked on the date below. Plan terms and the scope of premium plugins can change, so check them at the source before deciding.
Aktualisiert am 15. September 2026