Privacy-friendly analytics tools all promise roughly the same thing: no creepy tracking, a simple dashboard, a small script. Where they really differ is price, and the pricing pages are hard to compare because each one counts something slightly different. This article lines them up at three traffic levels: 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000 monthly pageviews.
Prices were checked on the vendors’ own pricing pages on 11 October 2026, monthly billing, in the currency each vendor lists. Prices change. Always confirm on the vendor’s site before you decide. Where we couldn’t confirm a price at a given traffic level, the table says so instead of guessing.
What you’re actually paying for
Before the numbers, three things that make pricing pages hard to compare:
- Pageviews vs events. Some tools count pageviews; others count “events”, where a pageview is one event and each custom event (a signup, a click) is another. Fathom counts custom events against the same pageview allowance. If you track lots of custom events, an “events” plan fills up faster.
- What’s included. Number of sites, team members, how long data is kept and which features are available often vary by plan.
- Free tiers. Some tools have generous free plans with limits on sites, retention or features.
The comparison
| Tool | ~10k / month | ~100k / month | ~1M / month | Counts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cool Analytics | $3 | $5 | $11 | Events (pageviews + custom events) |
| Pirsch | $6 (Standard) | Check their slider | Check their slider | Pageviews |
| Plausible | $9 (Starter) | Check their slider | Check their slider | Pageviews |
| Fathom | $15 (covers up to 100k) | $15 | Check their slider | Pageviews + custom events |
| Simple Analytics | Free hobby plan (limits apply) | $20 (paid plans start at 100k) | Check their slider | Pageviews |
| Umami Cloud | Free (Hobby, 1 site) | Free (Hobby, up to 100k events) | $20 (Pro, 1M events) | Events |
| Matomo Cloud | €29 (covers up to 50k hits) | Check their slider | Check their slider | Hits |
Want to plug in your own traffic? The analytics pricing calculator lets you move a slider and compare.
Notes on each tool
Plausible
The best-known privacy-friendly analytics tool, open source, with a self-hosted Community Edition if you want to run it yourself. Starter is $9/month for 10k pageviews, and there’s a 30-day trial without a card. Solid choice if you want a mature product with goals and funnels. Cool Analytics vs Plausible.
Fathom
Simple and polished, and its entry plan is generous on sites: $15/month covers up to 100k pageviews across many sites. Custom events count toward the allowance. 7-day trial with a card. Cool Analytics vs Fathom.
Umami
Open source and free to self-host. The cloud version has a free Hobby plan (100k events, one site, six months of data) and a Pro plan at $20/month for 1M events. If you have a single small site and don’t mind the limits, the free plan is hard to beat on price. Cool Analytics vs Umami.
Simple Analytics
A strong privacy brand. There’s a free hobby plan with limited history and a badge requirement; paid plans start at $20/month, and extra team members cost extra. Cool Analytics vs Simple Analytics.
Pirsch
A German, cookieless tool with server-side SDKs. Standard is $6/month for 10k pageviews, with a 30-day trial and no card required. Cool Analytics vs Pirsch.
Matomo Cloud
A full Google Analytics replacement with a huge feature set (heatmaps, A/B tests and funnels as add-ons), hosted in the EU. It costs more and is more complex. The self-hosted version is free if you have the skills to run it. Cool Analytics vs Matomo.
Cool Analytics
One plan, priced by monthly events: $3 for 10k, $5 for 100k, $11 for 1M, up to $45 for 10M. Every size includes the live world map, every visitor’s journey, plain-English insights and revenue attribution. Yearly billing gives you two months free, and there’s a 7-day free trial (card required). Cool Analytics is hosted only; there’s no self-hosted version.
What about the free options?
Several free tools are worth knowing about:
- Google Analytics 4 is free and extremely capable, but it uses cookies, usually needs a consent banner in Europe, and is complex to use. How it compares.
- Cloudflare Web Analytics is free and cookieless, but has no custom events and samples data after a short period. How it compares.
- Vercel Web Analytics is free on Hobby with a monthly event cap and short history, and tied to the Vercel platform. How it compares.
- PostHog and Mixpanel have large free tiers, but they’re product analytics suites, a lot more than most marketing sites need.
- Self-hosting Plausible CE, Umami or Matomo is free in licence terms, but you pay in server costs and maintenance time.
How to choose
- Estimate your traffic honestly. Use last month’s pageviews from your current tool, add your custom events if the plan counts them, and leave some headroom.
- List the features you’ll actually use. Realtime, funnels, revenue, team members, API access, data retention.
- Check privacy details, not just the “cookieless” label. See cookieless analytics and GDPR.
- Try two. Most tools have a free trial. Run them side by side for a week and keep the one you actually open.
Price matters, but the cheapest tool you never look at is still a waste. Pick the one that answers your questions at a glance, and check that it still fits when your traffic doubles.