Matomo vs Simple Analytics

Matomo is a web analytics platform for tracking events, conversions, ecommerce activity, and visitor sessions. It includes heatmaps, session recordings, A/B testing, funnels, and flows, with API access and more than 100 integrations. It is available as Cloud-hosted or self-hosted on-premise software. The Community plan is free forever, with unlimited users and hits and forum support; self-hosted Matomo is also available free forever. Cloud plans start at €230/mo (annual), and a 21-day Cloud trial does not require a credit card. Cloud billing can be monthly or annual, with two months free annually. Matomo says its data is unsampled and customers retain ownership through cloud or on-premise hosting. Privacy capabilities include support for GDPR compliance, cookieless tracking, and anonymisation; the platform is certified to ISO 27001:2022. Cloud data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany. Raw data retention is 24 months, while report data is retained forever. Matomo was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand.

Simple Analytics gives website owners and marketing teams pageviews, referrers, campaign data, and events without cookies or personal data. It shows where visitors come from and how they browse, including when they reject consent. Teams can track clicks, form submissions, downloads, custom interactions, goals, and multi-step funnels. Weekly or monthly email reports, embeddable live visitor stats, CSV downloads, and APIs provide ways to share or retrieve results. The service says it stores no IP addresses, uses no persistent identifiers, and does not follow users across sites. Analytics data is hosted in the Netherlands, encrypted in transit and at rest, and not transferred outside the EU. Integrations include WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix, Ghost, Cloudflare, Netlify, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio, and Power BI. The free plan is free and includes one user, five websites, and one month of history; data older than 30 days is deleted. Self-serve costs £20 a month. A 14-day trial requires no credit card; trial users can use advanced features without restrictions.