Best Web Analytics (2026)
Privacy-first traffic and product analytics.
Web analytics tools tell you who visits your site, where they come from, and what they do. The privacy-first and open-source options below skip invasive tracking, stay lighter on your pages, and in many cases keep you compliant with GDPR and similar rules by default — often without a cookie banner.
Switching from a specific tool?
Simple, self-hostable analytics with MIT licensing, no pageview caps, and a free cloud tier.
- MIT license — fully free to self-host with no feature gates or pageview limits
- Deploys in minutes to Vercel or any Node host without operational complexity
- No native funnels, session replay, or A/B testing capabilities
Open-source product analytics suite with events, funnels, session replay, feature flags, and A/B tests.
- Single platform replaces GA, Hotjar, LaunchDarkly, and parts of Segment
- Generous free cloud tier — 1 million events per month at no cost
- Self-hosting at scale requires Kafka, ClickHouse, and Redis — significant ops burden
Lightweight, cookieless web analytics that is GDPR-friendly out of the box.
- No cookies means legally simpler GDPR/CCPA compliance without a consent flow
- Sub-1 KB tracking script with no measurable page-weight impact
- No session replay, heatmaps, or multi-step funnel visualization
Google's dominant web analytics platform, now built on the event-based GA4 model.
- Free for most websites with extremely generous traffic limits
- Tight integration with Google Ads, Looker Studio, and Search Console
- Requires cookie consent banners under GDPR, adding compliance overhead
Top comparisons
FAQ
What is the best web analytics tool?
Umami is a top pick: Simple, self-hostable analytics with MIT licensing, no pageview caps, and a free cloud tier.
Are there free or open-source web analytics tools?
Yes — Umami, PostHog, Plausible Analytics are open source and most can be self-hosted.