Most site owners use a small part of GA4. They want visitors, top pages, where people came from and a few conversions. GA4 buries those under menus, sets cookies that last two years by default, and sends your visitors’ data to Google. In the EU, that usually means asking for consent before it loads.
The tools below put the common numbers on one screen, and most of them set no cookies at all. The switch takes an afternoon, plus a month or two of running both.
Quick Comparison
| Tool | Best for | Price (Oct 2026) | Cookies | Based in | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Most sites | From about $9/month (10k pageviews); self-hosted free | None | Estonia, EU hosting | Yes (AGPL) |
| Umami | Free hosted or self-hosted | Hobby free (100k events, 1 site); Pro $20/month | None | US; servers in US and EU | Yes (MIT) |
| Matomo | GA-level depth | Self-hosted free; Cloud from 29/month (50k hits) | First-party by default | New Zealand; Cloud in Germany | Yes (GPL) |
| Fathom | Agencies with many sites | From $15/month (100k pageviews, 50 sites) | None | Canada | No |
| Simple Analytics | Data kept in the Netherlands | Free for hobby sites; paid from $20/month | None | Netherlands | No |
| Pirsch | Low-cost EU option | From $6/month (10k pageviews) | None | Germany | Core only |
| GoatCounter | Personal and small sites | Free (donations) | None | Not stated | Yes |
Which One Fits Your Site
- A blog, shop or small business site that needs visitors, sources, top pages and a few goals should use Plausible.
- A hobby site, side project or developer happy to run a small server should use Umami, free in the cloud or self-hosted.
- A marketing team that lives in GA’s goals, ecommerce reports and segments should use Matomo. It’s the only one here that goes as deep.
- An agency with dozens of client sites should look at Fathom, which includes 50 sites in every plan.
- A personal site with no budget can use GoatCounter.
Also ask whether you need analytics at all. This site runs none. If you only want to know that people visit, your host’s server statistics may be enough.
The Alternatives, One by One
Plausible
Plausible Insights is a small, self-funded company registered in Estonia, with a team of 10 and no outside investors. The code is open source under the AGPL. It counts visits without cookies or persistent identifiers, and it doesn’t track people across sites or devices.
- Pick it because it’s the quickest move from GA. The dashboard fits on one page, it imports GA4 history, and it can show your Google Search Console queries if you keep that.
- Possible deal-breakers are fewer reports than GA and no per-person journeys. The free Community Edition is released twice a year and leaves out funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO and the sites API. You also run the server yourself.
- Prices (Oct 2026) start with Starter at $9/month (1 site, 10,000 pageviews, 3 years of data). Growth is $14/month (3 sites), and Business is $19/month (10 sites, 5 years of data). Yearly billing gives two months free, and the trial lasts 30 days with no card.
Umami
Umami is open source under the MIT license and made by Umami Software, Inc. in the US. Umami Cloud runs servers in the US and the EU, and the software sets no cookies.
- Pick it because it’s free in two ways. The Hobby cloud plan covers one site and 100,000 events a month. Self-hosting is always free, and it runs on a PostgreSQL database.
- Possible deal-breakers are the Hobby plan’s 6-month data history and the lack of a Google Analytics importer. Umami Cloud imports data only from self-hosted Umami or CSV files, from the Pro plan up.
- Prices (Oct 2026) start at free. Pro is $20/month for 1 million events, 20 sites and 2 years of data. Business is $200/month for 10 million events.
Matomo
Matomo started in 2007 as Piwik and now runs on more than 1.4 million websites. It’s open source (GPL), made by InnoCraft in New Zealand, and Matomo Cloud stores data in Frankfurt, Germany.
- Pick it because it can replace GA almost feature for feature, with goals, ecommerce, campaign tracking and visitor logs. Its GA4 importer comes built into Matomo Cloud and is a Marketplace plugin for self-hosted installs.
- Possible deal-breakers are complexity and cookies. Matomo sets first-party cookies by default. It has a mode for France’s consent exemption, but that switches off visitor logs, heatmaps, user IDs and campaign details, and you still have to add an opt-out. The GA import needs a Google Cloud project and OAuth credentials, and the first run can take several hours.
- Prices (Oct 2026) are free for self-hosting (On-Premise Community). Matomo Cloud’s Business plan starts at 29 a month for 50,000 hits, with the currency set by your region.
Also Good
- Fathom is a polished, paid service based in Canada. It costs $15/month for 100,000 pageviews and includes 50 sites, with an EU data isolation option. The trial is 7 days and needs a card.
- Simple Analytics is a Dutch company, and it keeps website data in the Netherlands. The free plan covers 5 hobby sites but keeps only the latest month and shows a badge. Paid plans start at $20/month.
- Pirsch is German, cookie-free and hosted in Germany. It starts at $6/month for 10,000 pageviews across 50 sites, imports GA data and has a 30-day trial.
- GoatCounter is open source and free for reasonable public use, funded by donations. It suits personal sites, and you can self-host it.
Cookie Banners and EU Consent
This part is about law, and the details depend on your country and your site. Use it to prepare a conversation with whoever handles privacy for your site.
- Google Analytics sets cookies. GA4 sets
_gaand a second session cookie, both lasting two years by default. EU rules on cookies generally require consent for anything not strictly needed, so in the EU, GA usually has to wait until a visitor agrees. - Cookieless tools change the picture. Plausible, Umami, Fathom, Simple Analytics, Pirsch and GoatCounter set no cookies, and their makers say you don’t need a banner for them. Those are the vendors’ own claims.
- France allows an exemption for audience measurement that meets strict conditions. Visitors must be told and able to object, and the tool must be limited to audience statistics, kept separate from other data, limited to one site, use shortened IP addresses and keep any cookie for 13 months at most. France’s regulator, the CNIL, says most large analytics offerings don’t qualify, and that other countries may take a different view.
- US transfers are a moving target. Since July 2023, transfers to certified US companies can rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. An EU court upheld it in September 2025, and an appeal to the Court of Justice has been pending since October 2025.
Removing GA can simplify your banner, but check what else on the page needs consent. YouTube embeds, ad pixels and chat widgets often do. If your organization has a data protection officer, involve them.
How to Switch From Google Analytics
Add the New Tool Next to GA4
- Sign up for the new tool, or start its free trial, and add your site’s domain.
- Paste its script into your site’s head, or use its plugin for your CMS. Leave the Google tag in place for now.
- Visit your site in a private window and check that the visit appears in the new dashboard.
- Recreate the goals or conversions you track in GA, such as sign-ups, purchases or file downloads.
Run Both for a Month or Two
Expect different numbers. Cookieless tools count unique visitors differently from GA, and ad blockers stop some scripts and not others. Compare trends and top pages rather than exact totals. One or two full months gives you a fair comparison, including a month-end.
Export What You Want to Keep From GA4
- In GA4, open Reports and go to a report you want to keep.
- Click Share this report, then Download File, then Download CSV or Download PDF. CSV files hold up to 100,000 rows.
- Repeat for each report and date range you care about. Store the files with your other business records.
Plan around three limits.
- Explorations only go back 2 or 14 months, depending on your data retention setting. Standard reports aren’t affected. Export any explorations you rely on first.
- Universal Analytics is gone. Google deleted all UA data in July 2024. If you didn’t export it then, it can’t be recovered.
- BigQuery export is for analysts. Standard properties can export up to 1 million events a day, but it’s mainly useful for data collected after you link it, and charges apply above the free sandbox limits.
Import GA4 History Into Plausible
Plausible can pull your GA4 history, aggregated by day, so your charts don’t start from zero.
- In Plausible, open your site’s settings and find Imports & Exports.
- In the Import Data panel, click Google Analytics and sign in to the Google account that can see the property.
- Pick the GA4 property, click Continue, then Confirm import. Plausible emails you when it’s done, usually within minutes.
The import covers up to 5 GA4 properties per site. It leaves out ecommerce revenue, exit pages, scroll depth and separate UTM sources. Plausible stops the import the day before its own data begins, so the two don’t overlap. Matomo has its own GA4 importer, and Pirsch imports GA data too.
Remove the Google Tag and Delete the Property
- Remove the GA4 snippet (gtag.js) from your site, or delete the GA4 tag in Google Tag Manager. Check CMS plugins and theme settings too.
- View your page source and search for “gtag” and your G- measurement ID to confirm nothing is left.
- Update your privacy policy and cookie banner to match what your site now does.
- When you’re sure you have what you need, open GA4 Admin, click Property details under Property, then Move to Trash Can. You need the Editor role, and the property is deleted for good 35 days later.
Leaving GA doesn’t affect Google Search Console, which is a separate product. Many site owners keep it to see search queries, and Plausible can show that data in its own dashboard.
Check your forms while you’re in the code. If they use Google’s reCAPTCHA, every visit still loads Google code, and our reCAPTCHA alternatives page shows how to replace it.
Your website is one piece of your Google footprint. Our free scan reads files you download from Google and shows what else depends on your account. Nothing is uploaded.
What You Lose
Partial is fine. You can run a cookieless tool for everyday numbers and keep a GA property archived until you’re sure you’ll never need it.