I’ve moved my web analytics for my blog and personal projects to Plausible Analytics.
I’ve used Google Analytics on my blog and other smaller projects for a very long time. But I’ve always felt that Google Analytics was overkill for that.
Google Analytics is a great service - but I’m only using around 10% of the features.
- I don’t care about detailed behavior flows
- Or in-depth traffic source analysis
- I’m not using attribution analysis
- Do I need to be reminded that I have no real-time users at the moment?
And don’t even get me started on the privacy concerns.
When I looked at the alternatives - there were a lot of choices. But they too often offered too much, or were charging on a per site basis.
Matomo is also too functionality much for a small site, AWStats feels dated, and Netlify Analytics is too expensive. With many others falling into those categories.
My use case is primarily small projects, content sites, and blogs. I want only a few key statistics, and minimal setup for each site.
For that, Plausible Analytics seems like the best choice.
Plausible has also put together a comprehensive writeup on Plausible Analytics vs. Google Analytics.
It’s easy to use
Plausible Analytics is dead simple to set up.
- Add the scripts
- Visit the pages
- You’re done
The reports are extremely easy to read and understand. And if you need events, you can add those too.
It’s easy to manage multiple sites
Because I have multiple sites, it’s important for me to be able to shift from one to the next. Google Analytics does this very well, but the setup per site gets to be a little… much.
Plausible Analytics makes it really easy to have multiple sites, and to see the reporting across them. The only thing I see missing here is a mobile application. But I probably don’t need to be constantly checking stats on my phone.
I still get the metrics I care about
Like I mentioned above, for small projects there are only a few things I really care about.
- Visits
- Visitors
- Page Views
- Referrers
- Devices
- Locations
Custom events (like a newsletter signup) are going to be important for me on some sites, so I’ll need to explore that feature in depth with other projects to see if it meets my needs.
Beyond that, there aren’t many stats I find myself tracking on small projects.
Privacy is important
I believe in user privacy and I appreciate it when other site owners respect my privacy.
There is no point in subjecting visitors to additional tracking if I’m not actually using any of the functionality that would justify it.
I like the project
Last but not least on my list of reasons to switch: the project resonates with me.
It’s a small but growing project and I want to do all I can to support my fellow makers out there.
What better way than to vote with my wallet, put my money where my mouth is, etc. and offer support by becoming a customer when it makes sense?
