Most sites running Google Analytics 4 don’t actually need its complexity. If you mostly look at top pages, referrers, and weekly trends, Plausible covers that in a single screen and stops handing your visitor data to Google.
What you gain
- Cookieless by default, no consent banner required in most jurisdictions
- One dashboard, no learning curve, page loads in under a second
- Your data stays yours, with EU hosting on the cloud plan
- Script weighs under 1 KB versus GA4’s bulky tag
What you give up
You lose deep funnels, GA4’s audience builder, and any integration that assumes a Google Tag Manager pixel. There’s no equivalent of Looker Studio yet, so custom reporting means the API.
The math
Plausible Cloud starts at $9/month for up to 10K monthly views, or roughly $108/year. Self-hosted is free but adds a small VPS cost, around $5/month. Compared to GA4, the cost is in your time saved, not the line item.
Who should switch
Bloggers, indie SaaS, content sites, and anyone who already finds GA4 overkill. Setup is five minutes: drop in the script, point your domain. If you run paid ad attribution end-to-end, stay with GA for now.