Web analytics
Self-hosted alternatives to Google Analytics 4, priced
4 open-source tools that can replace Google Analytics 4, each shown with what it would actually cost to run for a team of 10 people. Google Analytics 4 on the Free tier costs $0.00 a month at that size.
| Tool | Server only | With your time | vs Google Analytics 4 | Operational weight | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Umami | $14.40 | $51.90 | -$2,018 | easy | MIT |
| Plausible Analytics | $28.80 | $141 | -$5,537 | medium | AGPL-3.0 |
| Matomo | $28.80 | $141 | -$5,537 | medium | GPL-3.0 |
| PostHog | $115 | $340 | -$13,447 | hard | source-available |
The final column is the 36-month difference: positive means self-hosting is cheaper.
Which one to pick
Umami 38,748 stars
Next.js application against PostgreSQL or MySQL. The lightest credible analytics stack: two containers and no separate column store.
At 10 people it needs 1.3 GB of memory and 10.5 GB of disk, which fits the Basic 2 GiB at DigitalOcean for $12.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 2 hours of work, then 0.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Google Analytics 4 versus Umami breakdown · Umami at every team size
Plausible Analytics 29,036 stars
Ships as Elixir plus ClickHouse plus PostgreSQL. ClickHouse sets the memory floor, so this stack does not usefully shrink below 2 GB. Disk scales with pageviews rather than with seats.
At 10 people it needs 2.6 GB of memory and 21 GB of disk, which fits the Basic 4 GiB at DigitalOcean for $24.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 6 hours of work, then 1.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Google Analytics 4 versus Plausible Analytics breakdown · Plausible Analytics at every team size
Matomo 21,859 stars
The most feature-complete option and the heaviest. Report archiving is the expensive part and wants a cron job with real memory behind it.
At 10 people it needs 2.6 GB of memory and 26 GB of disk, which fits the Basic 4 GiB at DigitalOcean for $24.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 6 hours of work, then 1.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Google Analytics 4 versus Matomo breakdown · Matomo at every team size
PostHog 39,757 stars
Kafka, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Redis and several workers. PostHog itself now discourages self-hosting below a substantial scale, and the sizing here reflects that honestly.
At 10 people it needs 10.2 GB of memory and 62 GB of disk, which fits the Basic 16 GiB at DigitalOcean for $96.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 16 hours of work, then 3 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full Google Analytics 4 versus PostHog breakdown · PostHog at every team size
How the pricing was established
Google Analytics 4 pricing was read from its own pricing page on 2026-09-12. Server prices come from the providers listed on the hosting page. The sizing model and the cost of your time are set out in full on the methodology page.