Plausible
Analytics
Plausible is lightweight, privacy-first website analytics without cookies and built for compliance.
★★★★☆4.2
✓ Docs-based · verified against official site ↗ ← All tools 
Product & Web Analytics Compared 2026: Free Tiers
Analytics tools split into two very different jobs — web traffic honesty and product behavior depth — and the free tier is where each one says which job it was built for. We compared the five tools in our directory against their official pricing pages (verified 2026-08-31, Hotjar added 2026-09-09, Amplitude re-based 2026-09-12) on the axes that decide the choice: how much free usage is real, what the cheapest paid tier covers, whether you pay per event or per seat, and whether self-hosting is an escape hatch. PostHog is the strongest zero-cost entry in the class: 1M events/month free, then $0.00005 per event, no seat fees, unlimited team members, 1 project and one-year retention on the free tier, with an MIT self-host build. Mixpanel also gives the first 1M events/month free, then $0.28 per 1K events, and its paid entry is Growth at $24/month with roughly 20% off on annual billing. Amplitude is free to 2M events/month forever; its paid side is usage-based, scaling to 70M events/month on Plus. Hotjar is the behavioral side: 200,000 sessions/month free on one project with session replays, heatmaps, funnels and basic surveys (100 responses/month) plus an MCP/LLM integration, and Growth starts at $39/month annually ($49 monthly) up to 10M sessions with Sense AI summaries — note Hotjar restructured under Contentsquare and many 2026 reviews still quote the old per-session tiers. Plausible sits at the traffic end with no permanent free tier at all: a 30-day trial, then Starter $9/month for 10k pageviews ($14 Growth 100k, $19 Business 1M), billed yearly as 10x monthly, with an AGPL self-hosted edition as the free path. The surprise holds — the strongest free tier is not the top-rated tool but the one built for product teams, so read the free shape before you compare logos.
How we rated
- Free tier real usage
- Cheapest paid entry (annual)
- Pricing model (event vs seat)
- Self-hosting option
Plausible
Best lightweight web analytics★★★★4.2
The category's cleanest privacy story (4.2/5, the top score): cookie-free, GDPR-simple web stats. No free cloud tier beyond a 30-day trial - Starter is $9/mo (10k pageviews, yearly = 10x monthly) - but the AGPL self-hosted edition is genuinely free (verified). Pick it when the job is honest web traffic numbers, not product funnels.
Free tier: No — trial only · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $9/mo (Starter $9/mo (10k pageviews; $14 Growth 100k, $19 Business 1M); yearly = 10x monthly (2 months free); 30-day trial; free self-hosted edition (AGPL))
PostHog
Best free tier for product teams★★★★4.0
The strongest zero-cost entry in the class: 1M events/month free, then pure usage pricing at $0.00005/event with no seat fees (verified). Session replay, feature flags and experiments come in the same stack - which is why product teams start free and stay small for a long time.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: Usage-based (Usage-based: 1M events/mo free, then $0.00005/event; no seat fees; free tier includes unlimited team members, 1 project, 1-year retention; MIT self-host)
PostHog
Analytics
PostHog is an open-source product analytics suite with session replay, feature flags and self-hosting.
★★★★☆4.0
✓ Docs-based · verified against official site ↗ Mixpanel
Best deep funnel & cohort work★★★★4.1
The purpose-built analytics platform (4.1): Growth is $24/mo with the first 1M events free, then $0.28/1K, annual ~20% off (verified). Buy it when funnel depth - not pageview counts - is the job.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $24/mo (Growth; event-based pricing, first 1M events/mo free then $0.28/1K; annual ~20% off)
Mixpanel
Analytics
Mixpanel is product analytics built around events and funnels, with a free plan sized for early teams.
★★★★☆4.1
✓ Docs-based · verified against official site ↗ Amplitude
Best for enterprise-scale analytics★★★★4.0
The enterprise option (4.0): Starter is free to 2M events/mo; Plus starts at $0 and bills on usage up to 70M events/mo (verified). Its event model is strong, but the price is the steepest in the class - bring it in when your product team's instrumentation is the company strategy.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: Usage-based (Plus; re-based 2026 to usage billing from $0 (first 2M events/mo free, scales to 70M events/mo); free tier 2M events/mo forever)
Amplitude
Analytics
Amplitude is enterprise product analytics with behavioral cohorts and path analysis, and a capable free version.
★★★★☆4.0
✓ Docs-based · verified against official site ↗ Hotjar
Biggest free session allowance★★★★3.9
Free at 200,000 sessions/mo (1 project) with replays, heatmaps, funnels and 100 survey responses — verified 2026-09-09 across sources; paid ladder starts at Growth $39/mo annual, and Plus/Scale are sales-only.
Free tier: Yes · Free plan is effectively the trial (200K sessions/mo)
Paid from: $39/mo (Free: 200,000 sessions/mo, 1 project, replay + heatmaps + funnels + basic surveys (100 responses/mo), MCP/LLM integration; Growth from $39/mo annual ($49 monthly): up to 10M sessions, 3 projects, Sense AI summaries; Plus and Scale are sales-quoted (typical 10x jump from Growth); old per-session tiers ($39 = 100 daily sessions) were restructured under Contentsquare — many 2026 reviews still quote them)
Bottom line
Bottom line: Two different jobs, two different answers. For plain web traffic you can own, Plausible at $9/mo (or self-hosted free) is the cleanest pick - but it is not free in the cloud. For product behavior, PostHog's 1M-free-events tier is the strongest free entry in the class, with Mixpanel ($24/mo) and Amplitude (usage-based from $0 on Plus) as the paid upgrades for funnel depth and enterprise scale. Match the tool to the question your dashboard must answer: 'how many visitors' or 'why did users churn'.
FAQs
Which analytics tool has the most generous free tier?
PostHog - 1M events/month free with no seat fees, verified on the official pricing page. Plausible has no free cloud tier (only a 30-day trial, but a free self-hosted edition); Amplitude is free to 2M events/mo; Mixpanel gives the first 1M events free.
What is the cheapest paid analytics tool?
Plausible Starter at $9/mo (10k pageviews) and Mixpanel Growth at $24/mo, both billed annually (~20% off for Mixpanel). Amplitude Plus is usage-based (from $0, first 2M events free) and can climb steeply with event volume.
Can you self-host analytics?
Yes for Plausible - the AGPL self-hosted edition is genuinely free (verified). PostHog also offers self-hosting, though the default path is their cloud; Mixpanel and Amplitude are cloud-only.