Hey, I’m Alex Cheapman
Budget analytics evangelist. Former agency marketer.
I test every free and affordable analytics tool so you don’t waste your money.
My Story
I spent 10 years watching small businesses overpay for data tools they barely used.
I started my career at a digital marketing agency in Warsaw. The work was exciting — campaigns, dashboards, conversion funnels — the whole deal. But one thing kept bugging me: the clients with the biggest budgets always got the best analytics setups. Everyone else? They were told to “invest in enterprise tools” or settle for guesswork.
I watched small business owners sign up for $500/month platforms they’d never fully use. I saw freelancers skip analytics entirely because “the good tools cost too much.” And I kept thinking: this is wrong.
So I left the agency world. I started freelancing and testing every free and affordable analytics tool I could find. Turns out, you can build a seriously powerful analytics setup for exactly $0 per month. Sometimes the free tools are genuinely better than the paid ones. And the ones that do cost money? Often $9/month gets you 90% of what enterprise platforms charge $500 for.
That’s why I built StatsCheap — to share everything I’ve learned about doing analytics on a real-world budget.
What I Believe
Smart beats expensive. Every single time.
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Every Tool Gets a Price Tag
I never mention a tool without telling you what it costs. Free, freemium, or paid — you’ll always know before you click.
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Tested, Not Guessed
I personally install, configure, and use every tool I write about. Across dozens of real sites. No surface-level reviews.
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Honest About Limits
Free tools have trade-offs. I’ll tell you exactly what they can’t do — so you can decide if the paid upgrade is worth it.
What You’ll Find Here
Content built around one question: how do I get the data I need without overspending?
▶ Free Tool Reviews
Deep dives into GA4, Umami, Matomo, Microsoft Clarity, Plausible Community Edition, and every other free analytics platform worth your time.
▶ Cost Comparisons
Side-by-side pricing breakdowns. Total cost of ownership calculations. Answering the question: is the paid version actually worth it?
▶ DIY Setup Guides
Step-by-step tutorials for people who do everything themselves. Install, configure, and start tracking — no agency needed.
▶ Small Business Playbooks
Analytics strategies designed for real-world constraints. What to track when you have 500 visitors, not 500,000. Which 5 metrics actually matter.
▶ Budget Analytics Strategy
How to build a complete data stack for $0. When to invest in paid tools. ROI frameworks for people who count every dollar.
▶ No-BS Tool Verdicts
Quick, honest answers: Is this tool worth paying for? What’s the best free alternative? Can I get away without it entirely?
The Bottom Line
You don’t need a six-figure budget to understand your audience. You just need the right tools and someone who’s already tested them for you.
That’s what I do here. Every article, every comparison, every guide — written with your budget in mind.
Got a question or a tool you want me to test? Drop me a line at
[email protected]
Based in Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱