The honest answer to “what is the cheapest analytics tool” is usually $0 — but the cheapest tool that is also cookieless, or self-hostable, or fully open-source is not always the same one. These four rankings sort privacy-friendly analytics by real monthly price within a single hard requirement, so you find the cheapest option that actually fits your constraint — not the cheapest one that ignores it.
How we rank by price
Every figure is the real monthly cost at your traffic, not a headline list price. We use a reference volume of about 100,000 events a month, count genuine free tiers and community self-hosting as $0 where that is truly the case, and re-check each number against the vendor’s own pricing page. Want your exact figure? Plug your traffic into the cost calculator, or see the full price-by-volume breakdown on the analytics cost pages.
Which requirement matters for you?
- Cookieless — choose this if you would rather skip the cookie-consent banner. Cookieless tools set no tracking cookies, so in most cases you avoid the GDPR/ePrivacy pop-up entirely. Cheapest cookieless analytics →
- Free tier — choose this if you want $0 with no server to maintain. These tools have a real free plan, not a trial, that comfortably covers small and mid-sized sites. Cheapest analytics with a free tier →
- Self-hosted — choose this if you want full data ownership and do not mind running a small server. There is no per-event bill; you pay for hosting and a little maintenance time. Cheapest self-hosted analytics →
- Open-source — choose this if you want to audit or modify the code, or avoid vendor lock-in. Open-source tools carry no licence fee and you can host them anywhere. Cheapest open-source analytics →
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest analytics tool?
At small to mid traffic, several privacy-friendly tools are genuinely free. Around 100,000 events a month, GoatCounter, Counter.dev and a self-hosted copy of Umami all cost $0. The catch is that the cheapest tool which also meets a specific requirement — cookieless, self-hostable or open-source — is not always the same one, which is exactly what the four rankings on this page sort out.
Is there a truly free analytics tool, or just free trials?
There are genuinely free options, not just trials. GoatCounter and Counter.dev run free hosted plans for personal and low-traffic sites, and open-source tools such as Umami, Matomo and Plausible's community edition are free to self-host — you only pay for the server they run on. None of these expire after a trial period.
What is the cheapest Google Analytics alternative?
If you want no cost and no maintenance, a free hosted tier such as GoatCounter or Umami's free plan is the cheapest GA4 alternative. If you can run a small server, self-hosting an open-source tool is effectively free beyond a few dollars of hosting. Both avoid GA4's report sampling on high-traffic sites and its mandatory consent banner in the EU.
Does cheaper mean worse?
Rarely, for a small or mid-sized site. The free and self-hosted tools here cover the essentials — visitors, sources, top pages and basic events — without sampling your data. You generally start paying real money only when you need very high event volumes, long data retention or advanced product-analytics features, not for everyday traffic reporting.
How is the cheapest price calculated here?
Each price is a tool's real monthly cost at a reference volume of about 100,000 events, based on its current published pricing rather than a headline rate. Genuine free tiers and community self-hosting count as $0 at that volume, and every figure is checked against the vendor's own pricing page. For your exact number, enter your traffic into the calculator.