When I launched LGC, I had a decision to make: was I going to use Google Analytics, or an alternative?

I had heard good things about Plausible Analytics when I was reading about it on the elementary OS blog. Here’s what Google Analytics does:

Google happily tracks you across all the websites you visit if those sites use Google Analytics, or if you use Google search. Google then infers and remembers all sorts of information about you; for example: your age range, an inferred gender, if you’ve changed jobs or moved recently, and whether you like to spend time outdoors. Google then uses all of this data to target ads to you, in the hopes that more precise ads will get you to bite, thus earning them their commission.

Also, if you’ve used Google Analytics before, I’m sure you’re aware of how unnecessarily complicated the user interface is. Google keeps track of a lot more things than just what articles you’re clicking on or what web browser you’re using, and all of this data – a lot of which just isn’t necessary – is tucked away behind several menus.

Plausible Analytics provides a solution to both problems. It uses a much-more simplified dashboard, giving you only the data that you want, and gives it all at a glance. No menus to hop through, no need to create a “custom report”. You can quickly adjust the filters, such as the length of time, by web browser, by device, by location, etc.

Website traffic for April 18th

Plausible Analytics gets their funding by charging their customers directly – not through advertising or by selling information they get from their consumers. It’s lightweight and doesn’t use cookies either. It is therefore more privacy-respecting than Google Analytics, and it’s the reason why I don’t need to add a “privacy policy” page or banner on my site. Another great thing is, Plausible is open-source, licensed under AGPLv3, and if you’d rather not pay for a yearly subscription, documentation is provided for self-hosting.

In the past year I’ve found it was a great solution to use Plausible. I get all the data from just one page, and the website remains very responsive and fast. So, I will continue to use it this year. There’s a lot more benefits than these though; you can read more about it on Plausible’s website.

If you’re a website owner, I suggest you give Plausible a try. They have a free 30-day trial that you can sign up for.