Alternatives to Plausible

What changes when you move off Plausible

Plausible is sold in two forms, and leaving them is not the same job. The managed service processes data on EU infrastructure and keeps site data on a server in Germany, with bot filtering the vendor runs centrally. Plausible Community Edition is the same code under the AGPL license, released twice a year with basic bot filtering, and the vendor lists marketing funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue goals, SSO and the Sites API as cloud features it does not carry.

A subscription also puts a clock on the move. Until the paid period ends nothing changes. After it the dashboard locks, though site settings stay open; a month later the service stops counting, and the vendor states that sites and stats may then be deleted, with an email first. An installation you run has none of this timing: the database sits there until you switch the server off.

What to check before you switch

1. What you can take out, and when. The export in Site Settings, Imports and Exports writes every collected day to CSV and still runs on a locked dashboard. The chart-menu export caps each file at 300 rows, or 100 for page reports, and needs an active trial or subscription, as does the Stats API. Data imported from Google Analytics is left out of the full export.
2. The unit on the bill. A plan counts pageviews and custom events together across every site in a team, and outbound clicks, file downloads, form submissions and 404 pages become custom events once those measurements are on. A plan sold by pageviews alone, or one counting every stored event property, puts the same traffic elsewhere on the ladder above.
3. Retention on the cheapest paid plan, the period this directory records. The entry plan keeps three years and the Business plan five, so a shorter period elsewhere cuts the far end of your history even after a clean import.
4. Which features sit on which plan. Funnels, user journeys, ecommerce revenue, custom properties, the Stats API and the Data Studio connector belong to the Business plan.

Which of these can import your data

Plausible’s export is a set of CSV files with fixed names, and that is what other vendors read. Pirsch takes the ZIP under Import / Export. Rybbit reads the same ZIP under its Import tab, where the cloud plan sets how far back an import may reach. Swetrix accepts the export as an upload and TinyAnalytics parses it in the browser tab; both note that it holds daily totals, so times inside a day are reconstructed. DataFast asks for the ZIP from the site settings panel rather than the chart button, and has you rebuild goals. Koko Analytics, inside WordPress, takes the visitors, pages and sources files one at a time and cannot undo an import. PostHog documents the route too and marks it experimental, because it rebuilds events out of aggregated rows.

The same export and CSV import also move a site between the Community Edition and the cloud in either direction.

Questions and answers

Can I take my Plausible history with me?

Yes, as CSV files. The full export in site settings covers every collected day and runs even on a locked dashboard. What happens next depends on the tool: several here read the export directly, the rest start counting from the day you install them.

Will the new tool show the same numbers?

No. Plausible counts unique visitors from a daily hash of IP address and user agent, and other vendors draw that line and the bot line differently. Expect a step in the charts on the day of the switch. The cookieless page goes through the counting methods.

What if my subscription ends before the move is finished?

You keep one route out. After the paid period the dashboard locks and the Stats API and chart export stop, while the full export in site settings stays open. Collection stops a month later, so export while the subscription is active.