# Plausible Analytics vs Cool Analytics

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/plausible-vs-cool-analytics/

Every value below is read from Plausible Analytics's and Cool Analytics's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Plausible Analytics | Cool Analytics |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Kind of free offer | Free trial | Free trial |
| When the free offer ends | Sign up for 30-day free trial. | 7 days from the start of the trial; the card on file is then charged unless the plan is cancelled. |
| Entry paid plan | $9/month for Starter at up to 10,000 monthly pageviews: one site and three years of data retention. Growth is $14/month for up to three sites. | From $3 a month, billed monthly, at 10k events a month on a single event-priced plan that carries every feature. |
| Pricing model | Banded by monthly pageviews, with a slider from 10,000 to 10 million and above; site and team-member counts rise with the tier. The page picks its currency in JavaScript, so the figures are origin-dependent and $9 is the default. | One plan with every feature, priced by monthly events: every pageview and every custom event sent counts as one. The price follows a traffic slider from 10k to 10M+ events a month, billed monthly or yearly (yearly gives two months free). |
| Sites or apps included | One site on Starter, the $9 entry plan. Growth raises it to three sites and three team members for $14. | Grows with the monthly event size picked on the pricing slider; there are no separate plans. The default 500k-event size shows 20 websites and 5 team members, and the price table carries the count at each size. |
| Revenue attribution from a payment provider | Limited | Supported |
| Retention window | Three years of data retention, stated on the entry Starter plan. | 1 to 5 years of data history, rising with the monthly event size; the default 500k-event size shows 2 years. |
| Works without cookies | Supported | Supported — A random visitor ID is kept in browser local storage |
| GDPR / data residency | Made and hosted in the EU on what Plausible describes as European-owned infrastructure. | Data is stored in the EU (Germany) on Hetzner servers; support and maintenance access from India relies on Standard Contractual Clauses. |

## Where they differ

### When the free offer ends

- Plausible Analytics: Sign up for 30-day free trial. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: 7 days from the start of the trial; the card on file is then charged unless the plan is cancelled. ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/terms))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Entry paid plan

- Plausible Analytics: $9/month for Starter at up to 10,000 monthly pageviews: one site and three years of data retention. Growth is $14/month for up to three sites. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: From $3 a month, billed monthly, at 10k events a month on a single event-priced plan that carries every feature. ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/compare/plausible))
- Lean: 25% Plausible Analytics / 75% Cool Analytics — inversely proportional to the documented price. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Pricing model

- Plausible Analytics: Banded by monthly pageviews, with a slider from 10,000 to 10 million and above; site and team-member counts rise with the tier. The page picks its currency in JavaScript, so the figures are origin-dependent and $9 is the default. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: One plan with every feature, priced by monthly events: every pageview and every custom event sent counts as one. The price follows a traffic slider from 10k to 10M+ events a month, billed monthly or yearly (yearly gives two months free). ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Sites or apps included

- Plausible Analytics: One site on Starter, the $9 entry plan. Growth raises it to three sites and three team members for $14. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: Grows with the monthly event size picked on the pricing slider; there are no separate plans. The default 500k-event size shows 20 websites and 5 team members, and the price table carries the count at each size. ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### Revenue attribution from a payment provider

- Plausible Analytics: Limited ([source](https://plausible.io/docs/ecommerce-revenue-tracking))
- Cool Analytics: Supported ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/))
- Lean: 36% Plausible Analytics / 64% Cool Analytics — documented support level. inetGeek's own reading, computed from the two values above by the rules at https://inetgeek.com/methodology/, not a provider claim.

### Retention window

- Plausible Analytics: Three years of data retention, stated on the entry Starter plan. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: 1 to 5 years of data history, rising with the monthly event size; the default 500k-event size shows 2 years. ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/compare/plausible))
- Lean: none. No documented basis to lean either way on this criterion.

### GDPR / data residency

- Plausible Analytics: Made and hosted in the EU on what Plausible describes as European-owned infrastructure. ([source](https://plausible.io/))
- Cool Analytics: Data is stored in the EU (Germany) on Hetzner servers; support and maintenance access from India relies on Standard Contractual Clauses. ([source](https://coolanalytics.dev/dpa))
- Lean: neither leads — both document the same answer.

## Which should you choose?

Pick Plausible Analytics if A site that wants one clear dashboard, no cookie banner and its data in the EU, at $9 a month for the first 10,000 pageviews — the cheapest EU-hosted option here that is a product rather than a favour.

Pick Cool Analytics if A founder who wants each payment from a connected processor — Stripe, Dodo Payments, Polar, Paddle, Creem, Lemon Squeezy or Razorpay — credited to the visit behind it, at a flat price by monthly events, from $3 a month for 10,000 events, with data hosted in Germany.

Consider something else: Plausible Analytics — You run more than one site on the entry plan. Starter is one site; three costs $14. Pirsch includes 50 websites at $6 and Fathom 50 at $15, both without raising the price to add the second.

Consider something else: Cool Analytics — You need a product you can sign up to today: Cool Analytics shows a waitlist and says early access is opening soon, offers a 7-day trial with a card on file, is hosted only, and does not state a SOC 2 or similar audit.

## Documented by only one

One side documents these and the other does not. An absence is a missing source, not a stated "no" — except where a line says the other page was READ on a date and does not mention it, which is a sourced observation and the only one-sided case this site leans on.

- What the free plan includes: Cool Analytics: A 7-day free trial of the paid plan with every feature; the pages describe no standing free plan.
- Credit card to start: Cool Analytics: Yes
- Payment providers connected: Cool Analytics: Stripe, Dodo Payments, Polar, Paddle, Creem, Lemon Squeezy and Razorpay, plus an API for anything else.
- AI and search crawler tracking: Plausible Analytics: Not supported — Counts AI-assistant referral visits as a channel; crawler requests are excluded
- Self-hostable: Cool Analytics: Not supported
- Encryption at rest: Cool Analytics: The DPA lists encryption at rest only for payment provider keys, with HTTPS in transit everywhere; it does not say stored visit data is encrypted at rest.
  - Plausible Analytics: not stated on https://plausible.io/security, read 2026-09-22. Corrections: https://inetgeek.com/contact/
  - Lean: 22% Plausible Analytics / 78% Cool Analytics — documented, against a vendor page that does not state it (checked 2026-09-22).

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Plausible Analytics or Cool Analytics?**

Plausible Analytics: $9/month for Starter at up to 10,000 monthly pageviews: one site and three years of data retention. Growth is $14/month for up to three sites.
Cool Analytics: From $3 a month, billed monthly, at 10k events a month on a single event-priced plan that carries every feature.

**Should I choose Plausible Analytics or Cool Analytics?**

Pick Plausible Analytics if A site that wants one clear dashboard, no cookie banner and its data in the EU, at $9 a month for the first 10,000 pageviews — the cheapest EU-hosted option here that is a product rather than a favour.
Pick Cool Analytics if A founder who wants each payment from a connected processor — Stripe, Dodo Payments, Polar, Paddle, Creem, Lemon Squeezy or Razorpay — credited to the visit behind it, at a flat price by monthly events, from $3 a month for 10,000 events, with data hosted in Germany.