Head to head
Pirsch Analytics vs Plausible Analytics
A third of the price, or six years of track record. Scored on ten weighted measures, with every price read on the same day.
Pirsch Analytics
7.5/10
No. 3 of 30
Plausible Analytics
8.0/10
No. 2 of 30
Both are German or European, cookieless, and built on the same basic idea. Pirsch costs $6 a month at 10,000 pageviews with fifty sites and unlimited team members. Plausible is £9 for one site and one seat at the same volume.
On a spreadsheet this is over before it starts. The reasons to pay more are real but they are not feature reasons.
The verdict
It depends on how much your traffic varies and how much vendor track record is worth to you.
Pirsch is extraordinary value. Fifty sites and unlimited members on the $6 plan, unlimited data retention, a proper REST API and SDKs on the entry tier, and funnels, A/B testing, segmentation, custom domains and white labelling at $12. For an agency putting branded dashboards in front of clients, that combination does not exist anywhere else at that price.
The catch is the limit policy and it is a serious one. Pirsch stops collecting five days after you exceed your allowance, which leaves a permanent hole rather than a temporary lockout. Plausible locks dashboards after two consecutive months, which is inconvenient but recoverable: the data is still being collected and it is still there when you pay. A gap in the record is forever, and it will cover the week your site did best.
Plausible also has six years of operating history, 21,000 paying subscribers, and a more polished product. That is worth something to a buyer who cannot afford to migrate again in two years.
Side by side
| Pirsch Analytics | Plausible Analytics | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.5 / 10 | 8.0 / 10 |
| Rank on this list | No. 3 of 30 | No. 2 of 30 |
| From | $6 per month | £9 per month |
| What that buys | 10,000 monthly pageviews; fifty websites and unlimited members included | 10,000 monthly pageviews, on a Starter tier |
| Free tier | No. A 30-day trial, no card required | No, but the community edition is free to self-host |
| Cookies | None, so no consent banner | None, so no consent banner |
| Script size | About 1 KB | About 1 KB |
| Hosting | Germany | EU, on European-owned infrastructure |
| Trading since | 2021 | 2019 |
| Entry price | $6/mo at 10k pageviews | £9/mo at 10k pageviews |
| Sites on the entry plan | 50 | 1 |
| Team members on the entry plan | Unlimited | 1 |
| Data retention | Unlimited on every plan | 3 years, 5 on Business |
| Funnels | Plus tier, $12 | Business tier, £19 |
| White labelling | Extensive, on Plus | Not offered |
| Over your allowance | Collection stops after 5 days, permanent gap | Dashboards locked after 2 consecutive months |
| Track record | Trading since 2021 | Trading since 2019, 21k paying subscribers |
The ten measures, scored
| Measure | Pirsch Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Insight quality | 8 | 9 |
| Privacy architecture | 9 | 9 |
| Value for money | 9 | 8 |
| Setup and time to data | 8 | 9 |
| Script weight | 9 | 9 |
| Analytical depth | 7 | 7 |
| Behaviour tooling | 1 | 2 |
| Data ownership | 8 | 8 |
| Accuracy | 7 | 8 |
| Vendor conduct | 4 | 7 |
| Weighted overall | 7.5 | 8.0 |
Higher is better. The overall figure is the weighted mean, relative to the 30 tools on this list. How this works.
Which one should you pick
Choose Pirsch Analytics if
You run many sites with predictable traffic and want white-labelled dashboards and funnels for the lowest credible price.
Choose Plausible Analytics if
Your traffic is spiky, or you would rather buy from the longer-established vendor with the more polished product.
Common questions
Is Pirsch cheaper than Plausible?
Substantially. $6 against £9 at 10,000 pageviews, and Pirsch includes fifty sites and unlimited team members where Plausible includes one of each. Funnels arrive at $12 on Pirsch against £19 on Plausible.
What happens when you exceed the allowance?
This is the key difference. Pirsch stops collecting five days over, which leaves a permanent gap in your data. Plausible locks dashboards after two consecutive months over, but collection continues, so nothing is lost once you upgrade.
Which is better for an agency?
Pirsch, on structure. Unlimited websites, unlimited members, custom domains and extensive white labelling on a $12 plan is a shape Plausible does not offer at any tier.
Do either offer heatmaps?
Neither, at any tier. Both take the position that behaviour tooling belongs in a separate product, which means a second subscription and usually a consent banner.
Both entries above are desk reviews written from published evidence, and every judgement is my opinion rather than a statement of fact. Read the full reviews for Pirsch Analytics and Plausible Analytics, or tell me where I have got something wrong.