Plausible
Simple privacy-friendly website analytics
Basic pageview/event analytics are easy, and Plausible's own code is open source; the paid value is hosted reliability, maintenance, and support.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- battle-tested bot filtering
- fast queries at millions of pageviews
- email reports, funnels, goal tracking
- GDPR homework done for you
Why people still pay
They pay because analytics must be boring, fast, and legally safer without ops.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- Runtime and tools: TypeScript, Node, Express, better-sqlite3, a small first-party browser tracker and a durable aggregation worker with an authenticated server-rendered dashboard.
- Before starting: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures.
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Project rule — domain: Store Site, Pageview, GoalDefinition and DailyAggregate; normalize paths, minimize referrers and clearly separate pageviews from any explicitly defined visitor estimate.
Project rule — scope and recovery: Do not promise a precise snippet size or anonymous uniqueness without measurement/design. Country lookup and any IP handling need explicit retention rules; block private information in URLs and events.
Project rule — acceptance: Navigate between two SPA routes, reload and send an invalid site ID; count according to the documented navigation rule and reject cross-site payloads.
Project rule — delivery: document real setup commands and permissions; do not claim a build, accuracy level, performance result or security certification that has not been demonstrated.
Recommended skill: web-design-guidelines — review keyboard access, focus, validation, error recovery and the readable work/review interface or HTML report. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Recommended skill: sharp-edges — review configuration and API defaults against the app-specific invariants and recovery boundaries above; this is not a security certification. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Pin the working slice and create its example input: Add a small first-party tracker to one owned site, aggregate pageviews and goal events and expose a private dashboard with data deletion. Confirm setup: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures.
Phase 2
Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Site, Pageview, GoalDefinition and DailyAggregate; normalize paths, minimize referrers and clearly separate pageviews from any explicitly defined visitor estimate.
Phase 3
Connect the working view to real saved state. Treat the browser site ID as public, not a secret credential. Validate registered sites, allowed browser origins and bounded event schemas, with per-site quotas; an Origin header is only one abuse signal. Strip unapproved URL parameters, referrer details and event properties before logs, queues or storage. Deduplicate by site and client event ID within a documented window. Store accepted events and pending aggregation state durably; update aggregates and mark events processed in one transaction so retries cannot count twice. Define event-time/timezone and late-event rules, retention and deletion across raw data and aggregates. Keep dashboard queries scoped to the authenticated site owner and do not infer audited people from event counts.
Phase 4
Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Do not promise a precise snippet size or anonymous uniqueness without measurement/design. Country lookup and any IP handling need explicit retention rules; block private information in URLs and events.
Phase 5
Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Navigate between two SPA routes, reload and send an invalid site ID; count according to the documented navigation rule and reject cross-site payloads. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.
Build the following focused alternative to Plausible. Implement the focused workflow below first; the verdict is not evidence of a completed or production-certified build. WORKING SLICE Add a small first-party tracker to one owned site, aggregate pageviews and goal events and expose a private dashboard with data deletion. SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE Use TypeScript, Node, Express, better-sqlite3, a small first-party browser tracker and a durable aggregation worker with an authenticated server-rendered dashboard. Prerequisites: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success. DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS Store Site, Pageview, GoalDefinition and DailyAggregate; normalize paths, minimize referrers and clearly separate pageviews from any explicitly defined visitor estimate. IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT Treat the browser site ID as public, not a secret credential. Validate registered sites, allowed browser origins and bounded event schemas, with per-site quotas; an Origin header is only one abuse signal. Strip unapproved URL parameters, referrer details and event properties before logs, queues or storage. Deduplicate by site and client event ID within a documented window. Store accepted events and pending aggregation state durably; update aggregates and mark events processed in one transaction so retries cannot count twice. Define event-time/timezone and late-event rules, retention and deletion across raw data and aggregates. Keep dashboard queries scoped to the authenticated site owner and do not infer audited people from event counts. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content. APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY Do not promise a precise snippet size or anonymous uniqueness without measurement/design. Country lookup and any IP handling need explicit retention rules; block private information in URLs and events. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO Navigate between two SPA routes, reload and send an invalid site ID; count according to the documented navigation rule and reject cross-site payloads. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested. DELIVERY Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product. PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md
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Alternatives to building your own
all 4 free alternatives to Plausible →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Plausible pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| community edition (self-hosted) | $0/workspace | $0/workspace | Free software with no vendor-set site or traffic cap; hosting/database/operations are user-supplied. |
| starter (up to 10k monthly pageviews/events) | $9/workspace | $7.50/workspace | 1 website, 3 years of data retention and up to 10,000 combined pageviews/custom events per month.$90/year. |
| growth (up to 10k monthly pageviews/events) | $14/workspace | $11.67/workspace | 3 websites, 3 team members, 3 years of retention and up to 10,000 combined pageviews/custom events per month.$140/year. |
| business (up to 10k monthly pageviews/events) | $19/workspace | $15.83/workspace | 10 websites, 10 team members, 5 years of retention, 600 Stats API requests/hour and up to 10,000 combined pageviews/custom events per month.$190/year. |
| enterprise | — | — | Custom traffic; 10+ sites, 10+ team members, 600+ API requests/hour and 5+ years retention. |
free tierno free hosted plan; 30-day no-card trial; Community Edition is free to self-host
billingmonthly + annual (2 months free); hosted price scales by combined pageviews and custom events across all sites
hidden costsTraffic brackets jump from 10,000 to 100,000 monthly events/pageviews. Separate Plausible teams are billed separately. After 2 consecutive over-limit months, Plausible asks for an upgrade and can lock dashboard access after a further week while collection continues; it does not publish an immediate per-event overage fee.
pricing sources checked 2026-08-11 · pricing source ↗
Questions about Plausible
Can you build your own Plausible with AI?
The verdict is yes for the scoped workflow. Basic pageview/event analytics are easy, and Plausible's own code is open source; the paid value is hosted reliability, maintenance, and support.
What does the Plausible build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Add a small first-party tracker to one owned site, aggregate pageviews and goal events and expose a private dashboard with data deletion. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: battle-tested bot filtering; fast queries at millions of pageviews; email reports, funnels, goal tracking. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Plausible prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Plausible project take?
The catalogue estimate is weekend for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Plausible?
battle-tested bot filtering; fast queries at millions of pageviews; email reports, funnels, goal tracking; GDPR homework done for you. They pay because analytics must be boring, fast, and legally safer without ops.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Starter plan is $9/mo (monthly), checked 2026-08-07. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Plausible?
Umami: The closest broad substitute: simple traffic analytics, events and goals with your data attached. Plausible Community Edition: Plausible without the hosted bill; you keep the core dashboard and inherit the Compose stack. Rybbit: Plausible's core plus replay and funnels, in exchange for a busier dashboard. Compare all listed options at https://howtovibecodeit.dev/plausible/alternatives. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.