LightMetrica vs Plausible: two cookie-free analytics tools compared
Plausible is one of the best-known privacy-friendly alternatives to Google Analytics: open source, cookie-free and built in the EU. LightMetrica shares the same philosophy — light script, no cookies, one clear dashboard — but makes different choices. Here's an honest comparison.
At a glance
| LightMetrica | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Hosted service, free to use | Paid hosted service with a free trial; free self-hosted Community Edition |
| Source code | Closed | Open source (AGPL) |
| Cookies | None | None |
| Script | About 2 KB | Very small, under 1 KB for the base script |
| Dashboard | One screen with everyday reports | One screen with everyday reports |
| Goals | Phone, email, messenger, download and outbound clicks tracked automatically | Custom events and goals; outbound links and file downloads as optional script extensions |
| Weekly summary | AI Smart Report with 1–3 recommendations | Email reports with key numbers |
| Funnels | No | Yes, on higher plans |
| Import history | From Yandex Metrica | From Google Analytics |
| Interface languages | English and Russian | English |
Plans and features change; check the vendors' sites for the current details.
Where Plausible is stronger
- Open source. You can audit the code or run the Community Edition on your own server.
- Maturity. Plausible has been around for years, with a large user base and many integrations.
- Features for growing teams. Funnels, revenue tracking, a stats API, Google Search Console integration and data import from Google Analytics.
- EU hosting for the cloud version, which matters to many European companies.
Where LightMetrica is different
- Free to use without self-hosting.
- Zero-setup goals. Clicks on phone numbers, email links and messenger links, file downloads and outbound links are counted automatically — useful for service businesses where a "conversion" is a call or a message.
- AI-aware sources. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and other assistants form their own source group.
- Sources from beyond the Google world. Yandex, Dzen, VK, Telegram (including the Android app) and other regional platforms are recognised and named.
- A weekly AI Smart Report in the dashboard: a plain-language summary of last week plus one to three concrete recommendations.
- Russian interface and history import from Yandex Metrica.
Which one to choose
- Choose Plausible if you want open source, EU hosting, funnels or GA history import — and you're happy to pay for the hosted version or run it yourself.
- Choose LightMetrica if you want a free hosted tool with automatic goals, AI-traffic tracking and a weekly summary that suggests what to do next.
FAQ
Are both really cookie-free? Yes. Both count visitors with anonymous, daily-rotating identifiers instead of cookies, so neither recognises a person across days.
Can I run LightMetrica and Plausible at the same time? Yes. Both scripts are small and don't interfere with each other.
Can I self-host LightMetrica? Not currently — LightMetrica is a hosted service.
Try LightMetrica — free
Lightweight, independent, cookie-free analytics: the counter installs in a minute — on its own or next to your current tools. Every week — an AI-powered Smart Report: what changed and what to do next.