Data & Analytics

Plausible Privacy-First Analytics

Track website analytics without cookies using Plausible, a lightweight, GDPR-compliant analytics tool.

Claude Code Cursor Copilot Windsurf

Overview

Plausible is a lightweight, open-source web analytics tool that provides essential traffic metrics without tracking individuals or using cookies. Its script is under 1 KB (compared to Google Analytics at 45 KB+), has zero impact on page speed, and requires no cookie consent banners since it does not use cookies or collect personal data. Plausible is fully GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliant by design.

Despite its simplicity, Plausible provides comprehensive traffic analytics including page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, visit duration, referral sources, UTM campaign tracking, geographic data, and device/browser/OS breakdowns. Custom events allow tracking button clicks, form submissions, outbound links, and file downloads. Goals and funnels enable conversion tracking for specific user journeys.

Plausible can be used as a managed service (plausible.io) or self-hosted using the open-source Community Edition. The Stats API provides read access to all analytics data for building custom dashboards. The Events API enables server-side event tracking. Revenue tracking allows attributing monetary values to conversions. Plausible provides a simple dashboard that loads instantly, making it a refreshing alternative to the complexity of Google Analytics.

Who Is This For?

Add cookie-free analytics to comply with GDPR without consent banners
Track custom events like signups and purchases
Monitor referral traffic and UTM campaign performance
Self-host analytics for complete data ownership

Installation

Setup for Claude Code

npm install plausible-tracker

Configuration

// Script tag (recommended)
// <script defer data-domain="myapp.com" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script>

// Or use the npm tracker
import Plausible from "plausible-tracker"

const plausible = Plausible({ domain: "myapp.com" })
plausible.enableAutoPageviews()

// Custom events
plausible.trackEvent("signup", {
  props: { plan: "pro", source: "landing-page" },
})