Plausible
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 2 of 4 product analytics platforms by recommenders
Cookie-free, privacy-focused web analytics with clean dashboards that need no cookie banner. Main caveat: it covers only web analytics, lacks mobile SDKs, and can be a bit expensive.
14 people recommended Plausible in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 25 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 21 of those comments still count.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 7
The record
Recommended in 9 of 12 months
In 14 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 14 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 14% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 21 of the 24 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cookie-free, no consent banner needed
“Analytics can be done without banner requiring tracking, e.g. https://plausible.io/”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Consent-O-Matic” “great, mission-driven, open-soutce non-profit providing cookie-free web analytics”
Comment from 30 Nov 2025 in “Stopping bad guys from using my open source project (feedback wanted)” “plausible can be configured to require 0 consent”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Kill The Cookie Banner” Open source, works reliably
“it works great and is opensource”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Migrating my web analytics from Matomo to Umami” “still works flawlessly till date”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Chrome extensions spying on 37M users' browsing data”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Heavy resources, many containers
“Things like plausible or umami (analytics) require at least 2 gigs of ram”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Vite 8.0 Is Out” “clickhouse requires like 4 different containers and idles using 4+ GB”
Comment from 19 Jul 2026 in “Using self-hosted Umami for iOS app analytics” “Plausible is a total mess of heavy-idling containers and ClickHouse”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “I Moved My Digital Stack to Europe”
Other product analytics platforms people recommend
The three most recommended other product analytics platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 4 product analytics platforms, rankedWhat people said
21 of the 24 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I literally use all of these now daily.”
“i already tired from plausible”
“i already fed up with plausible”
“plausible can be configured to require 0 consent”
“Not affiliated, just a happy customer.”
“clickhouse requires like 4 different containers and idles using 4+ GB”
“Plausible is a total mess of heavy-idling containers and ClickHouse”
“Here's something better than that”
“people preferring to pay for hosted stuff that is open source (e.g. I pay for Plausible”
“Plausible had no per-user attribution.”
“covers most of what you'd want from analytics unless you need GA/GTM tied to ad campaigns”
“I also like smaller, independent-ish ompanies that actually care about developers.”
“And this is why I tried Plausible once and never looked back.”
“Things like plausible or umami (analytics) require at least 2 gigs of ram”
“still works flawlessly till date”
“by including plausible.io you are doing that”
“Analytics can be done without banner requiring tracking, e.g. https://plausible.io/”
“it works great and is opensource”
“a nice 80/20 that can be upgraded to full proof”
“great, mission-driven, open-soutce non-profit providing cookie-free web analytics”
“They're lightweight and privacy-friendly, but they usually focus only on web analytics.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.