Web Analytics · Alternatives
Seline alternatives
13 Web Analytics tools worth considering instead of Seline — each compared to Seline on the facts that differ, every one sourced and continuously re-verified.
1 Plausible Analytics
Open-source, privacy-first web analytics — a lightweight, cookieless Google Analytics alternative.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Plausible Community Edition (CE) is a free self-hostable open-source version (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Open Source: Community Edition (CE) is AGPLv3; cloud product is built on same open-source codebase (Seline: The main SaaS product is proprietary. Only the JavaScript tracker client (seline-js) is MIT-licensed open source on GitHub.)
- Self-Hostable: Plausible Community Edition (CE) is officially supported for self-hosting (Seline: Cloud-only SaaS. No self-hosting or on-premises option is documented or advertised.)
2 Matomo
Open-source, privacy-first web analytics platform available self-hosted or in the cloud.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Matomo On-Premise is free to self-host under GPL-3.0 with no usage limits. Matomo Cloud has no perpetual free plan (21-day trial only). (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Open Source: Matomo On-Premise is open source under GPL-3.0. The Cloud version is built on the same open-source core. (Seline: The main SaaS product is proprietary. Only the JavaScript tracker client (seline-js) is MIT-licensed open source on GitHub.)
- Self-Hostable: Matomo On-Premise is the flagship self-hosted edition, freely downloadable and installable on any PHP/MySQL server. (Seline: Cloud-only SaaS. No self-hosting or on-premises option is documented or advertised.)
3 Pirsch Analytics
Server-side, cookieless web analytics hosted in Germany, built for GDPR compliance.
Vs. Seline
- Open Source: Core analytics library is open source (AGPLv3) on GitHub. (Seline: The main SaaS product is proprietary. Only the JavaScript tracker client (seline-js) is MIT-licensed open source on GitHub.)
- Self-Hostable: Self-hosting available via Enterprise License for on-premise deployment. (Seline: Cloud-only SaaS. No self-hosting or on-premises option is documented or advertised.)
- Google Analytics Import: Official import from Google Analytics (UA and GA4) is documented with step-by-step guide. (Seline: No official Google Analytics (UA/GA4) historical-data import; tracking starts from install.)
4 Clicky
Real-time, privacy-friendly web analytics with per-visitor tracking and heatmaps.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Perpetual free plan: 1 site, 3,000 daily pageviews (~90,000/month). Not a trial — it persists after the 21-day premium trial ends. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- EU Data Residency: Clicky data is stored in the United States (Roxr, Portland OR). EU visitors' data is routed to a London VPS for performance but ultimately stored on US infrastructure. (Seline: All infrastructure hosted in Germany (EU) via Hetzner — app servers, ClickHouse, and Postgres databases.)
- Unlimited Data Retention: Data retention is finite: 4-year (48-month) daily granularity for paid plans; no 'forever' retention claim. (Seline: Pro plan retains data forever ('unlimited' retention). Free trial and any hypothetical lower tiers cap at 1 year.)
5 Piwik PRO
Enterprise-grade, privacy-focused analytics and customer data platform with GDPR compliance.
Vs. Seline
- Consent Banner Required: Default configuration uses cookies and requires consent. With cookieless/anonymous mode enabled, no consent banner is needed — but that requires explicit configuration. (Seline: No cookie/consent banner needed. Seline explicitly states GDPR compliance without requiring visitor consent banners.)
- Unlimited Data Retention: No (Seline: Pro plan retains data forever ('unlimited' retention). Free trial and any hypothetical lower tiers cap at 1 year.)
- Starting Monthly Price (USD): $40.38 (Seline: $14)
6 Simple Analytics
Privacy-friendly, cookieless web analytics that requires no consent banner.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Perpetually free plan available; analytics history limited to 30 days on the free tier. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Unlimited Data Retention: No (Seline: Pro plan retains data forever ('unlimited' retention). Free trial and any hypothetical lower tiers cap at 1 year.)
- Google Analytics Import: Official Google Analytics 4 (GA4) import tool; heavily filtered for privacy. (Seline: No official Google Analytics (UA/GA4) historical-data import; tracking starts from install.)
7 Umami
Open-source, privacy-focused web analytics available self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Free Hobby cloud plan (100k events/mo, 1 site, 6-month retention) plus free MIT open-source self-hosted edition. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Open Source: Umami is fully open source under the MIT license with source on GitHub (37k+ stars). (Seline: The main SaaS product is proprietary. Only the JavaScript tracker client (seline-js) is MIT-licensed open source on GitHub.)
- Self-Hostable: Official self-hosting supported via Docker or Node.js with PostgreSQL; extensive documentation provided. (Seline: Cloud-only SaaS. No self-hosting or on-premises option is documented or advertised.)
8 Fathom Analytics
Privacy-first, cookieless web analytics with a simple dashboard and forever data retention.
Vs. Seline
- Funnels: Multi-step funnel analysis is not a feature; no documentation or marketing page references it. (Seline: Multi-step funnel analysis built into the product for all plan users.)
- EU Data Residency: EU Isolation strips visitor IPs inside the EU, but the anonymized analytics data is stored on Fathom's main US servers. (Seline: All infrastructure hosted in Germany (EU) via Hetzner — app servers, ClickHouse, and Postgres databases.)
- Google Analytics Import: GA4 data import supported; Universal Analytics not supported (Google deleted UA data July 2024). (Seline: No official Google Analytics (UA/GA4) historical-data import; tracking starts from install.)
9 PostHog
All-in-one open-source platform for product analytics, web analytics, session replay, and feature flags.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: PostHog offers a perpetual free tier: 1M events/month at no cost, no credit card required, no expiry. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Consent Banner Required: Default PostHog configuration uses cookies/localStorage and requires a consent banner. Cookieless mode removes the requirement but is not the default. (Seline: No cookie/consent banner needed. Seline explicitly states GDPR compliance without requiring visitor consent banners.)
- Open Source: PostHog is open source under MIT license (with a proprietary EE directory). A fully FOSS mirror (posthog-foss) is also published. (Seline: The main SaaS product is proprietary. Only the JavaScript tracker client (seline-js) is MIT-licensed open source on GitHub.)
10 Statcounter
Simple real-time web analytics tracking visitor behaviour, traffic sources, and page performance.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Basic plan is free forever with 5,000 sessions/month and 14 days data retention. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Custom Event Tracking: Statcounter does not support user-defined custom events. Goal tracking is URL/page-based only. (Seline: Custom events tracked via seline.track() JS method or data-sln-event HTML attributes. Custom properties supported.)
- Funnels: No multi-step funnel analysis feature found in Statcounter's product. (Seline: Multi-step funnel analysis built into the product for all plan users.)
11 Cloudflare Web Analytics
Free, privacy-first web analytics that tracks page views without cookies or fingerprinting.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: Cloudflare Web Analytics is entirely free — there are no paid tiers for this product. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Real-Time Dashboard: No live/current-visitors view; real-time dashboard updates are for paid zone analytics, not the free Web Analytics product. (Seline: Live globe view and real-time visitor activity dashboard included.)
- Custom Event Tracking: Web Analytics tracks only pageviews/visits; custom event tracking requires the separate Zaraz product. (Seline: Custom events tracked via seline.track() JS method or data-sln-event HTML attributes. Custom properties supported.)
12 Google Analytics
Free web and app analytics platform by Google with audience and conversion insights.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: GA4 standard is entirely free to use with no time limit. Google Analytics 360 is the paid enterprise tier. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Cookieless Tracking: GA4 uses first-party cookies (_ga, _ga_<id>) by default. Cookieless operation is not a supported mode. (Seline: Cookie-free by design. Uses daily-rotated non-reversible hashing of IP+browser+device — no cookies or persistent browser storage.)
- Consent Banner Required: GA4 sets cookies and processes personal data; GDPR/ePrivacy require a consent banner for EU users. (Seline: No cookie/consent banner needed. Seline explicitly states GDPR compliance without requiring visitor consent banners.)
13 GoatCounter
Open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics that tracks no personal data.
Vs. Seline
- Offers Free Tier: GoatCounter.com is offered free for personal websites and small-to-medium businesses. No paid plans exist; the project is donation-supported. (Seline: No perpetual free plan. Seline states: 'No, we don't have a free plan. We're a small bootstrapped team operating exclusively through subscriber fees.')
- Goal / Conversion Tracking: No goal or conversion-rate tracking; GoatCounter is a minimalist pageview/event counter. (Seline: Conversion via multi-step funnels (step drop-off / conversion rate) and revenue-attributed custom events.)
- Funnels: No multi-step funnel analysis. (Seline: Multi-step funnel analysis built into the product for all plan users.)
How this list is built. Every alternative is another Web Analytics vendor DecisionWire tracks, ranked by data completeness and our editor's picks, with differences drawn only from verified, first-party facts. Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission when you sign up through outbound links here, at no extra cost to you — commissions never influence our data or rankings. Full disclosure.