Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics

Compare Matomo by Stackhero and Plausible Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics, Matomo

Matomo by Stackhero

France· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you want full Matomo on a dedicated French-operated bare-metal instance with one-click updates and hourly billing—especially if you prefer unlimited site/seat product framing over hit-metered multi-tenant SaaS. Skip when you need EU-only with no US region option, root/SSH access, or a minimal cookieless counter—consider self-hosted Matomo, Friendly Analytics, or Plausible instead.

Managed MatomoDedicated instanceFrench PaaS operatorISO 27001 (claimed)Automatic DPAEU or US region

View listing Visit Website

Plausible Analytics

Estonia· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you need cookieless website analytics with EU-owned visitor hosting, a lightweight script, AGPL transparency, and either managed Cloud or self-hosted CE. Skip when you need heatmaps/session replay, multi-day user-level product analytics, HIPAA/BAA, free forever hosted analytics, or zero non-EU SaaS anywhere in vendor ops—consider Matomo-class (e.g. Friendly Analytics / Piwik PRO), Pirsch, or Simple Analytics depending on depth vs simplicity.

Cookieless by designEU-owned visitor hostsAGPLv3 open sourceSelf-host CEDPA automaticLightweight script

View listing Visit Website

Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics: Snapshot
Feature	Matomo by Stackhero	Plausible Analytics
Country of origin	France	Estonia
Category	Web Analytics	Web Analytics
Open source	Yes	Yes
Self-hosted	No	Yes
Headquarters	France	Estonia
Legal entity	Stackhero (RCS Paris 512 366 378, VAT FR92512366378), 1 rue de Stockholm, 75008 Paris, France	Plausible Insights OÜ, Västriku tn 2, 50403 Tartu, Estonia
Governing law	French law; courts at registered head office (per Terms of service)	Estonian / EU law context for the OÜ; confirm contract terms for governing law clauses
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Medium	Medium
Hosting / residency	Primary compute: Stackhero bare-metal cloud, customer-chosen region EU (France) or USA. Backups: stored in the EU per Matomo FAQ; encrypted atomic images retained up to ~3 months. Not built on AWS/GCP/Azure as the stated compute substrate. Payment processor (unnamed) handles card data; privacy policy mentions third-party messaging/stats tools without a full named subprocessor table.	Visitor analytics: Hetzner (Falkenstein, Germany), UpCloud (Finland, DB/exports), Bunny (Slovenia, CDN/DNS/DDoS)—European-owned; vendor states visitor data never leaves the EU. Customer-account subprocessors include Paddle (payments), Postmark (email), Gravatar, optional Google (GA import), Help Scout, Nolt; site tools may include hCaptcha, Algolia, Mailchimp. SCCs claimed for non-EU processors.
Summary	French PaaS-managed Matomo on dedicated bare-metal instances: unlimited sites until capacity, one-click updates, EU or US region choice, with hourly billing and an automatic DPA.	Estonian open-source, cookieless web analytics (AGPLv3): lightweight script, EU-owned hosting on Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny, managed Cloud plus self-hosted Community Edition.
Tags	analytics privacy open-source saas gdpr matomo france managed-hosting iso-27001	analytics privacy open-source saas gdpr web-analytics cookieless self-hosted estonia google-analytics-alternative

At a glance: Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics
At a glance	Matomo by Stackhero	Plausible Analytics
HQ	Paris, France (1 rue de Stockholm, 75008)	Tartu, Estonia
Legal entity	Stackhero — RCS Paris 512 366 378	Plausible Insights OÜ (reg. 14709274)
Stack	Open-source Matomo on dedicated Stackhero VM	Not listed
Hosting regions	EU (France) or USA; backups in EU (vendor FAQ)	Not listed
Commercial model	Hourly instance billing; free trial; no standard commitment	Pageview-based Cloud SaaS; free CE self-host
Certifications	ISO 27001:2022 claimed (BAB #254338)	Not listed
Visitor hosts	Not listed	Hetzner DE; UpCloud FI; Bunny SI
License	Not listed	AGPLv3; Cloud + Community Edition
Tracking model	Not listed	Cookieless; daily rotating hash; no PII stored

Key capabilities: Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics
Key capabilities	Matomo by Stackhero	Plausible Analytics
Managed Matomo	Yes	Not listed
Dedicated instance	Yes	Not listed
French PaaS operator	Yes	Not listed
ISO 27001 (claimed)	Yes	Not listed
Automatic DPA	Yes	Not listed
EU or US region	Yes	Not listed
Cookieless by design	Not listed	Yes
EU-owned visitor hosts	Not listed	Yes
AGPLv3 open source	Not listed	Yes
Self-host CE	Not listed	Yes
DPA automatic	Not listed	Yes
Lightweight script	Not listed	Yes

Matomo by Stackhero

Dedicated bare-metal Matomo instance
Each customer gets an isolated VM on Stackhero’s own bare-metal cloud (Stackhero DC OS), not shared multi-tenant Matomo. Local disks and included Redis are positioned for high IOPS and heavy traffic—fit teams that outgrow noisy-neighbor shared analytics clouds.
Unlimited sites, members, segments, and goals until capacity
Stackhero does not meter websites, team seats, segments, or goals as product SKUs; you scale by instance size (published up to 16 vCPUs / 64 GB RAM). Retention is limited by disk, not a fixed product TTL—plan storage for long history.
One-click Matomo updates and managed ops (no SSH)
Stackhero delivers Matomo updates for dashboard application; firewall IP rules are customer-configurable. SSH is intentionally unavailable on the managed service—good for reduced surface area, poor fit if you need custom OS packages.
Custom domain, GeoIP2, and dedicated notification email
Point matomo.yourdomain.com with TLS 1.3/ECDSA, ship visitor location via bundled GeoIP2, and send unlimited Matomo reports/alerts through a per-instance email path—reduces glue work after first deploy.
Atomic encrypted daily backups (EU vault)
24-hour atomic image backups (plus event-driven backups on upgrades) are validated, then encrypted (OpenPGP ECDH/Curve25519) and retained up to three months. Vendor FAQ states backups are stored in the EU even when regions differ—confirm dual-region implications for US instances.
Hourly billing with EU or US region choice
Spin services up/down with hourly charging and a single monthly invoice; free trial without payment method. Choose European (France) or USA placement at create time—region is a first-class control for residency, not a hidden default.

Plausible Analytics

Cookieless measurement with daily rotating visitor hash
No cookies, localStorage, or persistent IDs. Uniques use hash(daily_salt + domain + IP + UA); salt rotates every 24 hours and raw IP/UA are never stored—so analytics can often run without a consent banner, at the cost of no multi-day user stitching.
Lightweight script and single-page traffic dashboard
Vendor claims a script ~54× smaller than Google Analytics with real-time updates (~30s), sources, pages, devices, UTM channels, scroll-depth goals, and optional Google Search Console import—built for marketers who refuse GA4 report complexity.
Goals, custom events, funnels, and revenue on Cloud
Codeless page goals, file downloads, outbound clicks, custom events/properties, AI-referral traffic views, and (on higher Cloud plans) funnels, user journeys, and ecommerce revenue attribution—not session replay or in-app product analytics.
EU-owned visitor hosting (Hetzner, UpCloud, Bunny)
Cloud visitor data is processed on European-owned infrastructure: Hetzner (Germany), UpCloud (Finland), Bunny CDN (Slovenia). Plausible states visitor data never leaves the EU and is not stored on US hyperscalers.
AGPLv3 open source with Community Edition self-host
Full codebase on GitHub; free CE for self-host (long-term releases ~twice yearly). Cloud-only features include advanced bot filtering, funnels/journeys, ecommerce revenue, SSO, and Sites API—self-host ops, backups, and upgrades are yours.
Automatic DPA, Stats API, exports, and enterprise SSO
Public DPA applies to Cloud customers by use; CSV export and Stats API for BI; Business/Enterprise add higher API limits, raw event exports, managed proxy, and SAML SSO (Google Workspace, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID per docs).

Assurance & compliance: Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics
Assurance & compliance	Matomo by Stackhero	Plausible Analytics
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found ISO 27001 and bug-bounty openness claimed; no public independent no-logs audit report specific to analytics found.	Not found Open-source code and security overview published; no public independent pen-test or no-logs audit PDF found on compliance/security pages.
ISO 27001	Vendor claimed Vendor publishes ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate #254338 from the British Assessment Bureau (PDF). Not re-verified against the issuer’s public register in this draft.	Not found No ISO 27001 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 claim found on certifications/privacy/GDPR pages reviewed.	Not found No SOC 2/3 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed.
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed French entity; public GDPR & DPA page; customer controller / Stackhero processor model; EU region option for service data.	Vendor claimed EU entity; cookieless non-PII design; public data policy, DPA, and vendor-published legal assessment on GDPR/ePrivacy positioning.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Partial French entity, no known US parent, non-hyperscaler bare-metal hosting claimed. Medium/partial because USA is a first-class hosting region; EU-only only when the customer creates the service in Europe. Backups stated as EU-stored. Not legal advice.	Partial Estonian OÜ, no known US parent; visitor data on EU-owned Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny. Partial/medium because customer-account subprocessors include US-oriented SaaS (e.g. Postmark, Help Scout, Gravatar, optional Google). Indicative only—not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed DPA applies automatically with Terms of service; PDF downloadable from the GDPR & DPA page.	Vendor claimed Public DPA applies automatically to Cloud customers by use of the service; lists processor duties and 48-hour breach notification target.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Web analytics hosting; not positioned as an AI system product.	Not applicable Website analytics product; not marketed as an AI system under the AI Act.

Considerations & known limitations: Matomo by Stackhero vs Plausible Analytics
Considerations & known limitations	Matomo by Stackhero	Plausible Analytics
Optional US hosting region	Medium Platform offers USA placement alongside France/EU. Mis-selected region or unclear contract language can put visitor analytics outside the EU. Procurements that require EU-only must pin region at create time and in the order form.	Not listed
EU backups when primary is US	Medium FAQ states backups are stored in the EU. If an instance runs in the USA, confirm whether visitor data is dual-homed (US primary + EU backup) and how that affects DPIA and transfer tools.	Not listed
No SSH / managed-only host	Low Cannot install arbitrary system software or agents; support hours stated as CET office hours for basic platform support—not full Matomo application consulting.	Not listed
Limited named subprocessor list	Medium Privacy policy mentions third-party tools and a payment processor without a detailed public subprocessor register. Request the annex in diligence if procurement requires named processors.	Not listed
ISO certificate vendor-published	Low ISO 27001:2022 is claimed with a public PDF and BAB certificate number; validate scope, sites, and validity dates with the certification body before treating it as verified.	Not listed
Matomo privacy configuration is yours	Low Hosting in the EU does not auto-configure consent, IP anonymization, or cookieless modes. Controllers remain responsible for Matomo GDPR tooling and site policy.	Not listed
US-linked customer-account subprocessors	Not listed	Medium Visitor metrics stay on EU-owned hosts, but billing, email, support, and optional integrations use providers such as Postmark, Paddle, Help Scout, Gravatar, and Google—material for zero-US-processor policies.
No public ISO 27001 / SOC 2	Not listed	Medium Compliance hub emphasizes product design and EU hosting rather than ISO/SOC certificates; orgs with mandatory cert checklists must request evidence or accept open-source + DPA packaging.
Self-host CE feature and release lag	Not listed	Low CE is free but long-term releases (~twice yearly) and omits Cloud-only funnels, journeys, ecommerce revenue, SSO, and advanced bot filtering—ops burden sits with you.
No multi-day user identity or replay	Not listed	Low Daily hash resets prevent cross-day visitor stitching by design; heatmaps/session replay are out of scope—teams needing those must add other tools.
Misconfiguration can reintroduce personal data	Not listed	Medium Passing emails, patient IDs, or other identifiers in URLs or custom properties undermines the non-PII model; vendor also states no HIPAA/BAA.

Fit

Matomo by Stackhero

Best fit when

Teams that want Matomo’s full analytics/admin surface without running OS or Matomo upgrades themselves
Buyers who prefer a dedicated VM and capacity-based limits over multi-tenant hit metering
Orgs consolidating Matomo with other Stackhero-managed open-source services under one French operator
Projects that need hourly elasticity and the ability to stop billing with one click
Controllers who will configure Matomo privacy features themselves and want a signed/automatic DPA plus ISO 27001 claims

Poor fit when

Requirements that forbid any US hosting option or dual-region backup stories—platform publicly offers USA regions
Teams that need SSH, custom kernels, or non-Matomo system agents on the host
Buyers seeking only a lightweight cookieless pageview product (Plausible-class tools are simpler)
Organizations that must self-host inside their own cloud account with no third-party PaaS operator
Use cases needing a named public subprocessor register beyond Stackhero’s high-level privacy/GDPR pages

Consider instead when

When: You want Swiss Matomo-as-a-Service with cookieless defaults and CH product hosts
Consider: Friendly Analytics
Different operator, residency story, and privacy defaults; still Matomo-based.
When: You need enterprise analytics packaging beyond plain managed Matomo
Consider: Piwik PRO
Compare modules, contracts, and hosting regions independently.
When: You only need a minimal open-source-friendly counter with simple SaaS UX
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Far less Matomo depth; different product surface.
When: You require full root control and in-house residency guarantees
Consider: Self-hosted Matomo on your own EU IaaS
Maximum control; you own updates, backups, and hardening.

Plausible Analytics

Best fit when

Teams replacing GA4 who want aggregate marketing metrics without cookies or user profiles
EU orgs that require visitor analytics on European-owned infrastructure (Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny)
Sites that prioritize script weight, Core Web Vitals, and a one-page dashboard
Buyers who want AGPL auditability and optional Community Edition self-host exit
Agencies and multi-site operators needing shared links, team seats, and pageview-tiered Cloud plans
Procurement paths that value a public DPA, data policy, and subprocessor list over ISO/SOC certificates

Poor fit when

Product analytics needs: multi-day user identity, cohorts, retention, feature experiments
UX research that requires heatmaps, session replay, or rage-click recording
Healthcare or other programs that require HIPAA and a BAA (explicitly not offered)
Buyers who need free forever hosted analytics with no subscription
Orgs that forbid any US-linked SaaS in vendor account tooling (Postmark, Help Scout, etc. are listed)

Consider instead when

When: You need Matomo-depth features (heatmaps, session recording, heavy on-prem packaging)
Consider: Friendly Analytics, Piwik PRO, or self-hosted Matomo
Trade Plausible’s minimalism for plugin breadth and different operators.
When: You want a lean EU privacy analytics peer with a different stack or license posture
Consider: Pirsch Analytics or Simple Analytics
Compare hosting ownership, funnels/ecommerce gates, and self-host options side by side.
When: You only need edge-level basic counts and already run Cloudflare
Consider: Cloudflare Web Analytics
Simpler install path; US company and thinner marketing analytics surface.
When: You need free hosted analytics and accept Google’s data practices
Consider: Google Analytics
Different legal and commercial model—not an EU privacy substitute.

Open questions for due diligence

Matomo by Stackhero

Will the order form and DPA annex permanently pin the Matomo instance to the EU (France) region with no US failover?
For US-region instances, what exact data is copied to EU backup vaults and under which transfer mechanism?
Who is the unnamed parent company referenced on the About page, and is there any US ownership or PE?
Can ISO 27001 certificate 254338 be validated on the British Assessment Bureau (or successor) public register for current scope/dates?
Which payment, support, and website analytics providers process Stackhero account data (named subprocessor list)?

Plausible Analytics

Which exact customer personal data categories does each account subprocessor (Postmark, Paddle, Help Scout, etc.) receive in production?
Can Enterprise contracts exclude optional integrations (Google, Help Scout) or pin subprocessor lists for regulated buyers?
Are independent pen-test reports or ISO/SOC roadmaps available under NDA?
What are contracted RPO/RTO and backup locations beyond the high-level Hetzner/UpCloud description?
For CE self-host: which Cloud-only features remain permanently out of CE versus merely delayed on the long-term release train?