Free Analytics Tools: What You Actually Get

"Free" analytics comes in several forms: permanently free tiers, time-limited trials, free tiers with meaningful limitations, and open-source tools you self-host. Here is what each means in practice.

Free tier comparison

Google Analytics — Free. In exchange, your data is processed by Google and used to improve their advertising products. The "free" is subsidised by data.

Antlytics Free — One site. No time limit. Privacy-first, cookieless. The same tracking quality as Starter, limited to a single site. No credit card required.

Umami (self-hosted) — Free software, but you pay for hosting. A small server costs a few dollars a month. You manage updates and maintenance.

Plausible (self-hosted) — Free software, hosting costs apply. More complex to set up than Umami.

Simple Analytics — Free trial, then paid. Check their current offering.

What you trade for free

With most free analytics tiers, the trade-off is one of:

Data — your visitor data improves a commercial product (GA)
Features — limited to one site, basic metrics, no goals
Your time — self-hosting requires maintenance
Infrastructure cost — self-hosting has a real dollar cost even if the software is free

Antlytics Free offers genuine privacy-first analytics for one site with no hidden data trade-off.

Antlytics Free: what's included

One tracked site
All core analytics — visitors, pageviews, referrers, countries, devices, browsers
Real-time visitor count
UTM campaign tracking
Conversion goals
Privacy-first, cookieless tracking
No credit card required

When to upgrade

Upgrade from Antlytics Free to Starter when:

You need to track more than one site
You want two years of data retention
Your site grows beyond basic tracking needs

Starter is A$10/month (or A$60/year). See pricing for current details.

FAQ

Is Antlytics Free really free? Yes. One site, no time limit, no credit card.

What's the catch? No unlimited sites on Free. The Starter plan covers unlimited sites.

Can I upgrade later without losing data? Yes. Data from your Free plan carries forward when you upgrade to Starter.