Matomo is a full open-source replacement for Google Analytics, with heatmaps, recordings and many reports. Datasense is much lighter. It has nothing to install, the script is under 3 KB, and it shows the main numbers on one page.
Free up to 10k pageviews a month. No card.
Choose Matomo if you need Google Analytics-level depth and must host the data yourself. Choose Datasense if you want something simple and light that works in a minute.
Side by side, on the things people ask about most. Checked against Matomo's own site in October 2026.
| Feature | Datasense | Matomo |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 10k pageviews a month, 1 site | Free if you host it yourself |
| Paid plans from | $9/month for 100k pageviews | Cloud is paid, with a 21-day trial |
| No cookie banner needed | Cookies by default; switch any site to cookieless | Uses cookies by default; cookieless mode available |
| Realtime visitors | Updates every second | Visits log and live map |
| JavaScript error tracking | Last 100 errors per site, with stack and browser | Crash Analytics |
| Revenue by traffic source | Stripe, Dodo Payments or any provider | Ecommerce tracking |
| Goals and custom events | One line of code or a data attribute | Goals and events |
| Proxy to get past ad blockers | Recipes for Next.js, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Nginx | Official tracker proxy |
| AI crawler and bot tracking | See which AI crawlers read your pages | Bot and AI agent reports |
| Visitor profiles and journeys | Each visitor's pages, visit by visit | Visitor profiles |
| Raw data export | CSV and JSON, any date range | API, CSV and TSV |
| Script size | Under 3 KB | About 22 KB |
| Open source / self-host | Open source, self-hostable |
Self-hosted Matomo needs a server, a database and regular updates. Matomo Cloud removes that, but it's paid. Datasense is hosted for you, and setup is one script tag.
Matomo has many reports, similar to Google Analytics. That's great if you need them, but it takes time to learn. Datasense keeps the reports most people check every day on one page.
Matomo uses first-party cookies by default, so you usually need a banner unless you change its settings. Datasense is the same: cookies by default, with a cookieless mode you turn on with one setting.
Matomo On-Premise is free to self-host. Some features, like heatmaps, are paid plugins. Matomo Cloud is a paid service with a 21-day trial. Datasense is free up to 10k pageviews, $9 a month for 100k and $29 a month for 1M.
It takes about five minutes, and you don't have to turn anything off on day one.
Create a free account and paste one script tag into your site's <head>. Leave Matomo where it is for now.
Compare visitors, top pages and sources. Datasense often shows more visitors once the proxy is on, because ad blockers stop blocking it.
When you're happy, delete the Matomo snippet. Export your old data from Matomo first if you want to keep it.
Or see all web analytics tools on one page.
Add one script tag, compare the numbers, then keep the one you like. The free plan is enough to test it.
Add your siteMatomo is a trademark of its owner. Facts checked October 2026; if something changed, tell us at [email protected].