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Plaintrace vs Plausible
Last updated November 11, 2026
Plausible is a well-loved, open-source, cookieless analytics tool with a simple dashboard. If simple and lightweight is all you need, it is a good choice. Plaintrace shares those values and goes further on one question: how far can you trust the numbers?
At a glance
| Plaintrace | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies | None | None |
| Data location | EU | EU |
| Open source | SDK (MIT); the service is closed | The whole product (AGPL) |
| Ad-blocker loss | Measured per site with the server SDK and reported | Not reported (a proxy is offered to reduce it) |
| Bot traffic | Labelled human / suspicious / bot, kept and shown | Excluded |
| Trust grade | A–D with a public formula | — |
| Heatmaps (rage and dead clicks) | Included | — |
| AI & crawler reads | Included (server SDK) | — |
| AI assistant | Official remote MCP server, read-only key | Community-built MCP server |
Where Plausible is the better fit
- You want to self-host the whole product under an open-source licence.
- You want the smallest possible script and the simplest possible dashboard.
Where Plaintrace is the better fit
- Decisions depend on knowing what you lose to ad blockers and how much traffic is not human.
- You want heatmaps, revenue by channel and crawler reads in the same tool, on the free plan.
- You want to ask your AI assistant and get answers with their grade.
Based on Plausible’s public documentation as we understand it. If something here is out of date, tell us at hello@plaintrace.dev and we will correct it.