When we checked 312 AI-built apps, 68% had no analytics we could find. Their makers post a link somewhere, see no sign-ups, and can’t tell whether nobody came or everybody came and left.
You don’t need Google Analytics to fix that, and for a new app it’s often more than you want. You need three answers: did anyone come, where did they come from, and did they sign up. All of the tools below can give you at least the first two. Prices were checked on 6 November 2026.
Google Analytics alternatives at a glance
| Tool | Free to start | Paid from | Cookies |
|---|---|---|---|
| LaunchPal (ours) | Free, one app, 30 days of history | None for tracking | None |
| Plausible | 30-day trial, or free to host yourself | €9 a month, 10,000 page views | None |
| Fathom | 7-day trial | $15 a month, 100,000 page views | None |
| Simple Analytics | Free for hobby sites, with one month of history and a badge | €20 a month, about 100,000 page views | None |
| Umami | Free up to 100,000 events a month and six months of history, or free to host yourself | $20 a month, 1 million events | None |
| Matomo | Free to host yourself, trial on its cloud | €22 a month on its cloud, 50,000 hits | On unless you turn them off |
| PostHog | 1 million events a month | By usage above that | On unless you turn them off |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | Free | None | None |
| Google Analytics | Free | None for most sites | Two cookies that last up to two years |
Prices are as each site showed them to us in the EU, and some show another currency elsewhere. Tax may be added.
Which one to pick
The best Google Analytics alternative depends on what you want to know and how much setup you’ll put up with.
- You just want to know if anyone came, from where, and if they signed up: you can use LaunchPal, which we make. It isn’t an advanced analytics tool: no funnels, no session recordings, no reports to build. You add one line to your app and read the answer in sentences such as “12 people came from Reddit, 2 signed up”. If you need more than that, the tools below go further.
- You want a free Google Analytics alternative that stays simple: start with Umami’s or Simple Analytics’ free plan. Check that the limits suit you: on the free plans, Simple Analytics keeps one month of history and Umami six.
- You’ll pay a little to avoid thinking about it: Plausible is the cheapest paid start. Fathom costs more but includes far more page views.
- You only want to count visits: Cloudflare Web Analytics is free and reports pages, countries and the sites people came from. Its product page doesn’t mention counting sign-ups, so check before you rely on it for that.
- You want to see what people do inside your app: PostHog goes much further than page counts, with a large free allowance. It takes longer to set up and understand.
- You want your data kept in the EU: Plausible and Simple Analytics both say they store it there, and so does LaunchPal. We didn’t check this for every tool here, so look it up if it matters to you.
- You must own the data on your own server: Plausible, Matomo and Umami can all be hosted yourself. That’s free in licence fees, but keeping a server running becomes your job. PostHog’s self-hosted version is officially unsupported.
When to stay on Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is free, and many people already know it. If you run Google Ads, it’s worth keeping for the link between the two. It’s also fine if it’s already working and you’re happy reading it.
The usual reasons to leave are its reports, which can take a while to learn, and its cookies. They can mean asking visitors for consent in some countries, and people who say no won’t be counted the same way.
Do cookieless tools mean no cookie banner?
It’s a common reason to look for cookieless analytics, and Simple Analytics, Umami and Fathom all say so on their pricing pages. But the banner depends on everything your site does, not only analytics. A chat widget, an ad pixel or an embedded video can set cookies too, so check the rest of your site before you remove it. No tool makes your site GDPR compliant on its own either. Do you need a cookie banner? goes through what regulators allow, country by country.
How to add it to your app
Every tool here gives you one small script. Create your account, copy the script or site ID, then ask your builder to add it:
Add analytics to my app
Add this analytics script to every page of my app, including pages that load without a full refresh: [paste the script from your analytics tool]. Then count a sign-up as a custom event each time someone finishes creating an account, using the event function from the same tool. Don’t send names or email addresses with the event. Tell me how to check that it’s working.
Single-page apps, which is what most AI builders make, change pages without a full reload. Some scripts handle that on their own and some need a setting, so open two or three pages and check that each one shows up in your dashboard.
Make your numbers useful
A visitor count alone won’t tell you what to do next. Two small habits will:
- Tag every link you share. Add something like
?ref=redditto the link, so you can see which post brought people. Say Bloomly posts in two communities: 40 visits and 1 sign-up from one, 12 visits and 4 sign-ups from the other. The second one is the place to go back to. - Look at sign-ups, not only visits. If visits come and sign-ups don’t, the problem is usually the page, and why visitors leave is the place to start.
Any tool on this page will answer the same questions, so pick the one you’ll actually open.