Matomo, formerly Piwik, is an open-source analytics platform and the closest feature-for-feature replacement for Google Analytics. You can self-host it on your own server or use Matomo Cloud, and in either case you keep ownership of the data. A documented cookieless mode lets it run without cookies or a consent banner. Released under the GPL.
Reviewed by Marcus Holmberg
Matomo
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Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
Matomo is the choice when you are migrating off Google Analytics and refuse to lose capability. It covers the deep reporting a marketing team expects while keeping the data on infrastructure you control, and its cookieless tracking mode drops the consent banner when configured. That power is the catch: it is heavier to run than a minimalist tracker, and some advanced features sit behind paid plugins even on your own server. Pick Matomo if you genuinely use the depth and can host it, with New Zealand’s adequacy status easing EU data questions. Pick something lighter if all you read is visitor counts.
GitHub at a glance
matomo-org/matomo
Stars
21,681
+ 35 this week
Last commit
8d ago
healthy
License
GPL-3.0
Latest release
5.11.2
23d ago
Stars, last 31d
Website at a glance
matomo.org
D score 30
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested today
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Matomo alternatives
Plausible Analytics Lightweight, cookie-free analytics that measures your traffic without a consent banner or shipping visitors to Google. Open source, EU-hosted.
Umami Self-hosted, cookie-free analytics with a clean dashboard and a generous free cloud tier. MIT-licensed and simple to run.
GoatCounter Deliberately minimal, cookie-free analytics that ships as a single Go binary. Free hosted tier for non-commercial sites, open source.
Matomo license, in plain English
GPL-3.0 Strong copyleft
Free to use and modify, but anything you distribute that is built on it must also be open under the same license.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Strong copyleft keeps every distributed version open. A vendor cannot fold this into a closed product and ship it without releasing their changes.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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