Why consider OpenPanel over Plausible?
Plausible Analytics has earned a strong reputation as a lightweight, privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. Its simple dashboard and cookie-free tracking make it a great choice for bloggers and content sites that need basic traffic metrics without the complexity. But as your product grows, you'll quickly hit the limits of what Plausible can offer.
OpenPanel shares Plausible's commitment to privacy — cookie-free tracking, no consent banners, and EU-based data processing — but goes significantly further with full product analytics capabilities. Where Plausible gives you pageviews, referrers, and country breakdowns, OpenPanel adds funnels, retention analysis, cohort breakdowns, user profiles, and A/B testing. It's the best of both worlds: Plausible-style simplicity for web analytics combined with Mixpanel-style depth for product analytics.
Self-hosting is another area where OpenPanel has a clear advantage. Plausible Community Edition requires you to set up and manage PostgreSQL and ClickHouse separately. OpenPanel runs in a single Docker container, making deployment and maintenance far simpler. And unlike Plausible, OpenPanel offers a permanent free cloud tier with 10,000 events per month — no credit card required.
If you've outgrown simple web analytics and need to understand how users actually interact with your product — without adding a second analytics tool — OpenPanel is a natural next step from Plausible.
