What is the difference between Plausible and Amplitude?

Plausible is best for Privacy-conscious sites that want simple, clean analytics, while Amplitude is best for Growth teams needing advanced product analytics. Plausible starts at $9/mo and Amplitude starts at Free.

Is Plausible or Amplitude cheaper?

Plausible starts at $9/mo. Amplitude starts at Free with a free tier.

Is there a free alternative to Plausible?

Yes, Amplitude offers a free tier (Free up to 10M events/mo).

Plausible vs Amplitude

Plausible is privacy-friendly, lightweight web analytics. No cookies, GDPR-compliant out of the box, while Amplitude is digital analytics platform for understanding user behavior across the full product journey. The biggest difference up front: Amplitude is free, while Plausible starts at $9/mo. Plausible is built for privacy-conscious sites that want simple, clean analytics, whereas Amplitude targets growth teams needing advanced product analytics.

At a glance

	Plausible	Amplitude
Best for	Privacy-conscious sites that want simple, clean analytics	Growth teams needing advanced product analytics
Starting price	$9/mo	Free
Free tier	—	✓
Open source	✓	—
Free tier available	—	✓
Open source	✓	—
Behavioral Analytics	—	✓
CDP	—	✓
Cohorts	—	✓
Cookieless	✓	—
Experiments	—	✓
Goal Tracking	✓	—
Lightweight Script	✓	—
Privacy First	✓	—
Self-Hosted	✓	—

Plausible

Strengths

Privacy-first — no cookies, no consent banners needed
Lightweight script under 1KB
Beautiful, simple dashboard
Open source, self-hostable

Weaknesses

Much less feature-rich than Google Analytics
No free tier (except self-hosted)
Limited segmentation and funnel analysis
No built-in A/B testing

Try Plausible → Full review

Amplitude

Strengths

Includes Behavioral Analytics as a core feature, purpose-built for analytics workflows
Includes Cohorts as a core feature, purpose-built for analytics workflows
Free up to 10M events/mo — generous enough for most small teams to get real work done
Established product with 14+ years on the market and a mature ecosystem

Weaknesses

Free plan exists but key features are locked behind the paid upgrade
Fewer built-in features means you may need additional tools to cover gaps
Data accuracy depends on tracking setup — misconfigured events give misleading results
Mobile experience lags behind the desktop version in features and polish

Try Amplitude → Full review

The bottom line

Pricing: Amplitude is completely free (Free up to 10M events/mo), which makes it the obvious pick if budget is the top concern. Plausible starts at $9/mo. That cost buys you a more polished or feature-rich experience, so it comes down to whether the extras justify the spend.

Feature gaps: Plausible offers Cookieless, Goal Tracking and Lightweight Script that Amplitude lacks. Amplitude brings Behavioral Analytics, CDP and Cohorts that Plausible does not have.

Team fit: Plausible is geared toward small teams teams, while Amplitude is aimed at mid-size teams teams. Pick the one that matches where your team is today and where it is headed — migrating tools later is always painful.

Open source: Plausible is open source, meaning you can self-host, audit the code, and avoid vendor lock-in. Amplitude is proprietary — you are trusting the vendor with your data and uptime.

Where each tool shines: Plausible's biggest strengths are: privacy-first — no cookies, no consent banners needed. lightweight script under 1kb. Amplitude's biggest strengths are: includes behavioral analytics as a core feature, purpose-built for analytics workflows. includes cohorts as a core feature, purpose-built for analytics workflows.

Watch out for: With Plausible, users commonly note that much less feature-rich than google analytics. With Amplitude, the main complaint is that free plan exists but key features are locked behind the paid upgrade.

Choose Plausible if...

You need a tool built for privacy-conscious sites that want simple, clean analytics
You need self-hosting, data sovereignty, or the ability to audit source code
You specifically need Cookieless and Goal Tracking
You care about lightweight script under 1kb
Your team size fits the small teams profile Plausible is designed for

Choose Amplitude if...

You need a tool built for growth teams needing advanced product analytics
Budget is a hard constraint — Amplitude is free, Plausible is not
You specifically need Behavioral Analytics and CDP
You care about includes cohorts as a core feature, purpose-built for analytics workflows
Your team size fits the mid-size teams profile Amplitude is designed for