Website analytics tools and who they suit

There isn’t one best website analytics tool, only the one built for what you actually want to know. If you just want visits, sources and a goal or two, Plausible, Fathom Analytics, Simple Analytics or Cloudflare Web Analytics keep it to one page. If you want cohorts, retention and feature flags, PostHog and Mixpanel go further than a small site usually needs. If you want to watch how people use a page, Microsoft Clarity is free and built for exactly that. And if you answer your own support, Deacon counts your visitors, sources, goals and funnels from the same script that answers your customers, on a free plan that needs no card and has no end date.

Every price below was read on the vendor’s own pricing page on 25 September 2026, and each one links there.

Simple website traffic analytics

These count visitors, sources and goals, and stop there.

Fathom Analytics is the traffic tool. A separate product called Fathom, for meeting notes, ranks for the same name, so check you’re on usefathom.com before you compare prices. Plausible, Simple Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics all count without a cookie by their own account, and none of them needs Google’s consent mode to fill in the gaps. Google Analytics remains the free default precisely because it does more than a small site needs, from key events to Google Ads links, which is why the three tools beside it exist.

Product analytics

These track events per user, not just page views, so you can build cohorts, retention curves and feature flags on top.

Both suit a technical team that wants to segment users and watch what happens after the first visit, not just where traffic comes from. PostHog bundles this with error tracking and its events are kept for a year on the free plan. Mixpanel’s free plan has no seat limit, so a whole team can use it before anyone pays.

Behaviour analytics: heatmaps and recordings

These show how people move on a page, rather than counting who arrived.

Contentsquare bought Hotjar and folded its heatmaps and recordings into its own plans, so Hotjar’s own pricing page carries a banner pointing you to Contentsquare instead of a price. Microsoft Clarity is still free with no catch, which is why it’s the one to reach for if you only want to watch a handful of sessions.

Free and self-hosted analytics

These are free to run yourself, with a paid cloud version if you’d rather not.

Matomo On-Premise is the fullest of the two once self-hosted, with heatmaps, session recordings and A/B tests, though funnels and other extras there are paid plugins. Umami is the lighter of the two, built for page views and events without the extras.

Deacon

Deacon is an AI customer support agent for founders who handle support themselves, and the same script that runs its chat also counts your website’s visitors. There’s no second tool to add: one script tag answers your customers and tracks Analytics › Website at once.

That page shows your visitors, sources, goals and funnels of two to five steps, alongside a card of the JavaScript errors your own scripts throw and Worth knowing, which writes a handful of plain sentences when something changes, such as a traffic spike or a source that converts better than the rest. A source is listed as it came, such as google.com or the utm_source you set, with nothing grouped into channels. Page views are counted without a cookie, from a hash that changes daily, but the script does set a cookie, deacon_visitor_id, as it loads, and keeps the same id in local storage, so don’t take it as cookieless.

What it doesn’t do matters just as much. Deacon has no heatmaps, no session recordings and no cohort or retention reports, and it never identifies which company or person a visit came from. If that’s what you need, PostHog, Microsoft Clarity or Mixpanel cover it.

The half no analytics tool on this page has is the chat itself. When a visitor’s question isn’t covered, Deacon says so instead of guessing and asks for their email, and every answer you write becomes part of what it knows, so chatbot analytics show what your customers ask alongside where they came from. Website visitor tracking covers the analytics half in full.

Every feature is on every plan, the free one included, and no plan limits page views or website analytics. The plans differ only in the chat’s answers, knowledge, crawled pages and seats, and the free plan needs no card and has no end date.

Which one fits you

Start from the question you want answered each week, not the longest feature list.

If you just want to know how many people came, from where, and whether they signed up, Plausible, Fathom Analytics, Simple Analytics or Cloudflare Web Analytics will tell you that on one page, and each counts without a cookie by its own account. If you want to dig into cohorts, retention and feature flags, PostHog or Mixpanel go deeper, both with a usable free plan. If you want to watch real sessions, Microsoft Clarity is free and built for it, now that Hotjar’s pricing sits inside Contentsquare’s. If you’d rather host it yourself, Umami and Matomo On-Premise are free on your own server.

If you answer your own support, Deacon is the one that does two jobs from one script. It counts your visitors, sources, goals and funnels, and it answers your customers from your own docs while showing you what they’re stuck on, all on a free plan with no card and no end date. Add a dedicated analytics tool from this page if you outgrow what it counts, such as heatmaps or event cohorts, and the two will run alongside it without conflict.

Questions about website analytics tools

Is there a free website analytics tool?

Yes, several. Deacon’s free plan counts visitors, sources, goals, funnels and JavaScript errors with no limit on page views, no card and no end date. Cloudflare Web Analytics and Microsoft Clarity are free outright, and PostHog and Mixpanel both have usable free allowances. Plausible, Fathom Analytics and Umami Cloud offer trials or a free tier rather than a permanent free plan, though Plausible’s Community Edition and Umami are free to self-host.

What’s the difference between website analytics and product analytics?

Website analytics such as Plausible, Fathom Analytics, Cloudflare Web Analytics and Deacon counts visitors, page views and sources, usually anonymously. Product analytics such as PostHog and Mixpanel tracks named or pseudonymous users across sessions, so you can build cohorts and see who came back. A small marketing site rarely needs the second kind. A UTM builder tags your links so either tool can tell you where a visitor came from.

Do I need a cookie banner for website analytics?

It depends on the tool and where your visitors are. Plausible, Fathom Analytics, Simple Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics all say they count without cookies, though whether that avoids a banner in your visitors’ countries is a question for whoever writes your privacy policy. Deacon’s script sets a cookie, deacon_visitor_id, as it loads, so treat it like any other script that stores something on a visitor’s device.

Does Deacon have heatmaps or session recordings?

No. Deacon’s website analytics has no heatmaps, session recordings or cohort reports, and it can’t tell you which company or person a visit came from. Microsoft Clarity is free and built around recordings and heatmaps, and PostHog bundles session replay with its product analytics.

Can I run more than one of these at once?

Yes. None of them get in each other’s way, since each counts independently. Deacon’s figures won’t match a product analytics tool exactly, because it counts a visitor once per UTC day and never groups sources into channels, but you can run both for a month and see which one you keep reading.

Why did Hotjar’s pricing page change?

Contentsquare bought Hotjar and now sells its heatmaps and recordings as part of its own plans. Visiting Hotjar’s pricing page today redirects you to Contentsquare’s, with a banner explaining the move and a 15-day trial in place of a public price.