Determining the best option for your needs can be a challenging and slow process. In the interest of transparency and clarity, we've put together this simple chart laying out the similarities and differences between us and our competitors.
On top of that you can see how we all stack up against Google Analytics — hint: we're all better than Google Analytics.
| Palace Analytics | Plausible | Fathom Analytics | Simple Analytics | Google Analytics | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | |||||
| Starting price | $0.00/mo (100K events) | $9/mo (10K pageviews) | $15/mo (100K pageviews) | $15/mo (20k pageviews) | Free (GA4) / $50K+/mo (GA360) |
| Feature tiers | All features on every plan — no feature lockouts | Some features on higher tiers | All features on every plan — single feature tier | Some features on higher tiers | Advanced features require GA360 |
| Free tier | Yes | No (30-day trial) | No (30-day trial) | No (14-day trial) | Yes (you pay with user data) |
| Pricing model | Usage | Tiers + usage | Usage groups | Tiers + usage | Free / enterprise quote |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes | Limited | No | No |
| Features | |||||
| Real-time data | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial (24–48hr delay) |
| Custom event tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UTM / campaign tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UTM dashboard & link management | Yes (dedicated dashboard, create & manage UTM links in-app) | No | No | No | Partial (via Campaign URL Builder, no in-app management) |
| Built-in link shortener | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Websites | Unlimited | Up to 3 for mid tier | Up to 50 | Up to 20 for mid tier | Unlimited |
| Teams | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Seats | Unlimited | Up to 3 for mid tier | No teams | Up to 2 for mid tier, + $20 /user | Unlimited |
| Data retention | Unlimited | Up to 3 years for mid tier | Unlimited | Up to 5 years for mid tier | 2–14 months (GA4 free); up to 50 months (GA360) |
| Public dashboard sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Open source | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Privacy & Compliance | |||||
| Cookieless | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Contested (banned in some EU countries) |
| Data storage | EU-hosted | EU-hosted | EU-hosted | EU-hosted | Google servers (US-centric) |
| IP/personal data | No personal data collected by default | No IP stored; aggregated only | Anonymized IP hashes stored | No personal data at all | Collects extensive personal data |
| Consent banner needed | Not required | Not required | Not required | Not required | Required |
| Ease of Use & Setup | |||||
| Script size | <1.5 KB | <1 KB | ~2 KB | ~4 KB | ~70 KB |
| Learning curve | Low | Low | Low | Low | High |
We built Palace because we weren't satisfied with the existing options. Plausible and Fathom are both solid tools, but they were designed around pageview counts and not much else. Palace was built by a machine learning engineer and a marketer — someone who models data, and someone who has to act on it. That combination means every feature we ship exists because it helps you make a better decision, not because it was easy to add. Clear usage based pricing, a built-in UTM dashboard, a link shortener, and unlimited everything under one plan — no upsells, no seat fees, no data caps.
That said, if Palace isn't the right fit for you, any of the privacy-first alternatives on this list are a meaningful step forward. What we'd strongly encourage is leaving Google Analytics behind regardless. GA4 is slow, invasive, increasingly illegal in parts of Europe, and built to serve Google's advertising business — not yours. Your visitors' data shouldn't be the price of understanding your own website. Whichever tool you choose, choose one that's on your side.
Set up takes minutes. Your first 100k events are free.
Simple, usage-based pricing from $0.00