Google Analytics→Plausible−$150/mo · −$1800/yr

One script tag, no cookie banner, stats you can read.

Easy20 minutesdocker compose ready

Why switch

▸GA4 enterprise tiers and the engineering cost of consent management add up — Plausible replaces the whole stack at a fraction of one.
▸Plausible is cookie-free and GDPR-compliant by design: the cookie banner can come off your site today.
▸Self-hosted Plausible on a small VPS handles millions of pageviews; the dashboard loads in one screen.

01
Deploy Plausible CE
The AltStack compose ships Plausible with PostgreSQL + ClickHouse. Bring it up and point a subdomain (analytics.yourdomain.com) at it.
bashrun on your server
```
mkdir plausible && cd plausible
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aa-humaaan/thealtstack/main/docker-deploy/plausible/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
```
02
Register your site, get the snippet
Plausible issues a one-line script tag. Add it to your layout — with the universal background of your site this is a single <script defer> tag, nothing else.
03
Define goals that matter
Rebuild your GA4 key events as Plausible goals: pageviews on /pricing, 404s, outbound clicks, and custom events from your app via plausible('Signup').
04
Run both for two weeks, then cut GA
Numbers differ by design: Plausible counts unique visits without cookies and excludes bots aggressively. Compare trends, not absolute digits, then remove GA and the consent banner.

⚠Bot-filtered totals look lower than GA4 — that is correct behavior, not data loss.
⚠User-level journeys across sessions don't exist (privacy trade). Use funnel goals instead.
⚠Self-hosted updates: pin a version and update monthly; ClickHouse upgrades deserve a backup first.