Analytics
Self-Hosted Analytics
Matomo
Open source website analytics you can run on your own server, so visitor data stays in your hands.
- Category
- Analytics
- Stack role
- Analytics
- Tool type
- Open Source
- Best suited for
- Privacy-Focused Organizations
- Hosting model
- Hybrid
- Software price
- $22+ / month
- Made by
- The Matomo Team
- First released
- 2007
- License
- GPLv3 or later
Our rating, from hands-on experience building client projects. Not a public review average.
What is Matomo?
Matomo, in plain English.
Matomo is a website analytics tool, similar to Google Analytics, that you can host yourself or use as a paid cloud service. It reports who visits your site, which pages they view and where they come from. The difference is who holds the data.
It began in 2007 under the name Piwik and was renamed Matomo in 2018. It is open source, and it offers cookieless tracking aimed at working without consent banners, though you should still check the rules for your region. It also includes extras like heatmaps, session recordings and its own tag manager.
Businesses choose Matomo when privacy rules, client contracts or a simple preference for control make sending visitor data to a large advertising company uncomfortable. The tradeoff is more setup. Self-hosting means someone has to run and update the software, and the cloud version costs a monthly fee.
In our stack
Why we use Matomo.
Matomo is in our toolbox for clients who need to own their analytics data or work under strict privacy rules. Most of our current client sites use Google Analytics instead, because it is free and familiar. If data ownership matters to you, Matomo is the first option we would raise.
You Own the Data
Visitor records stay on your own server instead of a third party's.
Privacy-Friendly Options
Cookieless tracking can reduce the need for consent banners, depending on your region.
Familiar Reports
Traffic, sources and goals look much like the tools your team already knows.
Related tools
Works well with Matomo.
Build with us