Matomo vs Plausible (2026): self-host requirements, licence and pricing
Matomo and Plausible are web analytics tools you can host yourself. Matomo runs on PHP with MySQL or MariaDB [S1]. Plausible runs in Docker with Postgres and ClickHouse [S3]. Every figure here comes from the vendors' pages, fetched 28 Oct 2026.
Matomo vs Plausible at a glance
| Matomo | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | GPL-3.0 [S2] | AGPL-3.0 [S4] |
| Latest release | 5.14.2, 22 Oct 2026 [S2] | v3.2.1, 15 May 2026 [S4] |
| Minimum server | "2 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 50GB SSD disk" up to 100,000 page views a month [S1] | 2 GB RAM recommended; CPU with SSE 4.2 or NEON; disk not published [S3] |
| Stack | PHP 8.1 or newer, MySQL 8.0 or MariaDB 10.6, Apache or Nginx [S1] | Docker Compose with Postgres and ClickHouse [S3] |
| Install | PHP webserver, WordPress, or the Docker Official Image (needs a MySQL or MariaDB container) [S1][S7] | Docker Compose [S3] |
| Paid hosted plan | Matomo Cloud "From €230/mo" [S5] | Starter plan, billed monthly, "$9 /month" [S6] |
When to choose each
Matomo suits you when you already run PHP and MySQL, WordPress, or Docker with a MySQL or MariaDB container [S1][S7].
Plausible suits you when you prefer Docker and a 2 GB server [S3].
Self-host guides
Sources (fetched 28 Oct 2026 unless a date is given)
- [S1] https://matomo.org/faq/on-premise/matomo-requirements/
- [S2] https://api.github.com/repos/matomo-org/matomo and /releases/latest
- [S3] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plausible/community-edition/v3.2.1/README.md
- [S4] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plausible/analytics/master/LICENSE.md ; https://api.github.com/repos/plausible/analytics/releases/latest
- [S5] https://matomo.org/pricing/, Matomo Cloud
- [S6] https://plausible.io/, Starter plan billed monthly
- [S7] https://hub.docker.com/_/matomo ; https://raw.githubusercontent.com/matomo-org/docker/master/README.md