Zenith vs Plausible
Privacy analytics that is built around client work
Plausible is excellent and we will not pretend otherwise: cookieless, open source, beautifully simple. The difference is who the product is shaped for. Plausible is built for the person who owns the site. Zenith is built for the person who builds sites for other people.
Zenith vs Plausible, feature by feature
Including the rows Zenith loses. Where Plausible has something behind a paid tier or a plugin, the table says so rather than pretending it is missing.
| Feature | Zenith | Plausible |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy & compliance | ||
| Cookie-free tracking | Yes | Yes |
| No cookie banner required | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR compliant by default | Yes | Yes |
| No personal data collected | Yes | Yes |
| You own the raw data | Yes | Self-hosted only |
| Open source | MIT | AGPL |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Community edition |
| Analytics features | ||
| Real-time dashboard | Yes | Yes |
| Visitors, pageviews, sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Bounce rate & visit duration | Yes | Yes |
| Custom events | Yes | Yes |
| UTM & campaign tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Funnel analysis | No | Paid plans |
| Cohort analysis | No | No |
| Session replay | No | No |
| Heatmaps | No | No |
| A/B testing | No | No |
| Feature flags | No | No |
| Agency & client work | ||
| Unlimited sites per deploy | Yes | Counts toward your plan |
| Cost per extra client site | Nothing | Raises your pageview tier |
| Dashboard on the client's own domain | Yes | No |
| Client never sees a third-party tool | Yes | Shared link |
| Automatic monthly client emails | Yes | Weekly/monthly digests |
| Per-client logins | Yes | Shared links or team seats |
| SEO | ||
| Built-in SEO audits | Yes | No |
| Core Web Vitals from a real render | Yes | No |
| SEO report emails | Yes | No |
| Setup & usability | ||
| Install | Script tag or npm | Script tag |
| Learning curve | Minutes | Minutes |
| Tracking script size | ~1 KB | ~1 KB |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
| Unsampled data | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting & pricing | ||
| Hosting | Self-hosted | Cloud or self-hosted |
| Pricing model | Free, open source | Subscription |
| Price scales with | Nothing | Pageviews |
| Every feature included | Yes | Higher tiers for more |
Where we agree
Cookieless tracking, no consent banner, no personal data, open source, a tiny script, and a dashboard a normal person can read. Plausible got here first and does it well. If you run one or two of your own sites and want none of the operational burden, Plausible Cloud is a better answer than self-hosting Zenith, and you should take it.
The client dashboard
This is the thing no other tool does. Zenith serves your client's analytics from a route inside their own app — theirsite.com/analytics — same-origin, password-gated, with no Zenith branding anywhere. They do not sign up for anything, do not learn a new tool, and never discover a third party was involved. With Plausible you send them a shared link to plausible.io.
What each extra site costs
Plausible Cloud prices on pageviews across your account, so every client site you add raises the bill and a client who goes viral raises it sharply. Zenith is one deploy on a server you already pay for, and the eleventh site costs exactly what the first one did. Plausible's self-hosted community edition is also free, with the same operational trade-off Zenith asks of you.
Where Plausible wins
Plausible's script is smaller than ours. Its cloud means there is no server to run, no upgrades to apply and no backups to remember. It has funnels and goal conversions on paid plans; Zenith has neither. And it is a more mature product with more people working on it. If you do not need the client-facing half of Zenith, none of what Zenith adds is worth the server.
Own your clients’ analytics.
One deploy, every site you build, no consent banner and no per-site cost. It is MIT licensed and it runs on one server.