Visitant vs Matomo
Matomo is the open-source heavyweight: heatmaps, session recordings, A/B tests, tag manager, and a free On-Premise edition you run yourself. Visitant is a small cookie-free tool for shop and blog owners with one extra: the AI loop. In our view: Matomo if you need the full toolbox or must keep data on your own server; Visitant if you want a 1.9 KB script, no banner, and the AI side of your traffic.
- Matomo sets first-party cookies by default and can be configured cookieless; whether you need consent depends on that configuration. Visitant sets no cookies and stores no IP, so no banner.
- Matomo Cloud is EUR 22 a month for 50,000 hits and EUR 172 for 1,000,000 (structured data on the pricing page, annual billing gives 2 months free); Visitant is $0 for 5,000 events, $12 for 100,000 and $39 for 1,000,000.
- Matomo On-Premise costs EUR 0 in licence fees with unlimited hits; you pay for the server and the premium plugins (bundles from EUR 230 a month). Visitant has no self-hosted version.
- Matomo has an AI Assistants channel since 5.5.0 (8 October 2025) and AI Chatbot reports since 5.8.0 (4 March 2026) for assistants fetching pages on a user's behalf, such as ChatGPT-User; training and indexing crawlers are excluded. Visitant groups 21 assistants and logs 44 AI crawlers, training ones included.
- Matomo's core tracker weighs 22 KB gzipped and the Matomo Cloud tracker with plugins 65 KB (our measurement of
matomo.json 2026-09-25); Visitant's weighs 1.9 KB.
Prices and features checked 2026-09-25 at matomo.org. If something changed, tell us: promptowy@gmail.com
Features
| Visitant | Matomo | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie-free | yes | partialfirst-party cookies by default; cookieless mode available |
| Works without a consent banner in the EU | yes | partial"certain configurations" per Matomo; otherwise consent |
| EU hosting | yesPoland | yesCloud in Frankfurt, Germany; On-Premise wherever you run it |
| Script size | yes1.9 KB gzipped | no22 KB gzipped core, 65 KB Cloud build with plugins, measured 2026-09-25 |
| AI crawler log (server-side) | yes44 crawlers: training / AI search / user fetch, checked against IP ranges | partialAI Chatbot reports since 5.8.0 for user-fetch bots (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User) via Cloudflare, CloudFront or WordPress; training and indexing crawlers excluded |
| AI assistants as a channel | yes21 assistants | yesAI Assistants channel type since 5.5.0: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Le Chat |
| "Likely AI" estimate from text-fragment landings | yes | no |
| AI agents kept out of human counts | yesSignature-Agent, webdriver | yesAIAgents plugin since 5.6.0 tags agent visits (ChatGPT, NovaAct Agent Mode) with "ai agent" and "human" segments |
| Goals and custom events | yesevery plan | yes |
| Funnels | yesPro and up | paid extraincluded in Cloud; premium plugin On-Premise |
| Revenue tracking | yesPro and up | yese-commerce reports |
| Data retention | yes13 months Free, 5 years Pro and up | yesCloud: raw data 24 months, reports forever; On-Premise: your choice |
| Session replay, heatmaps | no | paid extraincluded in Cloud; premium plugin On-Premise |
| A/B testing, tag manager | no | yes |
| Stats API | yesPro and up | yes |
| Public share link | yesevery plan | partialvia an anonymous view user |
| Team seats | yes1 / 3 / 15 / 100 | yesCloud up to 30; On-Premise unlimited |
| Import from Google Analytics | nonot yet | yesGoogle Analytics Importer, GA4 migration guide |
| Self-hosting, open source | no | yesOn-Premise, free forever, unlimited hits |
| Price at 100,000 hits a month (cloud) | yes$12 | yesEUR 38 |
Pricing
| Free | $0/mo | 5,000 events |
| Pro | $12/mo | 100,000 events |
| Business | $39/mo | 1,000,000 events |
| Scale | $149/mo | 10,000,000 events |
AI crawler hits never count toward the limit. Going over the limit never locks the dashboard.
| On-Premise | EUR 0 | your own server, unlimited hits |
| Cloud 50,000 hits | EUR 22/mo | up to 30 websites |
| Cloud 100,000 hits | EUR 38/mo | |
| Cloud 300,000 hits | EUR 75/mo | |
| Cloud 600,000 hits | EUR 118/mo | |
| Cloud 1,000,000 hits | EUR 172/mo | |
| Cloud 2,000,000 hits | EUR 334/mo | |
| Cloud 5,000,000 hits | EUR 822/mo | |
| Cloud 10,000,000 hits | EUR 1,600/mo | |
| Cloud 25M / 50M / 100M hits | EUR 3,950 / 7,750 / 14,850 a month | above that: Enterprise, custom |
Matomo Cloud in EUR excluding VAT, read from the structured data (schema.org offers) on matomo.org/pricing on 2026-09-25; the same data lists USD (50,000 hits: $26, 1,000,000: $204). The page toggles between annual and monthly billing ("2 months free" on annual), so the figure billed monthly can be higher. 21-day trial, no card. A hit is a pageview or an event. Cloud includes up to 30 websites and 30 team members on the entry tier, raw data for 24 months and reports forever. On-Premise: EUR 0 licence, unlimited hits, your server; premium plugin bundles from EUR 230 a month (Team, annual billing).
The AI loop
Matomo added an AI Assistants channel type in 5.5.0 (8 October 2025), an AI Agents plugin in 5.6.0 and AI Chatbot reports in 5.8.0 (4 March 2026) that count page fetches made on a user's behalf (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User) from Cloudflare, CloudFront or WordPress telemetry. Its FAQ says crawlers that collect content for indexing or model training are excluded. That earlier step is where Visitant starts: a one-line server snippet records every fetch by 44 recognised AI crawlers, split into training, AI search and live user fetches, and checks claimed crawlers against the IP ranges their operators publish, flagging spoofed ones. Then visits from 21 assistants are grouped as a channel, text-fragment landings become a separate "likely AI" estimate, AI agents are kept out of human counts, and goals, funnels and revenue can be read per assistant. Matomo can attribute conversions per AI assistant as well; the training and AI search crawler log, the spoof check and the "likely AI" estimate are the parts it does not have. AI crawler hits never count toward a Visitant plan limit; in Matomo Cloud every tracked hit does.
- Data must stay on your own server: Matomo On-Premise is free, open source and unlimited; Visitant is hosted only.
- You need heatmaps, session recordings, A/B tests or a tag manager: Matomo has all four, Visitant has none.
- You need Google Analytics history: Matomo's importer brings it in, Visitant has no importer yet.
- You want raw data forever: On-Premise retention is whatever you set; Visitant caps at 5 years.
- You want the full AI crawler log (44 crawlers, training ones included, spoofed ones flagged); Matomo reports only user-fetch bots and excludes training crawlers.
- You want no cookies and no banner without reading a configuration guide: Visitant has exactly one mode.
- You want a 1.9 KB script instead of 22-65 KB and a dashboard a shop owner reads in 5 minutes (in our view Matomo's 50+ reports are overkill for a blog).
- You want a low price at moderate traffic: $12 for 100,000 events versus EUR 38 in Matomo Cloud.
Questions
Does Matomo need a cookie banner?
It depends on how you set it up. Matomo sets first-party cookies by default and says its visitors must be informed and, where required, give consent; certain cookieless configurations may run without consent. Visitant never sets cookies, so there is nothing to consent to.
What does each tool cost at 100,000 hits a month?
Matomo Cloud: EUR 38 a month (structured data, 2026-09-25). Matomo On-Premise: EUR 0 plus your server. Visitant: $12 a month on Pro with funnels, revenue and API.
Can I self-host Visitant?
No. Visitant runs only on its own servers in Poland. If self-hosting is a must, Matomo On-Premise or another open-source tool is the right pick.
Does Matomo show AI crawlers such as GPTBot?
Not GPTBot. Since 5.8.0 (March 2026) Matomo's AI Chatbot reports count fetches made on a user's behalf, such as ChatGPT-User or Claude-User, sent from Cloudflare, CloudFront or WordPress; its FAQ says crawlers that collect content for indexing or model training, like GPTBot, are excluded. Visitant records crawler fetches with a server snippet and checks them against published IP ranges.
Can I import Matomo data into Visitant?
Not yet. Visitant starts counting from the day you add the script. Matomo keeps its own data (Cloud: raw data 24 months, reports forever).