Visitant vs Plausible
Plausible is the best-known cookie-free analytics tool: open source, EU-hosted, one simple page of stats. Visitant follows the same idea and adds the AI side: which crawlers read you, which assistants send visitors and what those visitors buy. In our view: Plausible if you want the safest, most mature choice and may self-host one day; Visitant if you want the AI loop and a free plan.
- Both set no cookies, store no IP address and host in the EU (Plausible on European-owned infrastructure, Visitant in Poland).
- Plausible has no free plan: $9 a month for 10,000 pageviews on Starter, $19 at 100,000; Visitant is $0 up to 5,000 events and $12 at 100,000.
- Plausible locks the dashboard when you exceed the limit for 2 consecutive months and do not upgrade within a week (stats keep collecting); Visitant never locks the dashboard.
- Plausible added an AI Assistants channel on 10 June 2026; Visitant groups 21 assistants and also logs 44 AI crawlers on the server, which Plausible does not do.
- Plausible is open source and can be self-hosted (Community Edition); Visitant cannot be self-hosted.
Prices and features checked 2026-09-25 at plausible.io. If something changed, tell us: promptowy@gmail.com
Features
| Visitant | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie-free | yes | yesno cookies, cache or local storage |
| Works without a consent banner in the EU | yes | yes |
| IP address never stored | yescountry from the browser time zone | yesdaily salted hash, salt rotates every 24 hours |
| EU hosting | yesPoland | yesEuropean-owned infrastructure, company in Estonia |
| Script size | yes1.9 KB gzipped | yes2.5 KB gzipped, vendor figure matching our measurement of the current script on 2026-09-25 |
| AI crawler log (server-side) | yes44 crawlers: training / AI search / user fetch, checked against IP ranges | no |
| AI assistants as a channel | yes21 assistants | yesAI Assistants channel since 10 June 2026, older data reclassified |
| "Likely AI" estimate from text-fragment landings | yes | no |
| AI agents kept out of human counts | yesSignature-Agent, webdriver | no |
| Goals and custom events | yesevery plan | yes |
| Funnels | yesPro and up | paid extraBusiness plan; flexible funnels since 23 Sep 2026 |
| Revenue tracking | yesPro and up | paid extraBusiness plan |
| Data retention | yes13 months Free, 5 years Pro and up | yes3 years Starter, 5 years Business |
| Session replay, heatmaps | no | no |
| Stats API | yesPro and up | paid extraBusiness plan |
| Public share link | yesevery plan | yes |
| Team seats | yes1 / 3 / 15 / 100 | yesGrowth up to 3, Business up to 10 |
| Import from Google Analytics | nonot yet | yesGA4 import |
| Self-hosting, open source | no | yesCommunity Edition, $0 licence |
| Dashboard locked after overage | nonever | yesafter 2 consecutive months over the limit and a 1-week notice |
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.
| Starter 10k / 100k / 1M / 10M | $9 / $19 / $69 / $169 | pageviews a month |
| Growth 10k / 100k / 1M / 10M | $14 / $29 / $104 / $254 | pageviews a month |
| Business 10k / 100k / 1M / 10M | $19 / $39 / $139 / $339 | pageviews a month |
| Enterprise | custom | 10+ sites, 10+ team members, 5+ years of data |
USD, monthly billing, read from the pricing slider on plausible.io on 2026-09-25. Yearly billing costs 10 monthly payments ("2 months free"). Above 10,000,000 pageviews: custom. 30-day trial, no card. Pageviews and custom events count together. Starter: 1 site, 3 years of data. Growth: up to 3 sites and 3 team members. Business: up to 10 sites, 10 team members, 5 years of data, funnels, revenue, Stats API.
The AI loop
Both tools now list AI assistants as a channel: Plausible since 10 June 2026 (ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Perplexity and others), Visitant for 21 assistants including Polish-relevant ones such as Copilot, Kagi and Le Chat. The difference is what happens before and after the click. Before: a one-line server snippet in Visitant 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, so a spoofed GPTBot is flagged rather than counted. Plausible runs in the browser only and never sees a crawler. After: Visitant sizes the dark share with a separate "likely AI" estimate from text-fragment landings, keeps AI agents out of human counts, and reads goals, funnels and revenue per assistant on Pro and up. Plausible reads conversions per assistant too, but revenue and funnels need the Business plan ($39 a month at 100,000 pageviews versus $12 in Visitant).
- You may self-host: Plausible's Community Edition is open source and costs $0 in licence fees; Visitant has no self-hosted version.
- You need Google Analytics history: Plausible imports GA4 data, Visitant does not yet.
- You want the most mature product in this category (public since 2019, in our view the reference point everyone else copies).
- You want a bigger team on one plan: Business gives 10 seats for $19 at 10,000 pageviews; Visitant Pro gives 3 seats for $12.
- You want to see AI crawlers (44 recognised, spoofed ones flagged) next to human visits; Plausible cannot log them.
- You want funnels, revenue and the API without the top plan: Visitant Pro at $12 has all three; Plausible needs Business at $39 for 100,000 pageviews.
- You do not want a locked dashboard after a traffic spike: Visitant keeps counting, shows a banner and emails you.
- You want a free plan for a small site: $0 for 5,000 events, 2 sites and 13 months of data.
Questions
Can I move from Plausible to Visitant without losing data?
Not by import. Plausible can export CSV, but Visitant has no importer yet, so history stays in Plausible and Visitant counts from day one. Running both for 30 days is the usual overlap.
What does each tool cost at 100,000 pageviews?
Plausible: $19 Starter, $29 Growth, $39 Business (monthly billing). Visitant: $12 Pro with funnels, revenue and API included. At 1,000,000: Plausible $69 / $104 / $139, Visitant $39 Business.
What happens when I go over the limit?
Plausible: one month over is fine; two consecutive months trigger a notice and, without an upgrade within a week, a temporary dashboard lock while stats keep collecting. Visitant: the dashboard stays open, you get a banner and an email, and AI crawler hits never count toward the limit.
Does Plausible show AI assistant traffic?
Yes. Since 10 June 2026 the Channels report has an AI Assistants channel with ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, Perplexity and others, and historical data was reclassified. Visitant does the same for a fixed list of 21 assistants.
Does Plausible show AI crawlers such as GPTBot or ClaudeBot?
No. Plausible runs in the browser and crawlers do not run JavaScript. Visitant adds a server snippet that records crawler fetches and checks them against published IP ranges.