AI recommendation audit: Plausible

https://plausible.io/ · category: privacy-friendly web analytics · answers captured 2026-10-07 · order sample-plausible

Brand	ChatGPT	Perplexity	Gemini	Claude
Plausible	68% (64%–72%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	79% (76%–84%, n=3)	77% (76%–80%, n=3)
Google Analytics	8% (6%–12%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	62% (56%–75%, n=3)	48% (38%–56%, n=3)
Fathom Analytics	53% (50%–55%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	71% (68%–73%, n=3)	85% (82%–86%, n=3)
Simple Analytics	17% (14%–18%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	8% (5%–9%, n=3)	71% (68%–73%, n=3)
Matomo	45% (41%–50%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	21% (18%–27%, n=3)	65% (59%–73%, n=3)
Umami	29% (26%–30%, n=3)	unavailable: not measured in this run	57% (52%–65%, n=3)	64% (61%–65%, n=3)

3. Prompt-level grid

#	Prompt	ChatGPT	Gemini	Claude
P01	What's the best privacy-friendly web analytics tool for a SaaS founder who wants simple MRR-relevant traffic and signup tracking without cookie banners? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Simple Analytics×1, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Google Analytics×1, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×3
P02	I'm a SaaS founder in the US with a small team. Which lightweight analytics tool should I use instead of bloated dashboards, and that doesn't need consent popups? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Simple Analytics×2, Google Analytics×1, Fathom Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Google Analytics×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×2
P03	Best cookie-free analytics for a B2B SaaS startup that needs to track trial signups and conversion goals? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×2, Matomo×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Simple Analytics×3
P04	What privacy-focused analytics platform works best for a SaaS product with a marketing site and a web app, and is easy to set up in an afternoon? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 —	Plausible 3/3 Umami×2, Google Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Umami×2
P05	Which privacy-friendly analytics tools are best for a marketing agency managing 20+ client websites with separate reports for each? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Google Analytics×3, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3
P06	Best web analytics for a marketing agency that wants clean, shareable client dashboards and doesn't want to deal with GDPR/CCPA headaches? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Google Analytics×3
P07	What's the best analytics tool for a digital agency that wants white-label or easily shareable reports without Google Analytics complexity? best-for-persona	Plausible 1/3 Fathom Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×2, Simple Analytics×1
P08	Which privacy-friendly analytics is most cost-effective for an agency that needs to add many client sites? best-for-persona	Plausible 2/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×2, Umami×2	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×2, Google Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×3, Matomo×2
P09	What's the best simple analytics tool for a small business owner with a WordPress site who just wants to see visitors and top pages? best-for-persona	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×2	Plausible 3/3 Google Analytics×3, Fathom Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Google Analytics×3, Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×1
P10	I run a small local business in the US. What's an easy, affordable website analytics tool that doesn't require a cookie banner? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×2, Simple Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Google Analytics×3, Fathom Analytics×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Google Analytics×3, Umami×2
P11	Best privacy-friendly analytics for a small e-commerce shop on Shopify or WooCommerce with a tight budget? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Matomo×3	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Google Analytics×3, Matomo×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×2, Matomo×2
P12	What's the easiest Google Analytics replacement for a small business with no technical staff? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3
P13	Which privacy-first analytics tools are best for a small business that wants to be transparent with customers about data collection? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Umami×3, Google Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Google Analytics×3, Matomo×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3
P14	Fathom Analytics vs Simple Analytics: which is better for a small SaaS company? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×2	Plausible 1/3 —
P15	Matomo vs Umami: which privacy-friendly analytics tool is easier to self-host and maintain? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×3	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×3
P16	Google Analytics 4 vs Fathom Analytics for a small business: is the switch worth it? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 1/3 Simple Analytics×1	Plausible 0/3 —
P17	Simple Analytics vs Matomo for a marketing agency: which handles multiple client sites better? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×2	Plausible 0/3 —
P18	Umami vs Fathom: which is better value for a startup website with moderate traffic? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×1	Plausible 0/3 Google Analytics×1
P19	Matomo Cloud vs Google Analytics: which is better for staying compliant while still getting detailed reports? x-vs-y	Plausible 0/3 —	Plausible 1/3 Fathom Analytics×1	Plausible 0/3 —
P20	What are the best alternatives to Google Analytics that respect user privacy? alternatives-to-leader	Plausible 3/3 Matomo×3, Umami×3, Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3
P21	Google Analytics alternatives that don't need cookie consent banners, for US-based websites? alternatives-to-leader	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Matomo×3, Simple Analytics×2, Umami×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3
P22	What are good lightweight, open-source alternatives to Google Analytics I can self-host? alternatives-to-leader	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Matomo×3	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Matomo×3, Fathom Analytics×2
P23	Alternatives to Google Analytics 4 that are simpler to use and have a flat, predictable price? alternatives-to-leader	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Matomo×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×1	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×2
P24	I'm tired of GA4's complexity. What are the best simple, privacy-focused alternatives for a small team? alternatives-to-leader	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3	Plausible 3/3 Umami×3, Fathom Analytics×3	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Simple Analytics×3, Umami×3, Matomo×3
P25	What is the best privacy-friendly web analytics for a SaaS founder? best-for-persona	Plausible 3/3 Umami×2, Fathom Analytics×2, Matomo×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Google Analytics×2	Plausible 3/3 Fathom Analytics×3, Umami×3, Simple Analytics×3, Matomo×3

AI bot	/	/pricing	Own robots group
GPTBot	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)
OAI-SearchBot	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)
ChatGPT-User	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)
PerplexityBot	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)
Google-Extended	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)
ClaudeBot	allowed	allowed	no (uses * rules)

5. Schema and entity

JSON-LD types across the site: Answer, BlogPosting, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, ListItem, Question, WebPage, WebSite. Brand 'Plausible' in the title of 21 of 21 pages. Category phrase 'privacy-friendly web analytics' on home: yes, on pricing: yes.

Comparison / alternatives URLs found (linked from crawled pages: 11, listed in the sitemap: 10; a bounded crawl, so others may exist): 11 — https://plausible.io/blog/eu-hosted-analytics-vs-eu-owned-analytics, https://plausible.io/blog/european-alternatives-trends-privacy-tech, https://plausible.io/blog/google-analytics-alternatives, https://plausible.io/blog/time-on-page-ga-vs-plausible, https://plausible.io/blog/ua-vs-ga4, https://plausible.io/blog/web-analytics-vs-product-analytics and 5 more

Cited domain	Kind	Answers	Plausible	Google Analytics	Fathom Analytics	Simple Analytics	Matomo	Umami
posthog.com	vendor site	16	16	3	12	0	4	9
github.com	other	10	10	1	7	1	7	6
pirsch.io	vendor site	10	10	5	9	2	5	8
getopen.so	other	10	9	5	8	8	5	6
prettyinsights.com	other	9	4	3	3	3	3	2
analytics-alternatives.com	other	7	4	3	3	3	2	2
cloudflare.com	vendor site	5	5	2	5	1	0	4
frontdeskreview.com	other	5	3	0	2	2	2	2
wordpress.org	vendor site	4	3	2	1	0	1	0
goatcounter.com	vendor site	4	4	0	0	0	2	4
seline.com	other	4	4	2	4	4	3	4
gdpranalytics.com	other	4	4	3	3	3	3	3

7. Pricing and landing page

Check	Result	Evidence (static HTML)
Plans and prices readable in static HTML	pass	“…ee Monthly Yearly Up to 10k monthly pageviews 10k 10k 10M+ Starter /year /month $9 /month Custom Start free trial One site 3 years of data retention Intuitive, fa…” 3 price amounts in static HTML: $9, $14, $19 https://plausible.io/ (pricing section on the home page)
Target persona stated on the home page	fail	No 'for <buyer>' statement found in the home page's static text. https://plausible.io/
Free trial or free plan visible	pass	“…sights. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned infrastructure. 🇪🇺 Start free trial View live demo Why use Plausible Analytics? Google Analytics is overkill…” https://plausible.io/
Call to action in the first screen of text	pass	“…sights. Made and hosted in the EU, powered by European-owned infrastructure. 🇪🇺 Start free trial View live demo Why use Plausible Analytics? Google Analytics is overkill…” https://plausible.io/

Reviewer suggestions (AI-drafted from the static HTML; each quote is checked to be on the page, the claim itself is the operator's to confirm in a browser before sending):

“Plausible is trusted by thousands of organizations, including Stripe, Mozilla, MongoDB, Harvard University and Sentry.” (home): Named logos are claimed as customers but none of the testimonials come from them, so a buyer can't tell what these organizations actually use Plausible for or whether the claim is current. It reads as unverified name-dropping. → Add a sourced quote or case study from at least one named organization, or soften to wording that states what is verifiable.
“Our script is 54 times smaller than Google Analytics. Every visitor that loads your site downloads 135KB less JavaScript.” (home): The two figures are not tied to a stated baseline (which GA script, compressed or not). A buyer cannot check them or tell whether 54x and 135KB describe the same comparison. → State the sizes being compared (e.g. 'X KB vs Y KB, gzipped, GA4 gtag.js as of date') and link to the methodology.
“A site with 100,000 monthly visitors saves around 4 kg of CO2 per year by switching.” (home): The CO2 claim has no assumptions (pages per visit, energy per KB, grid mix), so it is unverifiable and may seem greenwashing-like to skeptical buyers. → Show the calculation inputs or link to the source, or drop the specific figure.

8. Five developer tickets

1. Add SoftwareApplication JSON-LD with offers

Effort S · impact 3/5 · confidence 4/5 · priority score 12.0

Evidence

§5: JSON-LD types found across 21 pages: Answer, BlogPosting, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, ListItem, Question, WebPage, WebSite

Change: Add a SoftwareApplication block for Plausible on the home and pricing pages: name, applicationCategory, operatingSystem, offers (price, priceCurrency) per plan, and aggregateRating only if real ratings exist.

Done when: Google Rich Results Test / schema.org validator reads a SoftwareApplication with ≥1 Offer.

2. Add Organization JSON-LD with sameAs profiles

Effort S · impact 2/5 · confidence 4/5 · priority score 8.0

Evidence

§5: no Organization type in JSON-LD on 21 crawled pages

Change: Add Organization (name, url, logo, sameAs: LinkedIn, GitHub, X, G2/Capterra profile URLs) to the home page so engines tie third-party mentions to the brand.

Done when: Validator shows Organization with ≥3 sameAs URLs on the home page.

3. State who the product is for above the fold

Effort S · impact 2/5 · confidence 3/5 · priority score 6.0

Evidence

§7: No 'for <buyer>' statement found in the home page's static text.

Change: Add a hero line that names the buyer and the category in the words buyers use in §3 (SaaS founder, marketing agency, small business).

Done when: Static HTML of the home page passes the 'Target persona stated on the home page' check in §7.

4. Add explicit AI-bot groups to robots.txt

Effort S · impact 2/5 · confidence 3/5 · priority score 6.0 · hardening

Evidence

§4: no AI bot has its own robots.txt group; access relies on the '*' rules

Change: Add explicit groups for OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User and PerplexityBot so a future '*' change cannot silently block answer engines.

Done when: robots.txt has named groups for the three bots.

5. Re-measure AI answers 30 days after the fixes ship

Effort S · impact 1/5 · confidence 5/5 · priority score 5.0 · hardening

Evidence

§9: engine answers vary between runs; one measurement is a baseline, not a trend

Change: After the other tickets in this list are live, take a new measurement with the same prompt set and samples (`./audit run order.json --new-measurement`; a plain re-run only re-renders this one).

Done when: A second report with the same prompts shows a new measurement ID and answer capture dates after the fixes; share-of-answer deltas are reported with min-max.

9. Method and limits

Answers captured 2026-10-07T06:14:42+00:00 → 2026-10-07T07:05:09+00:00 UTC in measurement m20261007T061405Z-a67f (225 answers, 0 asked in this run, the rest reused from the same measurement). Report rendered 2026-10-07T15:20:56+00:00 UTC (run started 2026-10-07T15:20:21+00:00). Tier standard: 25 prompts × 3 samples per engine. Prompt source: helper LLM draft (24) + 1 template prompts.

Backend: cli. Answers come from the vendors' command-line agents (Codex CLI, Claude Code, Antigravity CLI) signed in to the operator's subscriptions, run non-interactively on a server. The table below names the exact model behind each engine. These answers are proxies: they are not guaranteed to match what a consumer sees on chatgpt.com, claude.ai, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai or in Google AI Overviews, which add their own personalisation, location and product features.
Answers vary between runs, so every share shows the mean and the min–max over samples (n).
Prompts never contain the audited brand. A competitor named in the prompt itself is not counted for that prompt.
Gemini is asked without Google Search grounding (Gemini terms limit passing grounded results to third parties); its answers reflect model knowledge.
Google AI Overviews: not measured (off pending an owner decision).
No review site or marketplace was fetched; third-party data is only what engines cited.
The crawl obeys robots.txt for our user agent, stays on one host, sends at most 1 request per second and does not run JavaScript.
Helper model for prompt drafting and competitor names: sonnet. Every count in this report comes from a deterministic name matcher over the raw answers.

Engine	Model queried	Endpoint / command	Web search	Cached	Status
ChatGPT (Codex CLI, ChatGPT subscription, web search on)	gpt-6-luna	cli: codex exec	live web search tool on; the model decides when to search searched in 70 of 75 answers	75	ok
Perplexity				0	unavailable: not measured in this run: Perplexity has no subscription CLI; API-backed audits measure it
Gemini (Antigravity CLI, Google subscription)	gemini-3.8-flash-low	cli: agy -p	no search requested; a tool turn would show as searched searched in 0 of 75 answers	75	ok
Claude (Claude Code CLI, Claude subscription, WebSearch tool on)	claude-sonnet-5-5	cli: claude -p	WebSearch tool on; the model decides when to search searched in 0 of 75 answers	75	ok
Google AI Overviews				0	off

Cost: USD 0.0000 of a USD 5.00 cap.

Unavailable in this report:

Perplexity: not measured in this run: Perplexity has no subscription CLI; API-backed audits measure it
Google AI Overviews: off by default (owner decision pending on Google ToS risk)
referring domains (needs a paid backlink API)

AI recommendation audit: Plausible

1. Summary

2. Share of answer

3. Prompt-level grid

4. Crawlability for AI bots

5. Schema and entity

6. Third-party footprint

7. Pricing and landing page

8. Five developer tickets

1. Add SoftwareApplication JSON-LD with offers

2. Add Organization JSON-LD with sameAs profiles

3. State who the product is for above the fold

4. Add explicit AI-bot groups to robots.txt

5. Re-measure AI answers 30 days after the fixes ship

9. Method and limits

Page	Title	Description	H1	JSON-LD
https://plausible.io/	Plausible Analytics \| Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative	yes	Easy to use and privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative	WebSite
https://plausible.io/vs-google-analytics	Plausible vs Google Analytics 4 (GA4): What changed and why people are switching \| Plausib	yes	Plausible vs Google Analytics 4 (GA4): What changed and why people are	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/vs-matomo	Plausible vs Matomo: A simple, privacy-first alternative \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Plausible vs Matomo: A simple, privacy-first alternative	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/vs-cloudflare-web-analytics	Cloudflare Web Analytics vs Plausible: A dedicated tool vs a side feature \| Plausible Anal	yes	Cloudflare Web Analytics vs Plausible: A dedicated tool vs a side feat	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/paid-analytics-vs-free-ga	Why pay for an analytics tool when Google Analytics is free? \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Why pay for an analytics tool when Google Analytics is free?	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/simple-web-analytics	Simple web analytics for people who just want the numbers \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Simple web analytics for people who just want the numbers	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/lightweight-web-analytics	Lightweight web analytics built for fast-loading websites \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Lightweight web analytics built for fast-loading websites	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/privacy-focused-web-analytics	Privacy-focused web analytics: no cookies, no personal data, no consent banner \| Plausible	yes	Privacy-focused web analytics: no cookies, no personal data, no consen	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/open-source-website-analytics	Open source Google Analytics alternative \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Open source Google Analytics alternative	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/eu-hosted-web-analytics	EU-hosted web analytics with no data transfers outside Europe \| Plausible Analytics	yes	EU-hosted web analytics with no data transfers outside Europe	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/for-ecommerce	Web analytics for ecommerce: simple, accurate and privacy-friendly \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Web analytics for ecommerce: simple, accurate and privacy-friendly	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/for-saas	Web analytics for SaaS: track signups, activation and growth \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Web analytics for SaaS: track signups, activation and growth	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/for-freelancers-agencies	Analytics for agencies: client reporting, multi-site management and GDPR compliance \| Plau	yes	Analytics for agencies: client reporting, multi-site management and GD	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/for-bloggers-creators	Content analytics for publishers and content creators \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Content analytics for publishers and content creators	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/for-public-sector	Privacy-first web analytics for the public sector \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Privacy-first web analytics for the public sector	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/white-label-web-analytics	White label web analytics for SaaS platforms and website builders \| Plausible Analytics	yes	White label web analytics for SaaS platforms and website builders	Answer, BlogPosting, FAQPage, Question, WebPage
https://plausible.io/enterprise-web-analytics	Enterprise web analytics without the compliance headaches \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Enterprise web analytics without the compliance headaches	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/migrate-from-google-analytics	How to migrate from Google Analytics to Plausible \| Plausible Analytics	yes	How to migrate from Google Analytics to Plausible	BlogPosting, WebPage
https://plausible.io/docs	Plausible Analytics documentation \| Plausible docs	yes	Plausible Analytics documentation	BreadcrumbList, ListItem
https://plausible.io/blog	The Plausible Blog \| Plausible Analytics	yes	The Plausible Blog	WebPage
https://plausible.io/tools	Free tools and calculators \| Plausible Analytics	yes	Free tools and calculators	BlogPosting, WebPage