August 28, 20263 min read

The best analytics for bloggers in 2026

Egger & Co
Egger & Co
Company

TL;DR: The best analytics for bloggers in 2026 is Plausible or Umami when you only need reads and referrers. Choose Reignat when posts drive product revenue or you want journeys without GA. Simple Analytics wins for zero-ID privacy.

Most bloggers were forced into GA by habit. A cookieless dashboard answers the real questions: which posts get read, and where readers come from. Creators who sell should see Reignat for creators.

Check the meter before the price

Two tools can both say "$9 a month" and mean different things. Some meter pageviews (one page load). Others meter events (a pageview or anything you tag — signup, purchase, click). If you only look at pages, a pageview meter stretches further; if you tag conversions, compare event meters honestly. Reignat meters events. Read the meter line on every plan before the dollar amount.

Best analytics tools for bloggers

01. Plausible

The default lightweight, open-source privacy dashboard: one clean page of numbers.

Price: From ~$9/mo for 10,000 pageviews (Starter); Growth/Business unlock more features.

Strengths

  • Simplest dashboard in the category
  • EU-owned and EU-hosted cloud
  • Open source and self-hostable

Trade-offs

  • Funnels, journeys, and revenue sit on higher tiers
  • Custom events share the pageview meter
  • Aggregate-first — less per-visitor depth on entry plans

02. Reignat

That's us

Revenue-first, privacy-friendly analytics with journeys, funnels, realtime, and an AI assistant — every feature on every plan.

Price: From $9/mo for 10,000 events (7-day trial).

Strengths

  • Revenue attributed back to page, source, and campaign
  • Visitor journeys, funnels, realtime map, and Core Web Vitals in one dashboard
  • AI assistant for plain-language questions
  • Unlimited websites; one usage-based plan with every feature included
  • Lightweight cookieless script (~2 KB)

Trade-offs

  • Hosted product — not a self-host binary
  • Meters events, so tagged conversions count toward the same allowance
  • Younger than Plausible, Fathom, or Matomo

03. Umami

The free self-host choice, with a hosted cloud if you would rather not run a server.

Price: Free self-hosted; Umami Cloud free Hobby (~100k events), paid from ~$9–20/mo.

Strengths

  • Genuinely free if you run your own stack
  • Clean, familiar dashboard
  • Open source with a simple license

Trade-offs

  • Self-hosting is yours to maintain and back up
  • No payment-provider revenue attribution
  • Less depth on funnels and journeys than product analytics tools

04. Simple Analytics

The most privacy-maximal option: no visitor IDs at all, by design.

Price: Free plan (30-day history); paid from ~$9–20/mo depending on billing and users.

Strengths

  • No visitor identifiers whatsoever
  • A free forever tier with limited history
  • Embeddable public charts

Trade-offs

  • Extra users often billed separately
  • No cross-session journeys, on purpose
  • Deliberately shallow compared with revenue-first tools

Side by side

A quick comparison. Prices were checked against each product's public pricing on 2026-08-28 and change often — confirm the current plan and meter before you commit.

Plausible

  • From: From ~$9/mo for 10,000 pageviews (Starter); Growth/Business unlock more features
  • Meters: Pageviews
  • Open source: Yes (self-host Community Edition)
  • Cookieless default: Yes
  • Revenue attribution: Business plan / limited

Reignat

  • From: From $9/mo for 10,000 events (7-day trial)
  • Meters: Events
  • Open source: No (managed product)
  • Cookieless default: Yes
  • Revenue attribution: Yes (Stripe, Polar, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Dodo, RevenueCat, custom)

Umami

  • From: Free self-hosted; Umami Cloud free Hobby (~100k events), paid from ~$9–20/mo
  • Meters: Events
  • Open source: Yes (MIT)
  • Cookieless default: Yes
  • Revenue attribution: No

Simple Analytics

  • From: Free plan (30-day history); paid from ~$9–20/mo depending on billing and users
  • Meters: Pageviews
  • Open source: Scripts only
  • Cookieless default: Yes
  • Revenue attribution: No

Blogger decision

  • Hobby blog, traffic curiosity: Plausible or Umami.
  • Blog that sells something: Reignat.
  • Privacy absolutist: Simple Analytics.

When your writing starts earning, graduate to revenue-aware analytics. Start a free 7-day trial — no card required.

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Frequently asked questions

What analytics should bloggers use instead of Google Analytics?

Plausible or Umami for pure traffic simplicity. Reignat if you monetize with products, newsletters that convert, or sponsorships tied to pages. Simple Analytics if maximal privacy is the priority.

Do bloggers need funnels and revenue?

Not always. When you sell a course, membership, or affiliate-driven product, revenue attribution suddenly matters more than pageviews alone.

Is there a free option?

Umami self-host and Simple Analytics' limited free plan. Hosted privacy tools usually start around $9/mo.

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