honest comparison · July 2026
Pulse vs Plausible: privacy-first analytics, one less subscription
Plausible is excellent — open source, mature, and the tool that proved analytics doesn't need cookies. Pulse plays the same privacy-first game for a different customer: makers with small sites who want clean numbers AND the rest of their tool stack covered by the same $9. Here's the honest breakdown.
Pulse · shippies
$9/mo · 7 tools
Shippies Pro: unlimited sites, flat price no matter your traffic — plus six more tiny tools (testimonials, popups, invoices, waitlists, changelogs, social cards) in the same $9. Free tier: 1 site. Cancel anytime.
Plausible
$9–19/mo · analytics
Growth starts at $9/mo for 10k pageviews; Business at $19/mo adds funnels and ecommerce. Price scales up with traffic. Open source and self-hostable.
same $9 — Plausible buys world-class analytics · Shippies buys good analytics + six more tiny tools
| Feature | Pulse | Plausible |
|---|---|---|
| One-line snippet | ✓ <1kb, no cookies | ✓ <1kb, no cookies |
| Pageviews, referrers, pages | ✓ | ✓ |
| Devices & countries | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live visitor counter | ✓ | ✓ |
| SPA route tracking | ✓ Automatic | ✓ Automatic |
| Custom events & goals | ✓ one line: pulse("signup") | ✓ |
| UTM source breakdown | ✓ | ✓ |
| Funnels & ecommerce | ✗ | ✓ (Business plan) |
| Google Analytics import | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source / self-hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
| Built for high-traffic sites | Best under ~100k views/mo | ✓ Scales to millions |
| Also includes 6 other tools | ✓ Kudos, PopKit, Manifest +3 | — |
| Pricing model | $9/mo flat, any traffic | Monthly, scales with traffic |
Where Plausible wins
Maturity and depth. Plausible is open source, independently audited by the community, handles millions of pageviews, imports your Google Analytics history, and has funnels, ecommerce goals, and a real API. If analytics is a core input to your business decisions — or you want to self-host — Plausible is the right call.
Where Pulse wins
The bundle math. At the same $9, Plausible gives you excellent analytics; Shippies gives you the numbers that actually change behavior — visitors, sources, top pages, live count — plus the testimonial wall, popup builder, and invoicing you'd otherwise stack more subscriptions for. If analytics is one of four things you need rather than THE thing, one bill beats four.
Fair questions
Is Pulse really private?
Yes: no cookies, no fingerprinting, no cross-site tracking. We store a pageview event with path, referrer domain, device class, and country — never anything that identifies a person. It's the same philosophy Plausible pioneered.
What if my site gets big?
Pulse is honest about its lane: it's built for maker-scale sites, and the price stays $9 flat while usage-based tools climb with your traffic. If you truly outgrow it, moving to Plausible is a one-line snippet swap — no lock-in, cancel anytime.
Do you eat your own dog food?
Completely — our open page shows shippies.ai's live traffic, tracked by Pulse itself, in public.
Can I track more than one site?
Free includes 1 site. Pro ($9/mo) is unlimited sites, each with its own snippet and dashboard.
Competitor pricing and features as of July 2026— always verify on their site. We keep this page honest; tell us if something's outdated.