HitKeep vs Plausible Analytics
Both HitKeep and Plausible are self-hosted, cookie-less analytics tools aimed at privacy-conscious teams. This page is an honest comparison — including what HitKeep currently lacks.
Feature Comparison
Section titled “Feature Comparison”| Feature | HitKeep | Plausible CE |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single binary | ✓ | ✗ |
| External database required | None | PostgreSQL + ClickHouse |
| Cookie-less by default | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✓ MIT | ✓ AGPL |
| Goals / conversions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Funnels | ✓ | ✓ |
| UTM tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom events | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email reports | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shareable dashboards | ✓ | ✓ |
| TOTP 2FA | ✓ | ✓ |
| Passkeys (WebAuthn) | ✓ | ✗ |
| No third-party frontend requests | ✓ | ✓ |
| Zero telemetry / phone-home | ✓ | ✓ |
| Air-gap compatible | ✓ | ✗ |
| API clients (bearer tokens) | ✓ | ✓ |
| RBAC / team roles | ✓ | ✓ |
| IP exclusions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data takeout (export) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Clustering / HA | ✓ (Memberlist) | ✓ |
| Ecommerce / revenue tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced segmentation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom properties on events | ✗ | ✓ |
| Heatmaps | ✗ | ✗ |
| Session recordings | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mobile SDK | ✗ | ✗ |
| Cloud managed | Coming soon | ✓ ($9/month+) |
What HitKeep Is Missing
Section titled “What HitKeep Is Missing”Being transparent about current gaps:
Ecommerce / revenue tracking — Plausible supports revenue tracking on custom events (attach a monetary value to purchases or subscriptions and report on it). HitKeep tracks events but does not yet support revenue properties or ecommerce reports. This is on the roadmap.
Advanced segmentation — Plausible lets you apply multiple filters simultaneously and save segments. HitKeep’s filtering is more basic — you can filter by time range and standard dimensions but cannot yet build and save custom audience segments.
Custom properties on events — Plausible supports attaching arbitrary key-value properties to events and breaking them down in the dashboard. HitKeep currently supports event names only; custom property dimensions are on the roadmap.
Larger community — Plausible has been public since 2019, has a large user base, extensive documentation, and many third-party integration tutorials. HitKeep is newer with a smaller community.
Managed cloud today — Plausible Cloud is a mature, production-ready product available now. HitKeep Cloud is in development; join the waitlist →.
Architecture
Section titled “Architecture”HitKeep
Section titled “HitKeep”A single Go binary (~80 MB) with embedded DuckDB and NSQ:
./hitkeep -public-url="https://analytics.example.com" -jwt-secret="..."One file to deploy, one process to monitor, one file to back up (hitkeep.db).
Plausible CE
Section titled “Plausible CE”Requires Docker Compose with three separate services:
- PostgreSQL — users, sites, settings
- ClickHouse — analytics event storage
- Elixir/OTP application server
Solid, battle-tested architecture — but requires more RAM, more maintenance, and more operational overhead.
Resource Usage
Section titled “Resource Usage”| HitKeep | Plausible CE | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum RAM | ~64 MB | ~512 MB+ |
| Processes | 1 | 3 |
| Files to back up | 1 (hitkeep.db) | Multiple database dumps |
| Suitable for | $4–6/month VPS | $10–20/month VPS |
When to Choose HitKeep
Section titled “When to Choose HitKeep”- You want one binary, one file to back up, one process to monitor
- You’re deploying on a constrained server (512 MB RAM, Raspberry Pi, ARM)
- You need air-gap compatible analytics (no outbound internet)
- You need WebAuthn/Passkey authentication
- You don’t need ecommerce tracking or advanced segmentation
When to Choose Plausible
Section titled “When to Choose Plausible”- You need ecommerce / revenue tracking
- You need custom event properties and advanced filtering
- You want a managed cloud option available today
- You prefer a more established tool with a larger community
- You already run a PostgreSQL stack
Licensing
Section titled “Licensing”| HitKeep | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Cloud | Coming soon | $9/month and up |
The AGPL license requires that modifications be open-sourced if you run Plausible as a service. HitKeep’s MIT license has no such requirement.
Security & Third-Party Requests
Section titled “Security & Third-Party Requests”Both serve all dashboard assets from the self-hosted instance. Neither makes third-party requests from the browser.
HitKeep additionally: proxies favicons server-side, emits zero telemetry, and operates fully air-gapped.
Related
Section titled “Related”Ready to try HitKeep? Get started in 2 minutes →
Prefer a managed option? Join the HitKeep Cloud waitlist →