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Case study · Plausible Analytics

How Plausible Analytics reached $1 million in annual revenue as a bootstrapped Google Analytics alternative

TL;DR

Plausible Analytics is a privacy-friendly, open source alternative to Google Analytics that two founders grew to $1 million in annual recurring revenue by June 2022 without investors or paid ads. Developer Uku Taht built it, marketer Marko Saric joined in 2020, and blog posts that took a clear stand against Google drove most growth. The lesson: a small team can win against a giant by being clearly different and publishing openly.

How it started

Plausible’s co-founder Marko Saric writes that the first line of code was written in December 2018 by Uku Taht. Taht was a developer whose company’s marketing head asked him to add Google Analytics to a landing page, and his first reaction was to ask whether the company could use something else.

Taht launched a public beta on Indie Hackers in January 2019 and started marketing by building in public. Paid subscriptions began in May 2019. At that point there were 60 active beta users, some of whom decided to pay, and the month ended with $64 in monthly recurring revenue. The company chose an entry price meant to be affordable for owners of small sites, since Google Analytics is free and people are not used to paying for analytics.

In September 2019 Plausible went fully open source under the MIT license, which Saric says was done for transparency and trust. In October 2020 it switched to the AGPL license.

How they got the first customers

Plausible’s first visitors and customers came from Indie Hackers, where Taht posted updates as he built, plus the company blog and his Twitter account. All the early users came from those updates, according to Saric.

Growth was slow. It took 324 days after launching paid subscriptions to reach the first $400 in monthly recurring revenue. Saric, a marketer, joined in March 2020 after Taht cold-emailed him about a blog post on removing Google tracking. On the day before Saric started, the site had 49 visitors and none from Google search.

What drove growth

Saric’s first Plausible blog post, published April 8, 2020, argued for dropping Google Analytics, and it reached the top of Hacker News. More than 25,000 people visited the site that day. Monthly recurring revenue doubled the next month, and Plausible was at $1,055 in May 2020. More Hacker News hits and a database move to ClickHouse followed, and the company reached $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue by early 2021.

Before that point the two founders were down more than $50,000 in personal savings. Plausible got to $500,000 in annual recurring revenue in October 2021 and to $1 million on June 2, 2022, with more than 7,000 paying subscribers and a team of four. European regulators’ rulings on Google Analytics and Google’s decision to retire Universal Analytics also increased interest.

Saric says the company never paid for advertising and avoided practices such as retargeting and popups. It also offers a 30-day free trial and easy cancellation.

Lessons you can copy

  1. 1Position against a giant on a point you can winPlausible’s pitch was simple, lightweight, and private compared with Google Analytics. A clear contrast is easier to market than a list of features.
  2. 2Publish opinions, not just product postsThe post that changed traction took a stand against Google Analytics. Posts tied to news and strong views reached far more people than neutral content.
  3. 3Open source can be a trust signalPublishing the code let privacy-minded buyers inspect what they were buying. Plausible still charges for the hosted service.
  4. 4Share your numbersPlausible kept its own site stats public and posted regular revenue milestones. Transparency gave small founders something to learn from and reasons to trust the team.
  5. 5Hire late, and only when it hurtsSaric says the team followed the Basecamp approach of waiting until work was painful before adding people. That kept costs low during the slow early months.

Frequently asked questions

Is Plausible bootstrapped?

Yes. Its founders describe it as independent, self-funded, and bootstrapped, and Plausible’s About page says it has no outside investors.

How did Plausible get customers without ads?

Mostly through blog posts that took a clear position on Google Analytics, with strong results from Hacker News, plus community sites like Indie Hackers and word of mouth.

Can I build a small software product in a crowded category?

Plausible shows it is possible if you choose a clear difference such as privacy or simplicity. It also took 324 days to reach the first $400 of monthly revenue, so be ready for slow early growth.

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