Plausible is good at the job it names: a light, cookieless dashboard for pageviews, referrers, campaigns, and goals. SiteLine is not a “better Plausible.” It is cookieless on-site analytics plus a durable Google Search Console import. If you only need traffic, Plausible is a complete product. If you also need query, page, country, and device history that survives Google’s 16-month window, the jobs diverge.
What each tool is for
Plausible is website traffic analytics: one screen, a small script, optional self-host, open source. Uniques, pages, sources, countries, devices, UTMs, goals, funnels. It can overlay Search Console queries by calling Google’s API — still Google’s dataset: about 16 months, with lag, with Google’s row limits.
SiteLine’s tracker is in the same family: no analytics cookie, collect omits credentials, visitors hashed from truncated IP + UA + a daily salt that resets every day. The fork is Search Console. SiteLine backfills up to 16 months, imports up to 25,000 rows per day, and keeps those rows while you subscribe, including days Google has dropped. Read-only scope. About two days behind Google’s publish cycle.
Neither is session replay, heatmaps, a warehouse, or product analytics with user profiles. See SiteLine vs PostHog if that is the job.
Comparison
| SiteLine | Plausible | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Cookieless traffic and durable Search Console | Cookieless traffic analytics |
| Visitor model | Truncated IP (/24 v4, /48 v6) + UA + daily salt; hash resets daily; no analytics cookie | Cookieless unique visitors; no persistent identifier |
| Search Console | Read-only import, 16-month backfill, 25k rows/day, kept while subscribed, including fresh data before Google finalizes it | Dashboard integration against Google’s live window |
| Hosting | Hosted. First-party proxy is DIY | Cloud (EU) or self-host |
| Goals / funnels | Defined in the UI from paths and events | Goals and funnels in the product |
| Agent access | MCP, read-only | Stats API; not an MCP server |
| Not included | Replay, heatmaps, self-host, warehouse, user profiles | Replay, heatmaps, warehouse, user profiles |
| Price shape | $4.99 / $19.99 / $99.99 + overage, 7-day trial | Pageview tiers on cloud; self-host is the software cost plus ops |
Cookieless is not a slogan
Both skip an analytics cookie. SiteLine collects with fetch and credentials: 'omit'. Uniques are a server hash: IPv4 /24, IPv6 /48, user agent, and a salt that is not customer-visible and that changes daily. Enough for uniques today; not a person across weeks. Plausible lives in the same neighbourhood — treat them as peers for traffic. “Cookieless” is not a waiver in every country; read /docs/privacy. SiteLine does not ship heatmaps or replay.
Search Console is the actual fork
Google Search Console is the only source of queries, impressions, CTR, and position. A pageview script cannot invent them. Plausible’s integration is useful: one dashboard, filter by page, country, or device, keywords Google still holds. When a day ages off the 16-month window, it ages off the overlay. That is a live API view, not a defect.
SiteLine copies the data: 16-month backfill, re-fetch every 4 hours of recent days (Google revises them), 25,000 rows per day per report, kept while you subscribe. MCP reads the same archive, read-only. If you already live in Plausible and only glance at Search Console, stay. If the archive is the missing product, SiteLine is built for that. SiteLine vs Fathom and Plausible vs Fathom cover the traffic-only neighbourhood.
Install, goals, ops
SiteLine: public site id + script. Goals and funnels are UI rules (exact path, path contains, event name) on traffic you already send. First-party collection is DIY — proxy the script and POST /api/analytics/event. No managed CNAME in v1.
Plausible is the more mature traffic product: shared links, email reports, GA import, self-host. SiteLine will not grow into that, or into Matomo. See SiteLine vs Matomo for plugins and on-prem.
SiteLine is $4.99 / $19.99 / $99.99 + overage, 7-day trial, unlimited Search Console sites and analytics domains, one event pool, MCP and CSV. Plausible clouds on a pageview ladder; self-host is ops. Neither price answers “do I still have January’s queries in three years?” Only a durable import does.
Who should pick which
Pick Plausible if you want a focused traffic dashboard, you like the open-source option, and Search Console in Google’s UI (or Plausible’s overlay) is enough.
Pick SiteLine if you want cookieless pageviews and Search Console rows that outlive Google’s window, at 25k rows/day, queryable from the UI and MCP. Start at /register. Install notes are in /docs.
If you need identified users, replay, or feature flags, neither of these is the buy. That is PostHog or Mixpanel territory.
FAQ
Does SiteLine replace Plausible for traffic?
It can, for cookieless pageviews, referrers, UTMs, countries, devices, goals, and funnels. It will not match Plausible’s self-host story, GA import, or years of traffic-only product polish. If traffic is the whole job, Plausible is not “missing features.” It is finished.
Does Plausible keep Search Console history past 16 months?
Its integration reads Search Console for the dashboard. Google still discards days older than about 16 months. SiteLine’s import is a copy you keep while subscribed, with a 16-month backfill and a 25,000 row/day cap. That is the difference, not a claim that Plausible “has no SEO.”
Is SiteLine cookieless the same way Plausible is?
SiteLine sets no analytics cookie. Collect uses credentials: 'omit'. Visitor hashes use truncated IP, user agent, and a daily salt, and they reset daily. That is the same class of model as other cookieless traffic tools. It is not a user profile, and it is not replay. Details: /docs/privacy.