SHSelfHostIndex

Plausible vs Shaper

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
PL Plausible Lightweight, privacy-friendly website analytics VS SH Shaper Build Data Dashboards all in SQL
FeaturePlausibleShaper
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
LicenseAGPL-3.0MPL-2.0
LanguageElixirGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker
GitHub stars★ 28,416★ 1,165
First released20192026
ReplacesGoogle Analytics—

Why pick each one

Choose Plausible if…

  • Privacy-friendly by design
  • Simple and fast
  • Lightweight script
Plausible details

Choose Shaper if…

  • Released under the MPL-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
Shaper details

Frequently asked questions

Is Plausible or Shaper better?

Neither is universally better. Plausible has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Plausible and Shaper free and open-source?

Yes. Plausible is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shaper under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Plausible and Shaper with Docker?

Plausible: yes. Shaper: yes.

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