Best Free Web Analytics Tools [2026]

Best picks

• UXCam: Best for product and UX analytics across iOS, Android, and web, with session replay and frustration detection

• Google Analytics: Best for broad web and app traffic analysis with extensive reporting and attribution capabilities

• Hotjar: Best for teams focused on visual website insights using heatmaps and feedback tools

• Microsoft Clarity: Best free option for basic web session recording and heatmaps, including support for Single Page Applications

• Mixpanel: Best for event-based product analytics and understanding feature usage and retention

Comparison chart: Best free web analytics tools

Every free web analytics tool comes with its own set of limitations. Below is a table that highlights the key features of each tool along with the constraints of their free offerings.

1. UXCam

UXCam is the best free web analytics tool for teams looking to understand user behavior across web and mobile platforms. It combines both quantitative data and qualitative insights to offer a comprehensive view of your product’s web performance. 

It’s built for product teams who need fast, actionable insights to drive decisions, not just data.  For example, the behavioral insights highlight exactly where users struggle, drop off, or convert, enabling teams to act swiftly on data. 

Whether you’re tracking web performance, analyzing user retention, or optimizing funnels, UXCam offers powerful tools that scale with your business.  

Key features

• Tagless autocapture: Automatically captures every user interaction on your web product without the need for manual event tagging.

• Combined insights: Switch between reviewing product metrics (quantitative) and watching actual user behavior (qualitative) in one click.

• Session replays: Visually review actual user journeys via web and mobile session recordings. Helps to understand behavior, spot friction, and identify struggle points.

• Heatmaps: See where users are clicking, scrolling, and spending their time to identify what works and what doesn’t. 

• Funnel and retention analysis: Automate conversion creation and perform in-depth funnel analysis to understand where users drop off and optimize for higher conversions.  

• Advanced customization: Slice data in multiple ways to uncover deeper insights into user behavior and identify friction points where users struggle.

• Easy integration: Seamlessly integrate with your existing analytics stack, giving you a holistic view of your user data and simplifying the analysis process.

• AI-powered product analysis: Ask natural language questions and let Tara AI analyze real user behavior to uncover friction, explain why it’s happening, and recommend what to do next.

Pros

• Combines both metrics and user behavior in one place

• Cross-platform support (web and mobile)

• Session replays and heatmaps show exactly how users interact

• Quick setup with user-centered design

• Privacy‑compliant with sensitive data protection

Cons

• Free plan capped at 3,000 sessions per month

Pick UXCam if

You need web analytics with user behavior insights and a fast setup.

2. Google Analytics

GA4 is a free, modern, event-based platform for comprehensive website and app analytics. It provides robust features like real-time data and cross-platform tracking, making detailed analytics accessible to small-to-medium businesses. 

However, the free tier has limitations, including data sampling for large, complex queries (over 10 million events) and a strict 14-month data retention limit for user- and event-level data. Larger enterprises or those needing longer data retention and unsampled reports must consider upgrading to the paid GA360 version.

Key features

• Real-time data: Allows you to monitor activity on your website as it occurs, providing insights into current visitor behavior.

• Event-based model: All user interactions (page views, clicks, scrolls) are tracked as events, offering granular insight into user actions.

• Cross-platform tracking: Provides a comprehensive view of user interactions across web and app interfaces, enhancing the understanding of user behavior across different devices.

• Data-driven attribution: Utilizes machine learning to accurately give credit to different channels and touchpoints, helping to optimize marketing efforts.

• BigQuery export (Free): Allows raw, unsampled data export to Google BigQuery for more advanced, custom analysis (with a daily event limit).

Pros

• Real‑time data and event tracking

• Works across web and apps

• Machine learning insights for attribution

Cons

• Some advanced features are only in GA360 (paid)

• Data sampling can occur with high traffic

Pick this tool if

You want comprehensive web analytics and real-time data with seamless Google integrations.

3. Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity is a 100% free web analytics tool specializing in qualitative behavioral data. It provides unlimited heatmaps, session replays, and AI-powered insights (like Rage Click detection) to help users find friction points and optimize their website's user experience. 

Clarity is unique as it handles any amount of website traffic without limits or data sampling. It’s an excellent starting point for businesses focused on UX, though recordings are only kept for 30 days, and it lacks complex A/B testing features.

It's noted that data collected by Clarity may be used to train Microsoft's AI models, which is something to consider if data privacy is a significant concern for your business.

Key features

• Heatmaps: Visual representation of user engagement on your site, showcasing clicks, scrolls, and interactions.

• Session recording: Records real-time sessions, allowing you to replay visitor interactions to better understand user behavior.

• AI-powered insights: Automatically detects user frustration signals like "rage clicks," "dead clicks," and "excessive scrolling."

• Advanced filtering: Offers filtering tools to segment data by event, device, browser, and more for targeted insights.

• Integration with other tools: Easily integrates with other tools like Google Analytics to expand your data analysis scope.

Pros 

• Completely free with no usage limits

• Get unlimited heatmaps and session videos

• Easy setup and integrates with Google Analytics

Cons

• Recordings are only saved for 30 days

• Lacks complex marketing/funnel analysis tools

Pick this tool if

You need free session replays and heatmaps for improving user engagement easily.

4. Matomo

Matomo is a free, open-source web analytics platform designed for ultimate user privacy and data control. The free version requires you to host it on your own server (on-premise), granting you full data ownership and unlimited, unsampled reporting without any traffic limits. 

While the core analytics are free, essential features for UX analysis, such as Heatmaps and Session Recordings, are typically paid add-ons. It is ideal for privacy-conscious teams willing to manage their own hosting infrastructure. 

Key features

• Customizable reports: Create specific reports tailored to your key performance indicators and business objectives.

• Heatmaps & Session recordings: Visualize user behavior with heatmaps and record sessions for deeper analysis of user interactions.

• Mobile & App analytics: Get insights into mobile users and app performance effortlessly with tailored analytics solutions.

• Visitor profiles: Build comprehensive visitor profiles to better understand user journeys and behavior patterns.

• E-commerce analytics: Monitor sales, conversion rates, and specific product performance for online stores.

 Pros

• No data sampling or traffic limits

• The core analytics platform is free forever

• Highly customizable due to open-source code

Cons 

• Requires technical skill to set up and maintain

• Heatmaps/Session Recordings are paid add-ons

Pick this tool if

You prioritize privacy and data ownership with customizable and robust analytics features.

5. Open Web Analytics

Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a free, open-source analytics solution granting users complete data ownership by requiring self-hosting on their own server. It is a feature-rich alternative to commercial tools, supporting multiple websites, detailed visitor segmentation, and goal tracking. 

Notably, OWA includes built-in behavioral features like Heatmaps and Path Analysis in the free core platform. While setup and ongoing maintenance require technical skill, OWA rewards users with unlimited, unsampled data and total control over their analytics environment.

Key features

• Open-source: Free to use and modify, allowing for personalized customizations and community-driven enhancements.

• Customizable dashboards: Create dashboards that fit your specific needs and track the metrics most relevant to you.

• Heatmaps: Visualize and understand user behavior with heatmaps highlighting areas of high engagement.

• Path analysis: Trace and analyze user pathways to optimize navigation and improve user experience.

• Multi-site management: Easily track and manage analytics for multiple websites from one installation.

Pros 

• Full ownership and control of all data

• No limits on traffic, sessions, or data retention

• Built-in support for WordPress and MediaWiki

Cons 

• Requires a web server and technical expertise

• Community support is the primary help channel

Pick this tool if

You want a free, open-source web analytics solution with customizable dashboards and data control.

6. Hotjar

Hotjar is a popular web analytics tool designed to help you understand user behavior on your website. It provides visual insights through heatmaps, session replays, and basic funnel analysis, allowing you to track and analyze how users engage with your site. 

Hotjar's free plan is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking for basic behavioral analytics without the complexity of traditional analytics platforms. The tool also supports easy integration with Google Analytics and other platforms, making it simple to add to your analytics stack.

Key features

• Session replays: Watch recordings of user sessions to see exactly how users interact with your website.

• Heatmaps: Visualize where users click, scroll, and hover on your site to identify engagement patterns.

• Funnels: Track user journey steps to understand where they drop off and optimize conversion paths.

• User segmentation: Filter data by new or returning users, geographic location, device type, and more.

• Dashboards: Create customized dashboards to track essential metrics for your business.

Pros

• Combines behavior data with user feedback

• Offers advanced, unlimited heatmaps

• Surveys and feedback have unlimited retention

Cons

• Limited to 200,000 sessions per month

• Data retention for recordings and heatmaps is limited to 30 days

Pick this tool if

You need easy, visual insights into user behavior with minimal setup for marketing purpose.

7. Mixpanel

Mixpanel is an event‑based web analytics and product analytics platform that helps teams track user interactions across web and mobile apps, spot trends, and answer product questions. It focuses on event tracking, funnels, retention, and user flows to show how users move through a product and where drop‑offs happen. 

It offers a free-forever plan that smaller teams can take advantage of. The plan includes unlimited seats, but limits the number of saved reports to five per user. This plan is best for understanding what users do and where they drop off, focusing on product behavior rather than simple traffic volume.

Key features

• Event tracking: Track specific user actions across your web app to understand engagement. 

• Insights & Funnels: Create reports to analyze user flows, conversion paths, and key events. 

• Retention analysis: See how often users return over time.

• Session replays: Free plan includes 10,000 session replays per month.

• AI query builder: Includes 30 queries/month using the Spark AI feature.

Pros 

• Generous free usage

• Teams can see actual user behavior with session replays

• Funnels, retention, and event tracking are built in unlike other tools

Cons

• Session replay quota runs out very fast

• Event‑based tracking may need more configuration than basic pageview tools

Pick this tool if

You want free event‑based analytics for web products with strong funnel and retention analysis.

8. GoatCounter

GoatCounter is another open-source web analytics platform designed as a simple, privacy-friendly alternative to complex tools. Its primary appeal is the free, donation-supported hosted service for reasonable public and non-commercial usage, eliminating the need for self-hosting. 

GoatCounter is extremely privacy-aware, identifying unique visits without cookies or storing personal data, meaning it typically doesn't require a GDPR consent notice. It is exceptionally lightweight and fast, adding minimal size to a page. 

However, it trades complexity for simplicity, offering only basic metrics like page views, referrers, and browser information, lacking the behavioral and advanced reporting features of larger competitors. 

Key features

• Lightweight script: Adds only $3.5KB to your site for fast loading.

• Open source: Code is fully transparent and available for self-hosting/modification.

• Free hosted service: Available for personal and small-to-medium business use (traffic limits apply).

• Multiple tracking options: JavaScript tag, no-JS tracking pixel, or backend middleware.

• Essential statistics: Tracks page views, referrers, campaigns, and browser info.

 Pros  

• Free hosted service (great for non-commercial use)

• Strong privacy; often requires no cookie banner

• Script is tiny and extremely fast

Cons

• The free hosted plan has unstated traffic limits

• Lacks any advanced behavioral or conversion features

Pick this tool if

You need a simple, privacy-focused web analytics solution for personal websites or small businesses, without the complexity of larger tools.

Choosing the right free web analytics platform

Choosing the right free web analytics platform starts with understanding your primary goal: product growth, UX optimization, or privacy-first data collection. While many tools specialize in one of these areas, UXCam is the only free platform that combines all three—behavioral depth, product analytics, and enterprise-grade privacy controls—into a single solution.

Here’s how the main categories compare:

For product teams who need actionable insights (not just traffic)

If your goal is to understand why users convert, churn, or struggle—not just how many visit—then behavioral and product analytics matter more than surface-level metrics.

• UXCam is the strongest choice for product-led teams. It combines:

  • Session replays

  • Heatmaps

  • Funnel and retention analysis

  • Frustration signals

  • Automatic event capture

  • All in one platform, across web and mobile.

  This allows teams to move directly from insight to action without stitching together multiple tools.

• Mixpanel is a solid alternative for event-based product analytics, especially for funnels and retention. However, it lacks native visual context (heatmaps, deep session replay analysis) and requires more manual setup.

If you want both quantitative product metrics and qualitative behavioral context, UXCam is the most complete free option available.

For UX and conversion optimization teams

If your focus is on usability, friction points, and conversion optimization, visual data is essential.

• UXCam provides a full behavioral stack: session replays, heatmaps, struggle detection, and detailed interaction tracking, plus product analytics on top.

• Microsoft Clarity offers unlimited free replays and heatmaps, but lacks advanced reporting, segmentation, and long-term data retention.

• Hotjar is strong for visual insights and feedback, but its free tier is extremely limited for teams with real traffic.

UXCam stands out because it combines UX visualization with product analytics and long-term analysis so teams don’t outgrow it.

For privacy-first and compliance-focused teams

Many teams assume they must choose between privacy and insight depth but that’s no longer true.

• UXCam is GDPR-compliant and built with privacy controls that allow teams to:

  • Mask sensitive data

  • Control what is recorded

  • Support strict compliance requirements

  • Offer options for local or controlled data hosting

• Matomo and Open Web Analytics (OWA) offer full data ownership via self-hosting, but require engineering resources for setup, maintenance, and scaling.

• GoatCounter is extremely lightweight and privacy-friendly, but only supports basic pageview-level metrics.

UXCam is the best option for teams that need deep behavioral insights and strong privacy protections without the overhead of self-hosting.

How do I check my website analytics for free?

Monitoring your website's analytics is a critical step in understanding the effectiveness of your online presence. We’ve compiled a list of free website analytics you can use for this. Next, we’ll walk you through the steps to get started with these free analytics tools:  

Unlock powerful web analytics for free with UXCam

Exploring free web analytics tools is a great way to gain insights into your website’s performance without the financial commitment. Each tool offers unique features, so choosing the right one depends on your specific needs.

If you’re looking for detailed user behavior insights and fast, actionable analytics, UXCam offers the perfect solution. Start your free trial today and get a complete view of your users' journey.

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