AWStats vs Plausible Analytics
A side-by-side comparison of AWStats and Plausible Analytics — pricing, license, deployment, and where each tool wins.
AWStats
awstats.org
Generate statistics from web, streaming, ftp or mail server logfiles.
Plausible Analytics
plausible.io
Simple, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics.
| Feature | AWStats | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Model | Open-source | Open-source |
| License | CC-BY-SA-3.0 | CC-BY-SA-3.0 |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Category | Analytics | Analytics |
| Self-hosted | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
| Free tier | ✓Yes | ✓Yes |
Pick AWStats if…
- ✓You prefer AWStats's feature set or ecosystem fit.
Pick Plausible Analytics if…
- ✓You prefer Plausible Analytics's feature set or ecosystem fit.
Switch from AWStats → Plausible Analytics
4–24hhigh risk
Treat as a project — 4-24 engineering hours plus user training and parallel-run period.
Export from AWStats: JSON, CSV
2 things to watch
- ⚠Snippets on every page must swap
- ⚠Historical data won't backfill
Switch from Plausible Analytics → AWStats
4–28hhigh risk
Treat as a project — 4-28 engineering hours plus user training and parallel-run period.
Export from Plausible Analytics: JSON, CSV
3 things to watch
- ⚠Snippets on every page must swap
- ⚠Historical data won't backfill
- ⚠Fewer tutorials online for AWStats — expect more trial-and-error