Black Friday is November 27. You refreshed your website for the holiday rush, posted on Instagram, and put the link in your Google listing. One customer says she found you on Google, another says Instagram, and you have no way to tell which one actually sends people to your site. Four weeks out is the right time to fix that, because analytics only counts visits from the day you install it.
The short answer: you can measure a small business website for $0. Google Analytics is the free all rounder, Microsoft Clarity is free with no traffic limits and adds session recordings and heatmaps, and Cloudflare Web Analytics gives you a simple, cookie free count of visits on any site. If you want a privacy friendly dashboard with a real free plan, Umami Cloud Hobby covers 100K events a month on one website. Most owners do best with one counting tool plus Clarity.
Key takeaways
- Microsoft Clarity says it is free forever with no traffic limits; it records up to 100,000 sessions per project per day and keeps recordings for 30 days.
- In free Google Analytics, explorations and funnel reports keep event data for 2 or 14 months; standard reports are not affected by that setting.
- Cookie free tools such as Cloudflare Web Analytics and Umami keep consent simpler, but in Quebec you must still tell visitors when a technology can identify, locate or profile them.
At a glance
| Tool | Best for | Free plan limit | Paid from | Canadian note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Owners who run Google Ads or want detailed reports | Free; event data in explorations kept 2 or 14 months | Analytics 360 by contract, no public price | Uses cookies, so plan your privacy notice |
| Microsoft Clarity | Seeing why visitors leave a page | No traffic limits; up to 100,000 recorded sessions per project per day | No paid plan | Uses first party cookies |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | A simple visit count on any site | 10 sites without the Cloudflare proxy, unlimited with it; no custom events | No paid plan for this product | No cookies or localStorage |
| Umami | A clean, privacy friendly dashboard | Hobby: 100K events a month, 1 website, 6 months of data | Pro $20 a month (currency not stated on the page) | Self hosting is free |
| Matomo | Owners who want to keep the data on their own hosting | Community edition free with unlimited hits, on your own server | Cloud from 29 a month before tax (currency not stated on the page) | You choose where self hosted data lives |
| Plausible | A paid, no cookie option with support | No free plan; 30 day trial, no card needed | Starter US$9 a month for 10k monthly pageviews | Data hosted in the EU |
How we chose
- Official pages only for every limit, price and privacy claim: each company's pricing page, help centre or documentation.
- Published features and pricing, not hands on testing.
- What matters to a small Canadian business: a real free plan, setup without a developer, and how the tool handles cookies and consent.
- Nobody pays to be included.
The free all rounders
Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA4) is Google's web analytics service. The standard version is free.
Best for: an owner who runs Google Ads, sells online or wants to know exactly which pages and campaigns lead to sales.
- Retention you control: user and event data for explorations can be kept for 2 or 14 months on a standard property.
- Standard reports are not affected by the retention setting, according to Google's help centre.
Why it stands out: it is the most complete free option here.
Limits: retention for explorations is 2 or 14 months only, so check the setting and choose 14 months on day one. It uses cookies, so your privacy notice needs to say so.
Price: free. Analytics 360 is the paid enterprise version and has no public price.
Microsoft Clarity
Clarity is Microsoft's free behaviour analytics tool: session recordings, heatmaps and a dashboard of how people use each page.
Best for: an owner who knows people visit the booking or product page but cannot see why they leave without buying.
- No traffic limits and no limit on sites per account, per Microsoft's FAQ.
- Recordings: up to 100,000 sessions per project per day, kept 30 days; favourites and a random sample are kept up to 9 months.
- Heatmaps cover up to 100,000 page views each and stay available up to 9 months.
- Works with Google Analytics: you can link one GA property.
Why it stands out: five recordings of people giving up on your contact form tell you more than a month of charts.
Limits: it uses first party cookies, and Microsoft says you must tell users about them. Explicit consent is required for visitors from the EEA, UK and Switzerland. You cannot delete one person's data; you have to delete the whole project.
Price: free, with no paid version.
Cloudflare Web Analytics
Cloudflare Web Analytics is a free, lightweight visit counter from Cloudflare that you add with one line of JavaScript, or switch on if your site already runs through Cloudflare.
Best for: a brochure site where you only need visits, top pages and where people came from.
- No cookies: Cloudflare says it does not use cookies or localStorage and does not fingerprint visitors.
- Sites: up to 10 sites that are not proxied through Cloudflare, and no limit for proxied sites.
Why it stands out: no plan to outgrow, and no need to move your domain to Cloudflare.
Limits: no custom events, so you cannot count button clicks or form sends. It does not log query strings, so campaign tags on your links will not show up. You need a free Cloudflare account.
Price: free.
Privacy friendly options
Umami
Umami is open source web analytics with a hosted cloud service and a free version you can run yourself.
Best for: an owner with one website who wants a simple, privacy friendly dashboard without managing a server.
- Hobby plan: $0 a month, 100K events a month, 1 website and 6 months of data.
- Pro: 1 million events included, up to 20 websites, 2 years of data and up to 10 team members.
- Self hosting is free, according to its pricing page.
Why it stands out: it is the only privacy friendly cloud option here with a real free plan.
Limits: one website and six months of history on Hobby, so year over year comparisons need Pro. The pricing page shows a bare $ sign.
Price: Hobby $0. Pro $20 a month and Business $200 a month, with a 14 day trial on both (currency not stated on the page).
Matomo
Matomo is open source analytics that you can install on your own hosting for free, or rent as a hosted cloud service.
Best for: an owner or web designer who already manages a WordPress or PHP site and wants full control of the data.
- Community edition: "Free forever" with unlimited users and hits, community plugins and base features.
- Requirements: a web server running PHP and a MySQL or MariaDB database.
- Cloud: a 21 day free trial, per its cloud page.
Why it stands out: the data sits on hosting you pick.
Limits: you keep it updated yourself, and Matomo says it is more resource intensive than simpler tools. Premium plugins cost extra.
Price: Community is free. Cloud Business starts at 29 a month before tax for 50,000 hits; the page shows no currency for cloud prices.
Plausible
Plausible is paid, privacy focused analytics with a single page dashboard and no cookies.
Best for: an owner who wants a no cookie dashboard and is happy to pay monthly.
- No cookies or lasting identifiers, according to its home page.
- 30 day trial with no credit card.
- EU hosting: Plausible says data never leaves European owned infrastructure.
Why it stands out: everything sits on one dashboard page.
Limits: no free plan. The Starter plan stops at 10k monthly pageviews.
Price: Starter from US$9 a month; yearly billing gives two months free.
Cookies, consent and Canadian privacy law
Canada has no single cookie banner rule, but two official sources matter. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada's consent guidelines say consent should generally be express, and can be implied only in strictly defined circumstances, and that privacy information should be easy to find. In Quebec, section 8.1 of the private sector privacy act says that if you collect personal information with technology that can identify, locate or profile a person, you must first tell them you use it and how to activate those functions.
What that means in practice, as general information and not legal advice:
- Cookie free counting (Cloudflare, Umami, Plausible) is the simplest choice if you do not want a consent banner. You should still mention it in your privacy policy.
- Google Analytics and Clarity set cookies. Name them in your privacy policy, and if you serve customers in Quebec, the EU or the UK, use a consent tool that can switch them on only after visitors agree.
A plain privacy policy paragraph you can adapt:
"We use [tool name] to understand how visitors use this website, such as which pages are viewed and how people found us. [Tool name] [does not use cookies / uses cookies to recognise returning visitors]. We do not use this information to identify you. To ask a question about this, email [your address]."
A 15 minute monthly check
Installing analytics is the easy part; looking at it is where owners fall off. Book 15 minutes on the first Monday of each month and answer the same five questions.
- Where did visitors come from? Google search, Google Maps, Instagram, email or direct. Note the top three.
- Which page is your busiest? If it is not your services or booking page, add a clear link from it to that page.
- How many people reached the contact or booking page? Compare with how many actually got in touch.
- What did phone visitors do? If you use Clarity, watch five recordings of mobile visits to your most important page.
- What changed? Write one line: what you posted, sent or changed this month, so next month's numbers make sense.
Our take
This is a judgment based on the published features and pricing, not a hands on test.
Solo owner with a simple site: Cloudflare Web Analytics plus Microsoft Clarity. Both are free with no plan to outgrow, and Cloudflare's counting avoids cookies.
Service business that wants more bookings: Google Analytics with 14 month retention, plus Clarity to watch where visitors drop off on the booking page.
Online store or anyone running Google Ads: Google Analytics, because it ties visits to campaigns and sales. Pair it with our mobile website checklist before the holiday rush.
Privacy first owner or Quebec customers: Umami Cloud Hobby for one site, or Matomo Community if you or your web designer already manage hosting.
When the pick changes: if you pass 100K events a month on Umami or need more than six months of history, compare Umami Pro with Plausible on their pricing pages. For other categories, browse the software hub, and run our one afternoon marketing audit once you have a month of data.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Analytics still free for small businesses?
Yes. The standard version of Google Analytics is free. The paid version, Analytics 360, is for large companies and is sold by contract, with longer data retention and higher limits.
What is the best free alternative to Google Analytics?
For a simple, cookie free count, Cloudflare Web Analytics is free on up to 10 sites without changing your domain setup. For a fuller privacy friendly dashboard, Umami Cloud Hobby is free for one website and 100K events a month.
Do I need a cookie banner for website analytics in Canada?
It depends on the tool and where your visitors are. Tools that set cookies, such as Google Analytics and Clarity, need to be explained in your privacy policy, and Clarity requires consent for visitors from the EEA, UK and Switzerland. In Quebec, you must tell people before using technology that can identify, locate or profile them. Check with a privacy professional for your situation.
Sources
- Google Marketing Platform: free tools for small businesses
- Google Analytics Help: Data retention
- Google Analytics Help: Google Analytics 360 (GA4 properties)
- Microsoft Clarity: Frequently asked questions
- Cloudflare Web Analytics (official)
- Cloudflare Web Analytics docs: Limits
- Cloudflare Web Analytics docs: FAQs
- Umami pricing (official)
- Matomo pricing (official)
- Matomo Cloud (official)
- Matomo FAQ: Is Matomo truly free to use?
- Plausible Analytics (official)
- Plausible: Billing FAQ
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada: Guidelines for obtaining meaningful consent
- LégisQuébec: Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector
