Plausible Analytics
$3.1M ARR, 17,000+ subscribers, bootstrapped, two-person company
Uku Taeht (Estonian dev) started Plausible solo in 2018. Marko Saric (Croatian) joined as marketing co-founder in 2020.
Estonian developer Uku Täht started Plausible in December 2018 — a cookieless analytics tool for developers tired of Google's complexity. He built in public for 14 months at near-zero revenue before Croatian marketer Marko Saric joined in March 2020 and turned content into their growth engine.
The Receipt
“Web analytics isn't boring to me. I also think it's a really hard area to break into. There's no shortage of competition and none of them seem very differentiated.”
“We want to grow without supporting surveillance capitalism... We don't want to sacrifice our principles or happiness to become the next unicorn.”
— @ukutahtThe Journey
Growth trajectory — click a dot to jump
- Dec 2018
launch Uku Täht writes first line of code. Plausible founded as a side project.
- May 2019
milestone First paying subscriber. MRR: $64.
- Sep 2019
other Plausible open-sourced under MIT license.
- Mar 2020
milestone Marko Saric joins as co-founder to handle marketing and content. MRR: ~$400.
- Apr 2020
milestone Blog post 'Why you should stop using Google Analytics' goes viral: 48,000 visitors in one week, 166 new trials, 40% MRR spike.
- Sep 2020
milestone First salaries paid. MRR: $5,035.
- Oct 2020
press GDPR compliance controversy on HN. MIT license switched to AGPL to prevent corporate exploitation. TechCrunch names Plausible 'fastest-growing open-source startup.'
- Jan 2021
milestone $11,303 MRR. Team reaches financial sustainability.
- Oct 2021
milestone $42,624 MRR (~$500K ARR milestone).
- Jun 2022
milestone $83,637 MRR ($1M ARR milestone). Blog post published documenting the journey.
- Mar 2023
“Web analytics is boring. Cron job monitoring is boring...These businesses...are all doing great, making millions.”
- Mar 2023
“paying $500 a year for 500k monthly pageviews is insane!”
- Mar 2023
What they said
“Web analytics isn't boring to me. I also think it's a really hard area to break into. There's no shortage of competition and none of them seem very differentiated.”
What happened
$1.2M ARR shared publicly on HN. Thread generates significant discussion.
March 2023
Criticism → Reality - Feb 2024
launch Plausible Community Edition (CE) launched — free, self-hosted, AGPL — formalizing the open-source/cloud split.
- Oct 2024
milestone $3.1M ARR, 17,000+ paying subscribers. Still two-person company, zero paid ads.
Outcomes & Insights
Latest outcome
October 2024
ARR / subscribers
$3.1M ARR, 17,000+ paying subscribers
Anti-Google Analytics content SEO: every blog post targets 'Google Analytics alternative' searches — the April 2020 post alone drove 48,000 visitors in a week and compounded for years
Regulatory tailwinds as content hooks: each new GDPR ruling (Austria, France, Italy 2022–2023) triggered a timely blog post, capturing search demand at the exact moment of public attention
Open source as trust and distribution: AGPL GitHub repo generates developer mindshare, stars, and backlinks; CE edition converts self-hosters into community advocates
HN as primary launch platform: content specifically engineered for the tech-savvy, Google-skeptical HN audience that Plausible's positioning was built for
We want to grow without supporting surveillance capitalism... We don't want to sacrifice our principles or happiness to become the next unicorn.
💡 What you can learn
- Plausible never ran a single paid ad.
- Every growth lever was content, community, or word of mouth — built around a genuine ethical stance their target audience happened to share.
- The positioning worked because they actually believed it.
When they pushed back
When a blog post accused Plausible of GDPR non-compliance in 2020, they doubled down — publishing legal analyses and SEO content targeting 'Is Google Analytics GDPR compliant?' The attack became their strongest distribution channel.
Success patterns
See all patterns →Chat about Plausible Analytics loads when this section enters view.