Start with what you already have
Before installing anything, three sources of traffic data probably already exist for your site.
Server or CDN analytics. Your hosting platform or CDN counts requests that reached the server. This data cannot be blocked by the visitor, which makes it the most complete count you will ever have — and the noisiest, because bots are included and one page view produces many requests.
Search Console. Free, and unique: it tells you the queries people typed before clicking, plus impressions, click-through rate and average position. No analytics tool has this data, because it belongs to the search engine.
Your own application. Signups, orders, subscriptions. These are the numbers the analytics tool is trying to approximate, and you already have them exactly.
Free analytics tools, honestly compared
Google Analytics 4. Free and capable. The costs are not monetary: a consent banner in the EU, a large script, a meaningful blocked rate, and a learning curve measured in weeks.
Self-hosted open source such as Matomo or Umami. Free as in software. You pay in server costs, setup time, updates, backups and database maintenance. Realistically that is a few hours to set up and an hour or two a month afterwards — cheap if you enjoy it, expensive if you do not.
Free tiers of hosted tools. Several privacy-first tools offer a limited free plan or a trial. Fine for small sites, with the obvious ceiling.
Cloudflare Web Analytics. Free, privacy-friendly and easy if you already use Cloudflare. Limited depth, but a genuinely good starting point.
What each source can and cannot tell you
| Source | Good for | Blind to |
|---|---|---|
| Server logs | Total requests, bots, blocked visitors | Sessions, engagement, real people |
| CDN analytics | Bandwidth, geography, cache behaviour | Anything about intent |
| Search Console | Queries, impressions, CTR, position | Everything after the click |
| JS analytics | Pages, sources, sessions, conversions | Visitors who block it |
| Your database | Revenue and signups, exactly | Everyone who did not convert |
The best free setup is not one tool: it is Search Console for how people find you, a lightweight analytics script for what they do, and your own database for what it produced.
The trap in "free"
Free tools are paid for by someone. With advertising-funded analytics, the payment is your visitors' data flowing into an advertising ecosystem, which is exactly the thing that triggers the compliance work and the ad blockers. With self-hosted software, the payment is your time and your responsibility for the data.
Neither is wrong. But run the calculation honestly: if a self-hosted setup costs you two hours a month, and your time is worth anything at all, the free option is not the cheapest one.
A pragmatic starting setup
1. Verify Search Console and check it monthly. This is non-negotiable and costs nothing.
2. Turn on whatever your host or CDN offers. Zero effort, useful floor.
3. Add one lightweight analytics script — a free tier or an inexpensive privacy-first tool.
4. Track the two or three conversions that matter, and nothing else.
5. Write down the five numbers you will look at every month. If a metric never changes a decision, stop looking at it.
That covers what almost any site actually needs, and it takes about half an hour to put in place.