Updated October 25, 2026
· ~2 min read
Analytics choices used to be "GA or something expensive". In 2026 there are four sensible options, and they differ less in charts than in who holds the data, how much a technical audience's blockers hide, and what you can join it with.
This site runs on the fourth option, a first-party pipeline on AWS, and we describe how in a separate post. That does not make it the right answer for everyone.
GA4's cost is control. Retention, sampling, data model and definitions are Google's, and they change. PostHog's is volume: the free tier is generous, and event counts grow fast once you track product usage. Plausible's is depth: it answers traffic questions and little else. A first-party pipeline's is ownership: someone has to keep the collector, schema and saved queries working, and dashboards are yours to build.
Question 1 of 2
Is this a marketing site or a product?
**GA4:** free, deep integration with Google Ads and Search Console, and good enough for most marketing sites. You accept Google's retention limits, sampling on large explorations and a consent banner. **PostHog:** product analytics, session replay, feature flags and experiments in one tool, with a generous free tier. The best fit for SaaS products. **Plausible:** simple, cookieless traffic analytics for content sites that want privacy and almost no setup. **First-party on AWS:** you want raw events next to your own data, to keep them indefinitely, to count visitors that block third-party trackers, or to run analysis no tool supports. You own a small pipeline.
First-Party Product Analytics on AWS
Product and marketing analytics that run in your own AWS account: a small SDK for your site and your servers, a collector on your own domain, and raw events you can query with SQL. No third-party tracker, no per-event bill, nobody else holding your users' data.
Marketing Platform: CMS, Campaigns and Tracked Links
A content and campaign system your marketing team runs without a deploy: landing pages built from your own components, campaigns that turn on and off as one switch, tracked links for every place you post, and email. Prerendered for search, measured end to end, running in your AWS account.
We work with startups and growing companies on AWS architecture decisions. Tell us about your situation and we will recommend the right approach.
As of October 25, 2026. Provided as is, for general information, and accurate to the best of our knowledge on the date shown. Not legal, compliance, tax, financial or other professional advice. Prices, limits and vendor services change; check current vendor documentation before relying on anything here. Terms of use.