Self-hosted vs cloud Plausible (and GA4) for analytics

Self-hosted vs cloud Plausible (and GA4) for analytics
Three paths, three different costs and headaches.
GA4 (free)
👍 Free, deep, integrates with Ads and Search Console
👎 Steep learning curve, sampling, privacy/consent baggage, data you don't fully own
Plausible Cloud (~$9/mo)
👍 Simple, cookieless, GDPR-friendly, loads fast; one clean dashboard
👎 Monthly cost scales with pageviews; fewer dimensions than GA4
Plausible self-hosted (free software, you pay infra)
👍 Total data ownership, no per-pageview fee, same clean UI
👎 You run the server, updates and backups — real ops time and a VPS bill
Verdict: GA4 if you need ad/SEO depth for free; cloud Plausible for simple privacy-first stats; self-host only if you'll own the ops.
Best for: GA4 for paid-traffic marketers, Plausible Cloud for content sites, self-host for privacy purists.
No affiliate link — we just use this stuff.