TCO Calculator
Log scale, 10k–50M. Pageviews and custom events both count toward Cloud billing tiers.
Default €0/hr keeps the headline honest — but if your time has a price, set it.
The calculator above computes everything in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere, no cookies, no email gate. Drag the events slider, pick your tool and box, and the 3-line ledger plus break-even verdict update live. The numbers come from a hand-maintained pricing snapshot (Hetzner CX line + Plausible/Fathom Cloud, 13 August 2026), not a live API. Availability is not modelled at all — the CX plans priced here were unavailable for new orders on 13 August 2026, and the CPX equivalents cost three to four times as much.
Want the reasoning behind every line? Read what self-hosted analytics really costs — the explainer that walks the VPS, backups, maintenance time, and the break-even vs Plausible and Fathom Cloud.
3-year total cost of ownership matrix
Prefer a static reference? This matrix covers the same ground without the slider. Self-host figures assume a Hetzner CX23 (€5.49/mo) or CX33 (€8.49/mo) plus a flat off-box backup line; Cloud figures use the lowest plan that fits the volume.
| Volume (events/mo) | Plausible CE self-host | Plausible Cloud | Matomo CE self-host | Umami (Vercel+Neon) | GoatCounter (binary) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10k | €252 | €433 (Growth) | €252 | €0 | €0 |
| 100k | €252 | €1,052 (Growth) | €252 | ~€0 | €0 |
| 1M | €252 | €3,220 (Growth) | €252 | ~€144 | €252 |
| 5M | €252 | €7,553 (Growth) | €490 (CX33) | ~€720 | €252 |
| 10M | €490 (CX33) | custom quote | €1,180 (CX43) | self-host required | €490 |
3-year totals in EUR (USD Cloud prices converted at 1 USD = €0.86, ~Jun 2026). Self-host = VPS €/mo × 36 + €3.20/mo backups × 36. Cloud = lowest Growth-plan tier that fits the volume × 36 months. Excludes one-time setup labour (~4 hours per tool) and your own maintenance time — toggle that line in the calculator above.
When self-host wins
- Above ~100k events/mo — the flat VPS bill beats every Cloud tier once you climb past the entry plan, and the gap widens fast.
- EU residency required — Hetzner Falkenstein/Helsinki keeps data in the EU; Cloud plans trade DPA simplicity for vendor lock-in.
- Need raw SQL access — Cloud plans don't expose ClickHouse / MariaDB to you; self-host does.
When Cloud wins
- Under ~10k events/mo — the entry Cloud plan is a rounding error and you skip all the ops.
- No DevOps capacity — you don't have someone to babysit Docker / MariaDB / backups.
- Need vendor-managed updates — Cloud rolls forward automatically; CE you upgrade yourself.
Server and vendor prices re-checked against the Hetzner price API on 13 August 2026.