The SaaS founder analytics dilemma
Every SaaS founder reaches the same crossroads. GA4 is free but costs you in hidden ways — time to set up, ongoing maintenance, slower site speeds, missing data, and compliance stress. You look for alternatives and find two extremes. Plausible is clean, simple, and cookieless — but maybe too simple. PostHog is powerful, feature-rich, and free for 1M events — but overwhelming with so many features you will rarely look at. There is a gap in the middle, and that is exactly where Dashly sits. As one indie founder put it: "The likes of Plausible and Umami are great starting points, but they are a bit too basic and lack quite a bit when it comes to SaaS-focused features. PostHog is super powerful, but it feels overwhelming with so many features we would rarely look at. Google Analytics? A non-starter."
Plausible: clean, simple, maybe too simple
Plausible is the most popular cookieless analytics tool, and for good reason. It is open-source, GDPR compliant without a consent banner, has a beautiful one-page dashboard, and costs $9/mo. For a blog or a simple marketing site, it is excellent. But for a SaaS company, it has real limitations. No revenue attribution — you cannot connect Stripe and see which traffic sources drive revenue. No bot filtering — bots inflate your numbers by 20-40%. No funnels — you cannot see where users drop off between landing page and signup. No custom events on the lower tiers. No session replays. If you are running a SaaS and need to connect traffic to revenue, Plausible alone is not enough.
PostHog: powerful, but overwhelming
PostHog is the most feature-rich analytics tool on the market. It does web analytics, product analytics, session replays, feature flags, A/B testing, surveys, and experiments — all in one platform. The free tier covers 1M events per month, which is generous. But the problem is the one the founder described: it feels overwhelming. The dashboard has 15+ sections. Setting up funnels requires understanding their event taxonomy. Session replays are a separate module. Feature flags are a separate module. For a solo founder or small team, PostHog is a firehose of features when you need a drinking fountain of insight. You spend more time configuring the tool than analyzing data. PostHog is ideal for product teams at Series A+ companies with a dedicated analyst. For solo SaaS founders, it is overkill.
See which channels actually make money. Connect Stripe, filter bots, and track AI search traffic — all cookieless.
Try Dashly free →Dashly: the middle ground
Dashly is built for the gap between Plausible and PostHog. It is cookieless and simple like Plausible — one dashboard, no consent banner, GDPR compliant. But it has the SaaS-focused features Plausible lacks: revenue attribution via Stripe integration, bot filtering at collection time, funnels, custom events, and session replays. It does not have feature flags, A/B testing, or surveys — and it does not try to. The philosophy is: track what matters for a SaaS (traffic, conversion, revenue, bots) and nothing else. At $10/mo, it sits at Plausible's price point with the SaaS features Plausible lacks. It is PostHog's useful subset without the overwhelming surface area.
Feature comparison: what each tool actually does
| Feature | Plausible ($9/mo) | PostHog (free-1M) | Dashly ($10/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cookieless / no consent banner | Yes | No (uses cookies) | Yes |
| Bot filtering | No | Partial | Yes (3 layers) |
| Revenue attribution (Stripe) | No | Manual events | Yes (automatic) |
| Funnels | No | Yes | Yes |
| Session replays | No | Yes | Yes (privacy-safe) |
| AI search traffic detection | No | No | Yes |
| Dashboard complexity | 1 page | 15+ sections | 1 page |
| Setup time | 2 min | 30+ min | 2 min |
| Open source | Yes | Yes | No |
Which tool should you choose?
Choose Plausible if you have a blog, a simple marketing site, or a hobby project. It is the best tool for content sites that just need visitor counts and traffic sources. Choose PostHog if you are a Series A+ company with a product team that needs feature flags, A/B testing, and deep product analytics. The free tier is unbeatable for event volume. Choose Dashly if you are a solo SaaS founder or small team that needs to connect traffic to revenue, filter bots, and see funnels — without the overwhelming complexity of PostHog or the missing features of Plausible. At $10/mo, it is the same price as Plausible with the SaaS features that actually matter.
The honest take: what I would use
If I were running a blog, I would use Plausible. It is clean, simple, and does exactly what a blog needs. If I were running a funded startup with a product team, I would use PostHog. The feature set is unmatched for product analytics. But I built Dashly because I am a solo SaaS founder who bills through Stripe, checks analytics every morning, and could not answer the question "which channel made the money?" Plausible was too basic. PostHog was too much. GA4 was a non-starter. If that describes you, Dashly is built for you.
FAQ
Is Plausible too simple for SaaS?
For SaaS companies that need revenue attribution, funnels, and bot filtering, yes. Plausible is excellent for blogs and simple marketing sites but lacks the SaaS-focused features most founders need. Dashly offers those features at the same $10/mo price point.
Is PostHog too complex for solo founders?
For most solo founders, yes. PostHog has 15+ dashboard sections, requires understanding its event taxonomy, and includes feature flags, A/B testing, and surveys that most solo founders do not use. It is ideal for product teams at Series A+ companies.
Does Plausible have revenue attribution?
No. Plausible does not connect to Stripe or any payment processor. You can see traffic sources but not which sources drive revenue. Dashly includes automatic Stripe revenue attribution at the same price.
Is PostHog really free?
PostHog offers 1M events per month for free, which covers most small sites. Beyond that, pricing scales with usage. The free tier includes most features but session replays and feature flags have separate limits.
Why is Dashly $10/mo when Plausible is $9/mo?
Dashly includes revenue attribution (Stripe integration), bot filtering (3 layers), funnels, session replays, and AI search traffic detection — features Plausible does not have. The $1/mo difference covers the infrastructure for payment polling and bot detection.