Matomo is a privacy-first, GDPR-compliant web analytics platform with custom/contact-sales pricing, focused on visitor behavior, SEO, and campaign tracking;…
Best for matomo: Matomo fits organizations that need privacy-first, GDPR-compliant tracking of website visitor behavior, with features like visitor profiles, enhanced SEO reporting, a tag manager, and a plugin marketplace for extensibility.
Best for ProfitWell: ProfitWell fits SaaS businesses that want a completely free way to track subscription revenue metrics (MRR, ARR, churn, LTV) and benchmark against a dataset of over 30,000 subscription companies, connecting directly to billing systems like Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, and Recurly.
At a Glance
matomo
ProfitWell
Primary category
Analytics
Analytics
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Freemium
ProfitWell Metrics itself is free to use indefinitely. Paddle, the parent company that acquired ProfitWell, charges merchants a percentage-based fee on revenue processed through its merchant-of-record billing platform.
Starting price
Free (self-hosted Community edition); Cloud plans from around EUR 29/month
Free (ProfitWell Metrics); Paddle's billing platform fees are transaction-based and quoted per merchant
Free plan
Not documented
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Not documented
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Not documented
Yes
Key Differences
What Is Being Measured
matomo: Matomo tracks on-site visitor behavior, including page views, visitor profiles, and campaign URLs.
ProfitWell: ProfitWell tracks subscription business metrics -- MRR, ARR, churn, and customer lifetime value -- pulled from billing systems.
These are fundamentally different data sources (web traffic versus billing data), so the tools aren't substitutes.
Pricing
matomo: Matomo's enterprise pricing is custom and quote-based, not published.
ProfitWell: ProfitWell Metrics is completely free, with no listed paid tier.
Cost predictability differs sharply -- ProfitWell buyers know the cost is $0 upfront, while Matomo buyers must go through a sales process.
Data Source Integration
matomo: Not documented as billing-system integrations for Matomo, which lists a generic "Integration" feature area without further detail.
ProfitWell: ProfitWell connects to Paddle, Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, and Recurly.
ProfitWell's value depends entirely on connecting to a billing system, which is its core integration surface, unlike Matomo's website-tracking integrations.
Independence / Ownership
matomo: Not documented as being owned by a parent company; Matomo is presented as its own privacy-focused analytics product.
ProfitWell: ProfitWell is now owned and operated by Paddle rather than as an independent standalone company, a documented con, with its advanced retention and pricing tools folded into Paddle's broader product line.
Buyers wary of vendor consolidation or future feature changes should know ProfitWell's roadmap now sits inside Paddle.
Benchmarking
matomo: Not documented for Matomo.
ProfitWell: ProfitWell benchmarks performance against a dataset of over 30,000 subscription companies.
Benchmarking against industry peers is a specific decision-support feature only ProfitWell documents.
Feature-by-Feature
Core Measurement
Feature
matomo
ProfitWell
Website visitor analytics
Available
Unavailable
Subscription revenue metrics (MRR/ARR/churn/LTV)
Unavailable
Available
Visitor profiles
Available
Unavailable
Integrations & Extensibility
Feature
matomo
ProfitWell
Billing system integrations (Stripe, Chargebee, etc.)
Unavailable
Available
Plugin marketplace
Available
Unavailable
Tag manager
Available
Unavailable
Cost & Ownership
Feature
matomo
ProfitWell
Free tier
Not documented
Available
Published pricing
Unavailable
Available
Independent company
Not documented
Unavailable
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
matomo
On-Premise Community — Free N/A
Cloud Starter — From EUR 29/month monthly
Cloud Business — From EUR 29/month (scales with traffic) monthly
On-Premise Enterprise — From EUR 2,834/month monthly
Free, unlimited-traffic self-hosted Community edition
Strong GDPR and privacy-regulation compliance posture
Open-source codebase with an extensible plugin marketplace
Cons
Self-hosting requires server setup, maintenance and updates
Cloud and on-premise paid tiers can get expensive at high traffic volumes
Interface can feel more complex than lightweight tools like Plausible
Advanced features (heatmaps, session recording, A/B testing) are gated behind paid tiers
Smaller integration ecosystem than Google Analytics
ProfitWell
Pros
Core metrics dashboard remains genuinely free with no credit card required to start
Quick setup that connects directly to existing billing and payment data
Backed by Paddle's larger, well-funded payments infrastructure and engineering team
Useful benchmarking heritage from years of aggregated SaaS metrics data
Cons
No longer an independently operated product roadmap; direction is now set by Paddle's priorities
Deepest ongoing feature development is increasingly oriented toward companies using Paddle Billing specifically
Some previously distinct ProfitWell products (Retain, Price Intelligently) have been absorbed into Paddle's broader offering rather than sold as standalone tools
Companies not using or considering Paddle as their billing provider may find long-term support and roadmap commitment less certain
Use Cases
Choose matomo: Matomo fits organizations that need privacy-first, GDPR-compliant tracking of website visitor behavior, with features like visitor profiles, enhanced SEO reporting, a tag manager, and a plugin marketplace for extensibility.
Choose ProfitWell: ProfitWell fits SaaS businesses that want a completely free way to track subscription revenue metrics (MRR, ARR, churn, LTV) and benchmark against a dataset of over 30,000 subscription companies, connecting directly to billing systems like Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, and Recurly.
Need both: A SaaS company could use Matomo to measure and optimize website and product traffic in a GDPR-compliant way while using ProfitWell to track the resulting subscription revenue metrics like MRR and churn from that same customer base.
matomo
GDPR-compliant website analytics — Businesses operating in the EU need visitor analytics that keeps data ownership and residency compliant with privacy law.
Agency multi-site reporting — Digital agencies track analytics across many client websites from a single roll-up dashboard.
Conversion optimization — Teams use heatmaps, session recordings, funnels and A/B testing to improve on-site conversion rates.
ProfitWell
Free SaaS metrics dashboard — Early-stage and growth SaaS companies connect their billing data to automatically track MRR, ARR, and churn without building internal reporting.
Churn and retention monitoring — Revenue and customer-success teams use ProfitWell's metrics and historical Retain capabilities to monitor and reduce involuntary and voluntary churn.
Evaluating Paddle as a billing provider — Companies exploring merchant-of-record billing test ProfitWell Metrics as a free entry point before adopting Paddle's full payments and subscription platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ProfitWell really free?
Yes, ProfitWell Metrics is completely free to use, unlike Matomo, which uses custom/contact-sales pricing.
Do Matomo and ProfitWell track the same kind of data?
No -- Matomo tracks website visitor behavior, while ProfitWell tracks subscription revenue metrics like MRR, ARR, and churn pulled from billing systems.
What billing systems does ProfitWell connect to?
Paddle, Stripe, Chargebee, Braintree, Zuora, and Recurly.
Is ProfitWell still an independent product?
No, it's now owned and operated by Paddle as ProfitWell Metrics, with some of its advanced retention and pricing tools folded into Paddle's broader product line.
Does Matomo offer industry benchmarking like ProfitWell?
This isn't documented for Matomo. ProfitWell specifically benchmarks against a dataset of over 30,000 subscription companies.
Is Matomo focused on privacy compliance?
Yes, Matomo is positioned specifically around privacy and GDPR compliance as a Google Analytics alternative; this isn't a documented focus area for ProfitWell.