Matomo is an open-source web analytics platform, known as Piwik until 2018, that you can run on your own server or buy as a hosted cloud service. It records visits, traffic sources, goals and ecommerce sales much as Google Analytics 4 does, but the data sits in a system you control rather than in Google’s.
How Matomo works
A small JavaScript tracker on each page sends a record of every page view and action to your Matomo installation. There are two ways to run it. Matomo On-Premise is free software that you install on your own web hosting, which needs PHP and a MySQL or MariaDB database, and which you keep updated yourself. Matomo Cloud is a paid subscription where Matomo hosts and maintains everything. For WordPress sites there is also a plugin that runs Matomo inside your existing install, which suits smaller sites.
Reports cover visitors, channels, pages, goals and ecommerce, and Matomo reads standard UTM tags as well as its own campaign parameters. It has a built-in tag manager. Features such as heatmaps, session recordings, funnels and A/B testing come as premium plugins, sold separately.
Matomo can be configured to set no cookies at all, and to mask part of each IP address before it is stored. In that mode it recognises a returning visitor only within a short window, so figures for unique and returning visitors become less precise. Page views, sources and goal completions are still counted.
Why it matters
For a UK business, the appeal is control. Data is not shared with an advertising company, you choose where it is stored and how long it is kept, and no third party uses it for its own purposes. Organisations in the public sector, healthcare, legal services and finance often prefer analytics they can account for fully in a privacy notice.
The cookie position needs care. PECR requires consent before storing or reading information on a visitor’s device unless it is strictly necessary, and analytics has not traditionally counted as necessary. Running Matomo without cookies removes the stored identifier, but the ICO’s guidance covers similar technologies as well as cookies, so the exact configuration matters. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 provides for a limited exemption covering some analytics used only to improve your own site, provided visitors are told and can object easily. Check that the exemption is in force and read the ICO’s current guidance before you decide a banner is unnecessary, and remember UK GDPR still applies because IP addresses can be personal data.
The trade-off is advertising. Google Ads cannot import Matomo goals the way it imports GA4 key events, and Matomo does not build remarketing audiences, so a business that relies on Google’s automated bidding will still need Google’s conversion tracking.
Common mistakes
- Treating cookieless as banner-free. Meta pixels, YouTube embeds and Google Ads tags on the same site still need consent, whatever Matomo does.
- Self-hosting and forgetting it. An analytics install that is never updated is a security risk on your server.
- Skipping scheduled report processing. On busy sites, reports become slow unless archiving runs on a timed job rather than in the browser.
- Keeping raw data forever. UK GDPR expects a retention period; Matomo lets you delete old raw logs automatically.
- Expecting identical numbers to GA4. The two tools identify visitors, sessions and channels differently, so run them side by side for a month before switching.
How to act on it
Start with why you want it. If privacy and ownership matter most and paid search is a small part of your marketing, Matomo is a sound primary tool. If Google Ads drives most of your enquiries, it usually works better alongside GA4 than instead of it. Simpler options such as Plausible and Fathom are worth comparing if you only need headline figures.
If you go ahead, configure IP masking, a data retention period and goals for your real enquiries and sales on day one, and decide deliberately whether to run it with or without cookies; my note on cookieless tracking covers the options. Then update your privacy notice and cookie policy to describe exactly what it collects. Choosing an analytics set-up that fits both your marketing and your compliance position is part of my digital marketing strategy and consulting work.