Reflections on Piwik PRO’s pricing shift—from someone who’s been around the analytics block…

TL;DR: Piwik Pro are sunsetting its freemium analytics plan.

I find myself with mixed feelings.

I’ve always been a strong advocate of free-to-learn Freemium model—where all features remain free, but you pay for scale: more processing power, storage, data retention, and so on. It’s a model that essentially made Google Analytics the giant it is today. The analytics industry as a whole is now around 1000x larger than it was when Google Analytics first launched in 2005. In fact, I built a large part of my career on the back of that approach.

But… getting the thresholds right is incredibly difficult. In reality, only the biggest players—Google, Microsoft, Meta etc.—have the scale and resources to make that model work sustainably. Most vendors therefore adopt the restrictive pay-to-learn model. So while I’m disappointed to see this shift, I also recognise the commercial realities behind it.

If it had been up to me, I would have pushed for a 12-month free period, followed by a paid plan. The reasoning is simple: users who’ve invested time and energy integrating and configuring a platform are far more likely to convert to paying customers when they’re settled and confident. By contrast, a 30-day trial barely scratches the surface—especially in analytics, where platform switching is slow, complex, and rarely a top operational priority.

Future Opportunities for Differentiation

Piwik Pro becoming a truly EU-based analytics solution—leveraging cloud hosting with Elastx—is a smart strategic move. Previously, Microsoft Azure was the main cloud infrastructure with Elastx as an option. Now, with a fully EU/Swedish hosted solution, Piwik PRO is doing something Google and other US-based giants simply cannot: offering credible data sovereignty and privacy-focused hosting within Europe. (For anyone interested, here’s a good explainer: EU hosting vs data sovereignty)

Equally, the tight integration between Consent Management Platforms (CMP) and analytics is essential. Too many organisations still get their CMP implementation wrong—resulting in data leaks, compliance issues, and a loss of customer trust.

I’d also love to see more emphasis on consent-free analytics—meaning benign, aggregate data collection without personal identifiers that therefore does not require consent. There’s real untapped value there i.e. providing a solution for businesses requiring data to run and scale their business, without the need for hyper-personalised tracking.

And when consent is given, a well-integrated Customer Data Platform (CDP) becomes critical for activating and enriching that data responsibly.

The Importance of Advocacy in Analytics

A free-to-learn model has a proven track record in this industry because it does more than lower the barrier to entry — it fosters knowledge, builds vibrant communities, and instils a sense of purpose in the work we do. Data practitioners aren’t just looking for tools. They are looking to make better decisions, improve products, and have an impact. That’s why analytics remains such an attractive and sought-after profession.

If a vendor can make the numbers work, the free-to-learn model should be seen not just as a pricing strategy, but as a powerful long-term investment in marketing and advocacy. If the product delivers, those early users become your strongest ambassadors.

I truly believe that Piwik PRO’s rise — from relative obscurity just a few years ago to being name-checked at events and in industry discussions — owes a lot to their free-to-learn Core plan.

Here’s a good example: at a Web Analytics Wednesday event this June, a live audience survey asked participants which platform they most wanted to work with next. Despite heavyweight competition, Piwik PRO came out on top. I doubt they’d even have been mentioned three years ago without that Core plan driving awareness and adoption:

Final Thoughts

No one can out-Google Google of course. Trying to do so is, frankly, foolish—I saw this first hand in the years following Google Analytics’ launch. Competing vendors need to carve their own distinct paths—filling the very real gaps that big, one-size-fits-all products like Google Analytics leave behind.

There’s opportunity for Piwik Pro/Cookie Information here—but it requires strategic focus, product differentiation, and playing where the tech giants cannot.

Building something different is never easy—which is why it’s a shame to see the free-to-learn model go. I can only hope Piwik Pro do not lose sight of what made them stand out over the last few years: their advocates.