Most Google Analytics alternative reviews compare the wrong numbers
Not on purpose. They just grab the first script they find.
For Plausible that is usually the old script.js, still served and still linked from countless guides, even though since October 2025 the install page hands every site its own pa-*.js snippet. It weighs 1,271 bytes and does exactly one thing: count pageviews. Our standard script weighs 1,985 bytes and does twelve things. Put those two numbers side by side and we lose.
Now compare like with like. Plausible also ships a build with outbound links, file downloads, tagged events, pageview props and revenue. That one weighs 2,200 bytes. Our smallest preset weighs 471.
Same comparison, opposite result. The difference is that we opened the docs for both.