In this post, we’ll briefly compare Piwik Pro, Matomo, and Google Analytics—the best-known analytics service—once again. We’ll then present our solution for successfully migrating data from Piwik Pro to Matomo.
Google Analytics (GA4/Universal Analytics)
Google Analytics is probably the best-known service for collecting and analyzing key data on user behavior and interactions for a website or app. However, you have to accept certain restrictions or limits regarding access to the collected raw data, the retention period for the data, or the quality of the reports.
Alternatively, you can spend some money to ease these restrictions or limits somewhat. However, you’ll never be able to completely eliminate these restrictions. Furthermore, data protection and privacy aren’t necessarily Google’s main focus—and therefore aren’t Google Analytics’s either. That’s why it takes a significant amount of effort to use Google Analytics in compliance with the GDPR, and the situation must be reassessed whenever legal changes occur. It’s also important to note that the collected data is stored on U.S. servers. This repeatedly raises security concerns and sparks debate, as Google may be required to provide the data to U.S. authorities, depending on the legal situation.
Piwik Pro
Piwik Pro is a commercial alternative to Google Analytics and stands out for its all-in-one approach to data collection and analysis. Another key focus of Piwik Pro is EU-based hosting and privacy protection, enabling its customers to collect and analyze data in compliance with the GDPR. Its implementation as a cloud-based SaaS solution and the similarity of its user interface also make it easy to switch from other providers, such as Google Analytics. Piwik Pro offers integrations for the most important platforms and development frameworks, as well as guides on how to use and configure them.
As with many other providers of SaaS solutions, Piwik Pro could be used for free under the Core Plan, subject to certain limitations. However, this plan will be replaced by the new, paid Business Plan in December 2025.
Matomo
Matomo is the open-source solution for collecting and analyzing all key data to determine the relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) of your website as accurately as possible. Although the focus is on web applications, thanks to the SDKs developed and provided by the Matomo community, as well as Matomo’s flexible tracking API, it’s also easy to track users of, for example, mobile apps on Android or iOS.
Another advantage of Matomo is its emphasis on data sovereignty and user privacy. This allows Matomo to be operated and used in full compliance with the GDPR.
This is achieved, for example, by the ability to host Matomo on-premises on your own infrastructure, thereby maintaining 100 percent control over the collected data and access to it. In addition, Matomo offers numerous options for anonymizing and customizing the collected data prior to processing without compromising the accuracy required for KPIs. Since the on-premise solution puts the infrastructure entirely in your hands, you can take full advantage of Matomo’s flexibility without having to worry about data limits, data access options, or vendor lock-in. There are therefore no limits to the system’s scalability.
In addition to Matomo’s core features, there is a thriving ecosystem of open-source and commercial plugins, as well as the ability to develop custom plugins. This allows Matomo to be adapted to constantly changing requirements, rather than having to adapt to the limitations of other solutions.
In our view, Matomo is the ideal solution for a GDPR-compliant analytics platform. Our teams draw on many years of hosting experience with various Matomo instances. Through our long-standing collaboration with a wide range of clients, we have also gained extensive experience in consulting, data analysis, and development with Matomo, enabling us to offer our clients a comprehensive package.
How to Successfully Migrate Data from Piwik Pro to Matomo
Once you’ve decided to switch to Matomo, the question of how to import your existing analytics data from other platforms into Matomo arises relatively quickly.
If you’re switching from Google Analytics to Matomo, an importer plugin is already available for this purpose. Until now, no plugin was available for migrating from Piwik Pro.
To facilitate such a migration, we’ve developed a transfer service that allows you to migrate analytics data from Piwik Pro to Matomo. This in-house solution has already proven successful with customers and is now available to all existing Piwik Pro customers who decide to switch to Matomo.
Specialist: Matomo
Here’s what our Matomo specialists can do for you! We’ve been relying on Matomo in our projects for several years now and recommend it to our clients as a web analytics tool. Our specialists tailor their work to your needs; we offer you:Consulting & DesignImplementation Migration from Google Analytics or Piwik PRO to MatomoHostingWorkshops & Training (Remote or On-site)
We’re happy to assist you with the installation and setup of your Matomo instance—whether it’s hosted in the Matomo Cloud, on our servers, or on-premises in your data center. In doing so, we replicate the processes and views from the predecessor product in Matomo.
Once the basic configuration is complete and the transfer parameters have been clarified, we’ll carry out the data transfer of raw data from Piwik Pro to Matomo.
So whether you’ve been grappling with the question “Stay or go?” or have already decided to switch to Matomo, we’d be happy to support you with our know-how and expertise at every stage of your project and find the right solution for you.
Feel free to contact us with no obligation. We’ll help you successfully implement Matomo for your tracking needs, ensuring full data control and compliance with data protection regulations.
