Matomo Analytics

Why Choose Matomo Over Google Analytics?

Matomo is the leading open-source web analytics platform, used by over 1 million websites including government agencies, universities, and enterprises that require full data ownership. Originally launched as Piwik in 2007, Matomo has evolved into a comprehensive analytics suite that rivals Google Analytics in features while offering something GA never can: complete data sovereignty.

The fundamental difference is data ownership. When you use Google Analytics, your visitor data is processed on Google's servers, subject to Google's privacy policy, and used by Google for its own purposes (including advertising). With self-hosted Matomo, your data lives on your server, is processed by your infrastructure, and is never accessed by any third party. For many EU-based businesses, this distinction is the difference between GDPR compliance and risk.

Key Advantages Over Google Analytics 4

• 100% data ownership — your data, your servers, your rules. No third-party access.
• No data sampling — GA4 samples data for large sites and some reports. Matomo always reports on 100% of your data.
• Raw data access — export or query your raw analytics data directly from the database. GA4 restricts raw data access to BigQuery exports (paid).
• No data retention limits — keep your analytics data as long as you want. GA4 limits data retention to 14 months.
• Cookieless option — Matomo can track visitors without any cookies, using fingerprint-free technology. GA4 always requires cookies (or Consent Mode with modeling).
• No consent wall needed — when self-hosted with cookieless tracking and IP anonymization, many EU data protection authorities have confirmed Matomo can be used without cookie consent. This means you see 100% of your traffic, not just the ~60% who accept cookies.
• Open source — the code is auditable, extensible, and free of vendor lock-in.

Ecommerce Analytics Features

Matomo provides comprehensive ecommerce tracking when connected to your PrestaShop store:

• Revenue tracking — total revenue, average order value, conversion rate by traffic source, campaign, and landing page.
• Product performance — views, add-to-cart rates, and purchase rates per product.
• Category analysis — understand which product categories drive the most revenue and visits.
• Abandoned carts — Matomo tracks cart operations, letting you analyze cart abandonment patterns.
• Attribution — multi-channel attribution models showing which touchpoints contribute to conversions.
• Funnels — define conversion funnels (e.g., homepage → category → product → cart → checkout → confirmation) and visualize drop-off rates at each step.

Privacy and GDPR Compliance

Matomo's privacy capabilities are unmatched in the analytics industry:

• Self-hosting — when you host Matomo on your own server (or your hosting provider's), data never leaves your infrastructure. No data processing agreement with a third party is needed because there is no third party.
• IP anonymization — mask 1, 2, or 3 octets of visitor IP addresses before any data is stored.
• Cookieless tracking — Matomo's cookieless mode uses a combination of attributes (without browser fingerprinting) to count unique visitors without setting any cookies.
• Consent management — built-in JavaScript API for requiring consent before tracking, with easy integration with your consent management platform.
• Data purging — automatic deletion of old data, supporting the GDPR principle of data minimization.
• Right to erasure — tools to delete specific visitor data in compliance with GDPR Article 17.
• CNIL approved — the French data protection authority (CNIL) has specifically listed Matomo as an analytics tool that can be used without cookie consent when properly configured.

Cloud vs. Self-Hosted

This module works with both deployment options:

• Matomo Cloud — managed by Matomo's team. Hosted on EU servers (Germany), GDPR compliant, but data is on Matomo's infrastructure. Starts at ~€19/month.
• Self-hosted — install Matomo on your own server for free. Full control, but you manage updates and infrastructure. This is the option that gives you absolute data sovereignty.

Technical Implementation

The module injects the Matomo JavaScript tracking code on every page of your PrestaShop store. You configure:

• Matomo URL — the URL where your Matomo instance is accessible (e.g., https://analytics.yourdomain.com)
• Site ID — the numeric ID of your site in Matomo

The tracking code is loaded asynchronously and includes ecommerce tracking calls on the order confirmation page with transaction details, revenue, and product data.

Setup

1. Set up Matomo — either self-hosted or cloud.
2. Create a website in your Matomo dashboard and note the Site ID and Matomo URL.
3. Install this module in PrestaShop, enter both values, and save.
4. Verify tracking in Matomo's real-time visitor log.