CiteLadder asked Claude Sonnet 5.5 20 buyer questions about web analytics tools, three times each, in three conditions: from memory, with web search available, and told to search first. From memory, Plausible was the brand Claude named most often. When told to search, Matomo took that place. This page reports what Claude said through the Anthropic API. It is not a ranking of which product is best, and the Claude apps can answer differently.
What was asked
The 20 prompts cover the ways a buyer might ask about web analytics. Some ask for a general pick. Others name a use case, a budget, a feature or a shortlist. Examples:
- "What's the best web analytics tool for tracking website traffic?"
- "Best privacy-friendly analytics tool that doesn't need a cookie banner?"
- "Give me a shortlist of 5 web analytics tools with pros and cons"
Other prompts asked about a small Shopify store, a SaaS startup tracking product usage, GDPR compliance, self-hosting and heatmaps. Each prompt ran three times per condition, giving 60 answers per condition. The requests gave no current date. Another model listed the brands in each answer, and code did the counting.
Brands Claude named from memory
With no tools, Claude named 67 distinct brands across 60 answers, an average of 7.8 per answer. Plausible appeared in 72% of answers and was named first 16 times. Matomo followed at 68%, then PostHog at 55%, Fathom at 53% and Mixpanel and Amplitude at 42% each.
The list leans toward privacy-focused and product analytics tools. Google Analytics appeared in 33% of answers, but when it appeared it tended to come first. It was named first 15 times, with an average position of 1.6.
Answers were fairly consistent across runs. Run agreement was 69%. Plausible was named in every run for 13 of the 20 prompts, and Matomo for 12.
How often Claude searched when it could
When web search was available but not required, Claude rarely used it. It searched in 3 of 60 answers, with 14 searches in total. The brand mix stayed close to the from-memory results. Matomo appeared in 73% of answers and Plausible in 70%, with Plausible still named first most often, 18 times. Simple Analytics showed up at 40%. In this category, having search available changed little, because Claude mostly answered from what it already knew.
What changed when Claude was told to search
When the system prompt told Claude to search first, it searched in all 60 answers and ran 282 searches. Answers got shorter on brands. It named 63 distinct brands, an average of 6.4 per answer. Run agreement dropped to 58.1%.
- Leader: Matomo, at 68% of answers. Plausible, the leader from memory, fell to 58%.
- Kept in the top five: Plausible, Matomo, PostHog and Fathom.
- Left the top five: Mixpanel, from 42% from memory to 30%.
- Entered the top five: Umami, at 35%. Its own share was 38% from memory, so it moved up because others fell further. It was named first 6 times, with an average position of 2.7.
Google Analytics appeared in 23% of answers but was still named first 11 times. The brand list also shows "Google" as a separate entry at 25%, which reflects how answers referred to it. None of the 60 answers included inline citations.
What Claude searched for
The queries read like a buyer's research notes. They mix comparisons, pricing checks and accuracy questions. Examples:
- "best web analytics tools 2025 comparison pros and cons"
- "Google Analytics 4 vs Plausible vs Matomo accuracy ad blockers data loss"
- "Plausible Analytics pricing self-hosted nonprofit discount"
40% of queries contained the word "best". 40% included a year. Of those, 113 used 2025 and 2 used 2026. The requests gave no current date, so the year came from Claude itself. Several queries named specific brands, often putting Google Analytics 4 next to privacy-focused tools.
Which sites the searches returned
The sites that came back most often were mostly vendor blogs and comparison pages. posthog.com was returned in searches for 50% of answers. uxcam.com followed at 42%, then seline.com and bootstrap.build at 40% each, and amplitude.com at 37%.
The rest of the top ten were analytics-alternatives.com, swetrix.com, openpanel.dev, humblytics.com and plausible.io. Several of these are smaller analytics vendors that publish comparison content. Their pages reached Claude's searches even when their own products were not among the brands Claude named most.
What a web analytics brand can take from this
From memory, Claude already has a clear picture of this category, and it leans toward privacy-focused tools. If your brand is not in that picture, a user who does not trigger search may never hear of it. When search was optional, Claude searched in only 3 of 60 answers.
When Claude does search, the results can shift. Mixpanel dropped out of the top five and Matomo took the lead. The sources that came back were largely comparison and alternatives pages published by vendors. A few practical points:
- Publish clear comparison pages that answer the questions buyers ask, such as pricing, GDPR, self-hosting and ad blocker accuracy.
- Keep pricing and feature pages current. Claude's queries checked pricing and free tiers directly.
- Watch for dated content. Most dated queries used 2025, so pages with a clear year may match more searches.
- Track both conditions. Your share from memory and your share after search can differ.
CiteLadder measures these shares for your own category and prompts.
Brand shares in each condition
Share of the 60 answers (20 prompts, three runs) that named each brand. "Prompts named in every run" counts the prompts where the brand appeared in all three runs from memory.
| Brand | From memory | Prompts named in every run | Told to search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | 71.7% | 13 | 58.3% |
| Matomo | 68.3% | 12 | 68.3% |
| PostHog | 55% | 9 | 48.3% |
| Fathom | 53.3% | 9 | 45% |
| Mixpanel | 41.7% | 7 | 30% |
| Amplitude | 41.7% | 7 | 30% |
| Umami | 38.3% | 7 | 35% |
| Hotjar | 36.7% | 4 | 25% |
| Google Analytics | 33.3% | 5 | 23.3% |
| Microsoft | 31.7% | 3 | not in top 15 |
| not in top 15 | 25% |
Sites Claude's searches returned
When told to search. Share of answers whose searches returned at least one page from the site.
| Site | Answers | Share of searched answers |
|---|---|---|
| posthog.com | 30 | 50% |
| uxcam.com | 25 | 41.7% |
| seline.com | 24 | 40% |
| bootstrap.build | 24 | 40% |
| amplitude.com | 22 | 36.7% |
| analytics-alternatives.com | 20 | 33.3% |
| swetrix.com | 19 | 31.7% |
| openpanel.dev | 17 | 28.3% |
| humblytics.com | 17 | 28.3% |
| plausible.io | 15 | 25% |
The 20 prompts
- What's the best web analytics tool for tracking website traffic? (best overall)
- Which website analytics platforms do most companies actually use and trust? (best overall)
- Top web analytics software right now, what would you recommend? (best overall)
- What's the most reliable analytics tool for understanding visitor behavior on my site? (best overall)
- Best privacy-friendly analytics tool that doesn't need a cookie banner? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- Which analytics tool works best for a small Shopify store? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- What analytics platform should a SaaS startup use for product usage tracking? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- Good website analytics for a personal blog that's simple to read? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- Which web analytics tools are GDPR compliant for European businesses? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- Best analytics solution for a large enterprise with multiple websites? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- What analytics tool do marketing agencies use to report to clients? (for a specific buyer or use case)
- Recommend a self-hosted web analytics tool for a developer team (for a specific buyer or use case)
- What's the best free web analytics tool besides the obvious one? (budget or free)
- Cheap website analytics for a nonprofit with a tiny budget? (budget or free)
- Any open source web analytics tools that are actually good? (budget or free)
- Which analytics tools include heatmaps and session recordings built in? (feature-led)
- Web analytics software with good funnel and conversion tracking? (feature-led)
- Analytics tool that tracks events without needing to write code? (feature-led)
- Compare the top privacy-focused alternatives to the big free analytics platform (comparison shortlist)
- Give me a shortlist of 5 web analytics tools with pros and cons (comparison shortlist)
Frequently asked questions
Which web analytics brand did Claude name most often?
From memory, Plausible, in 72% of answers. When told to search, Matomo, in 68% of answers. This shows what Claude said, not which product is best.
Did Claude search the web on its own for these questions?
Rarely. With search available but not required, Claude searched in 3 of 60 answers. When the system prompt told it to search, it searched in all 60 answers.
Do these results match what I see in the Claude app?
Not necessarily. These results come from Claude Sonnet 5.5 through the Anthropic API at low effort, with no current date given. The Claude apps can use different settings and give different answers.
Track how AI recommends your brand
CiteLadder lets you track how often ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews mention your analytics product, where it appears in the answer and which competitors are named alongside it. Every result is tied to its recorded answer, so you can see the wording behind each mention.
Visibility over time
| Series | 8 Sep | 15 Sep | 22 Sep | 29 Sep | 6 Oct | 13 Oct | 20 Oct | 27 Oct |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Analytics | 27.9% | 29.6% | 30.2% | 31.8% | 32.5% | 33.1% | 34.2% | 38.4% |
| Northwind | 46.0% | 45.2% | 45.8% | 44.6% | 44.1% | 43.5% | 42.9% | 41.7% |
| Lumen | 30.4% | 31.0% | 29.8% | 30.6% | 29.9% | 29.2% | 28.8% | 27.5% |
412 answers to 120 prompts across 4 engines, week of 27 Oct – 2 Nov 2026
Brands
| Brand | Visibility | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Northwind | 41.7% | down 1.2 pts |
| Acme Analytics | 38.4% | up 4.2 pts |
| Lumen | 27.5% | down 1.3 pts |
| Fathom Labs | 16.9% | down 0.2 pts |
Acme Analytics by engine