Is Matomo truly free to use? What are the costs or requirements?

Yes, Matomo Core (the on-premise version) is completely free to download and use. Being open-source, there is no license cost for running it on your own server.

The main requirements to run Matomo are a web server with PHP and a MySQL/MariaDB database. If you were running AWStats, you likely have a web server in place; you’ll just need to set up the PHP/MySQL backend for Matomo. For many users, this is straightforward, but it does mean Matomo is a bit more resource-intensive than AWStats (which was a lightweight Perl script).

In practice, for a moderate traffic site, Matomo can run on a small server or shared hosting without issues: just ensure you allocate enough PHP memory and storage for the database (since it will store your analytics data). Matomo’s documentation provides guidance on sizing and installation.

Optional Matomo Cloud: Alternatively, if you don’t want to maintain the infrastructure, Matomo offers a cloud-hosted service (Matomo Cloud), which is a paid option where the Matomo team hosts the analytics for you. However, for AWStats users who prefer self-hosting (to keep full control), the self-hosted Matomo is the way to go and doesn’t cost anything except your server’s resources.