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Security report for plausible.io

Plausible Analytics · Technology · Estonia

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Plausible Analytics is a privacy-focused, lightweight, and open-source alternative to Google Analytics, founded in 2018 and based in Estonia. The company offers a subscription-based SaaS model with options for self-hosting, targeting startups, agencies, creators, and ecommerce SaaS businesses. With over 15,000 paying subscribers and a strong emphasis on data privacy and GDPR compliance, Plausible positions itself as a trustworthy and sustainable analytics provider hosted exclusively on European infrastructure. Technically, the website is built using modern technologies including Jekyll for static site generation and Alpine.js for interactivity, hosted on bunny.net CDN infrastructure. The site is fast, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly, with a clean and professional design that supports excellent user experience. The analytics service itself uses a lightweight JavaScript tracking script that avoids cookies and personal data collection, aligning with privacy best practices. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, employs domain transfer protection, and processes data solely within the EU, minimizing regulatory risks. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and explicit incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not publicly listed, representing areas for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. Overall, Plausible Analytics demonstrates a mature and credible business with strong privacy and security postures, excellent technical implementation, and a clear market niche. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, publishing incident response contacts, and adding a security.txt file to enhance transparency and security readiness.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of plausible.io. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
80/ 100 · Low
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching plausible.io

This scan found 18 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
95
Security headers
25
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
80
Average
68

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Plausible Analytics operates in the technology sector, focusing on privacy-compliant web analytics. Its competitive advantage lies in simplicity, privacy, and open-source transparency, appealing to privacy-conscious customers disillusioned with Google Analytics. The subscription revenue model is sustainable and independent, avoiding surveillance capitalism. The company targets startups, agencies, and creators, with plans scaled by monthly pageviews. The ecosystem includes community engagement via blog, GitHub, and social media. The company is small-sized, founded in 2018, and based in Estonia, with no parent or subsidiaries. Positive testimonials and uptime statistics reinforce market trust.

Security posture

The security posture of Plausible Analytics is strong, with HTTPS enforced and no use of cookies or personal data collection, reducing attack surface and compliance risks. Data is processed exclusively on EU servers, supporting GDPR compliance. The domain is protected against unauthorized transfers. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of publicly available incident response or vulnerability disclosure contacts are gaps. No known vulnerabilities or security misconfigurations were found. The site does not expose sensitive data and uses secure forms for user registration and login. Overall, the security maturity is high but could be improved with additional transparency and DNS security.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish explicit incident response and security contact information to improve vulnerability handling.
  3. Add a security.txt file to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  4. Consider listing certifications or compliance attestations to strengthen trust.
  5. Maintain transparency on data processing and continue community engagement to reinforce privacy leadership.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Plausible Analytics
Description
Plausible is a lightweight and open-source Google Analytics alternative. Your website data is 100% yours and the privacy of your visitors is respected.
Key services
privacy-friendly web analytics, real-time dashboard, goal and revenue tracking, campaign and SEO performance tracking, team collaboration and sharing, open source analytics platform
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, Alpine.js, Jekyll, HTML5, CSS3
Frameworks
Jekyll
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No cookies used for tracking
  • No personal data collected
  • No cross-site or cross-device tracking
  • Data processed exclusively on EU servers
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Plausible Analytics (self-hosted, open source)
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
excellent

Advertising

Tracking pixels
plausible.io/js/pa-6_srOGVV9SLMWJ1ZpUAbG.js
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges
  2. Strong focus on privacy and GDPR compliance
  3. Open source analytics platform with transparent business model
  4. Clear and comprehensive documentation and community resources
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected
  6. Modern, fast, and mobile-optimized website design
  7. No direct company emails or phone numbers publicly listed, contact via form
  8. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure contacts found
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern static site generator (Jekyll) combined with Alpine.js for frontend interactivity, resulting in fast load times and excellent mobile optimization. Hosting on bunny.net CDN ensures global performance and reliability. The tech stack is lightweight and privacy-respecting, avoiding heavy scripts and cookies. SEO and accessibility are well implemented with proper meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). No technical debt or deprecated technologies were detected. The site supports smooth user experience with clear navigation and comprehensive content. Opportunities include enabling DNSSEC and expanding security headers for enhanced protection.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 68/100Medium27 findingsView report
  2. 68/100Medium27 findingsView report
  3. 68/100Medium24 findingsView report
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