Highlight.io vs Plausible for Solo Developers

Quick Comparison

Highlight.io Overview

Highlight.io is an open-source, full-stack monitoring platform. It bundles error tracking, session replay, log management, and distributed tracing into a single product. When your application throws an error in production, Highlight.io captures the full stack trace, shows you the session replay of what the user was doing, and links to the relevant backend logs. Everything is correlated in one timeline.

For solo developers, the value is immediate. You deploy your application, and Highlight.io becomes your safety net. Frontend crashes, backend exceptions, slow API calls, and unexpected user flows all surface in one dashboard. The session replay is particularly useful when users report issues you cannot reproduce. Instead of asking for screenshots and steps to reproduce, you just watch the recording.

The free tier is generous: 500 sessions, 1 million log lines, and 1 million error events per month. The open-source nature means you can self-host if data privacy is a concern or if you outgrow the free tier. Setup takes about 10 minutes with their SDK for most popular frameworks.

Plausible Overview

Plausible is a lightweight, privacy-first web analytics tool. It replaces Google Analytics with a single, clean dashboard that shows your visitors, pageviews, referral sources, top pages, geographic distribution, and device breakdowns. The tracking script is under 1 KB, requires no cookies, and is GDPR-compliant out of the box.

I have Plausible on several of my sites, and the simplicity is genuinely refreshing. I open the dashboard, see the numbers, and know exactly how my content is performing. No consent banners, no complex report configuration, no learning curve. The data is there in plain view.

For solo developers, Plausible answers the marketing and growth questions. Which blog posts drive traffic? Where do visitors come from? Is that social media post generating clicks? How has traffic trended this month? These are not technical debugging questions. They are business questions that directly inform where you spend your time.

Pricing starts at $9 per month for 10,000 pageviews. The open-source version can be self-hosted for free.

When to Pick Highlight.io

Highlight.io is the right choice when you need to find and fix bugs in your production application.

Pick Highlight.io if:

• You need error tracking and want to know when your app breaks
• Session replay would help you debug user-reported issues
• You want backend log aggregation alongside frontend monitoring
• You are building a web application with meaningful interaction complexity
• You need to understand the technical health of your product
• Correlating frontend issues with backend behavior matters to you

Highlight.io answers: "What is breaking in my application, and what was the user doing when it broke?"

When to Pick Plausible

Plausible is the right choice when you need to understand how people find and engage with your website.

Pick Plausible if:

• You want simple, privacy-friendly traffic analytics
• You need to track which pages and content perform best
• You care about referral sources and SEO performance
• You run a blog, landing page, or content-driven site
• You want analytics without the weight of Google Analytics
• GDPR and CCPA compliance without cookie banners is important

Plausible answers: "How many people are visiting my site, where do they come from, and what content do they engage with?"

The Verdict

Highlight.io and Plausible are not competitors at all. They exist in entirely separate categories. Highlight.io is application monitoring: it watches your code run and catches problems. Plausible is web analytics: it watches your traffic patterns and content performance. Using one as a substitute for the other would leave a massive blind spot.

The good news for solo developers is that both are affordable and quick to set up. My recommendation is to run both. Plausible on your public-facing pages for traffic analytics at $9 per month. Highlight.io on your web application for error tracking and session replay on the free tier. Total cost: $9 per month for complete visibility into both your traffic and your application health.

If budget forces you to pick one, ask yourself which question matters more right now. "Are people finding my site?" points to Plausible. "Is my app working correctly for the people who do find it?" points to Highlight.io. For most solo developers early in their journey, Plausible comes first because you need traffic before you need production debugging. Once you have users, add Highlight.io to make sure their experience is solid.