How Plausible Analytics Grew to $300k+ MRR on the Back of Hacker News

PLUS: Sora 2 Just Killed Influencers

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Startup Spells 🪄
October 03, 2025

How Plausible Analytics Grew to $300k+ MRR on the Back of Hacker News

It hit #1 and changed everything.

Plausible Analytics on HN

The results from one post:

  • 48,000 visitors in one week (more than the previous 15 months combined)

  • 166 new trials

  • $400 added to monthly revenue (40% jump)

  • Brand searches jumped from 10 to 121 per week

No ads. No tricks. Just one strong essay and a smart plan for sharing it in the right communities.

Plausible Analytics - Remove Google Analytics

The Art of Picking a Fight With a Giant

Plausible didn't talk about features first. They challenged Google Analytics directly. Their best posts had titles that made readers pick a side.

The smart part: They waited 2,500 words before mentioning their product. They listed alternatives, showed evidence, and built trust. By the time they said "We also offer an alternative," readers felt informed, not sold to.

This approach dodged the self-promotion that Hacker News hates.

Ride Real-World Events (Newsjacking on Data Regulation)

Plausible's timing was perfect.

As they published, European authorities started ruling that Google Analytics violated GDPR. Between 2022-2023, Austria, France, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all said it didn't comply.

Each new ruling gave them a reason to reshare their content. One spike became a repeating wave. Read their summary: "Is Google Analytics Illegal?"

“David vs Goliath” positioning simplified the narrative

Plausible called itself the "Google Analytics alternative." Simple. Clear. It matched what people actually searched for.

This David vs. Goliath frame made comparisons easy. No cognitive load. Just one clear choice.

Expose Hidden Problems of Google Analytics

Their post "58% of Hacker News, Reddit and tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics" revealed something powerful: Google Analytics can't see half of tech-savvy visitors because of ad blockers.

This turned a privacy argument into a data-quality problem. Engineers love finding measurement gaps. You're not just different, you're showing competitors miss critical data.

Distribute Like Precision Surgery

Plausible went where their audience actually spent time:

Top performers:

They treated distribution like product work. They joined conversations, responded to feedback, and never spammed.

They became community members first, not just marketers.

Product Hunt delivered 2,399 visitors and 33 trials. Good spike, bad strategy. Community platforms win long-term.

Respect Platform Rules

On Hacker News, Plausible learned the mechanics: resubmit if earlier posts didn't work, post Sunday mornings UTC for less competition, use informative titles (mods rewrite hyped clickbaity titles).

Hacker News timing data is mixed, but multiple analyses suggest lighter-traffic windows (e.g., Sunday mornings UTC) can improve front-page odds; others argue for weekday US mornings for maximum outcome. Either way: optimize for low-competition or high-demand depending on your goal.

Plausible Analytics - Hacker News Traffic Source

The result of Plausible's HN strategy made it their #1 traffic source for a long time. Currently, it sits just behind Google.

The Meta-Loop: A Blog Post that Manufactures More Blog Posts

The viral post created more content. Plausible published follow-ups like "How one blog post changed the traction for my startup" and "How we grew from $400 to $2,750 MRR in 135 days without ads".

They shared public dashboards for credibility. This got them cited everywhere. They wrote a Product Hunt debrief, a marketing breakdown, and a $1M ARR story.

Each post linked back, keeping the story alive.

The Repeatable Pattern

Plausible's winning formula: Find big structural problems (regulations, performance, measurement accuracy), then show your product on the right side.

Regulatory problems positioned them as the legal-safe path. Performance issues highlighted their lightweight script for faster websites. Measurement problems exposed how dashboards can mislead.

Multiple posts hit HN front page. Each brought new sign-ups.

Turning a Viral Spike Into Consistent Growth

They kept publishing one quality piece every 1-2 weeks.

Product Hunt spikes faded fast.

Community-driven traffic compounds.

Free Compounding from SEO and Hacker News

One viral HN post led to features in Hacker Newsletter, influencer shares, and a Google Discover boost.

Organic search improved. Branded queries multiplied 10x in a week.

Each spike left backlinks and recognition. They published everything openly.

The outcome: 12,000+ paying subscribers by early 2024. $3.1M revenue in 2024.

Plausible’s success offers a clear blueprint for organic growth: take a bold stance, embed yourself in the right communities, and let each piece of content build on the last.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Create as many pretty girl UGC videos as you can. Sora 2 is free right now only on iOS, in US and Canada.

2/

This guy founded Clearbit. So this is how it is right now for Software Engineers.

There are 2 types of Software Engineers right now:

  1. Those who are exploiting this to gain 10x-1000x productivity

  2. Those who are worried about their future

Be the former.

Because soon AI will come for every field.

Now that is not a prediction. That is a spoiler.

3/

Such videos are go extremely viral. You can also do rage-bait or fight videos.

You can literally flip TikTok accounts or Instagram accounts for 100k-1 million followers every 30 days.

Or you can later change the niche to something else and promote it.

I used to use a X extension called Twemex which showed me the past tweets from a particular account. Thankfully that extension tracked username change too so I could see which person bought an older account with lots of followers or changed their niche.

One of the biggest accounts was in NFT niche known as NFT God or something. That account on X has been changed now to Alex Finn successfully. And the reach has stayed the same. So you don't lose followers. Sometimes it works in your favor.

Another example is Jack Butcher on X who went from Design and Philosophy niche to Crypto and NFT niche.

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