Originally Posted by cerulean

I haven't used the Matomo plugin directly in WordPress, but I hear good things. I like the external install, because you don't need to fit a whole application inside WordPress, and you can add multiple sites to it, including other WordPress installs. I use a tiny little header & footer plugin (that is relatively inert and has been around for ages) to add the tracking script and the fallback tracking image. I have had zero issues with Matomo across multiple WP sites.



To clarify, I'm not saying that always adding plugins will cause you performance issues. I myself have maybe 4-5 plugins that I always install in WordPress because they greatly augment the experience and they are very performant.

My experience, however, is that adding plugins to solve problems generally complicates things and can lead to performance issues if it's relied on too much. You have to be very particular about what you add to your install. It all comes down to the developers backing those plugins.

If you can simply add a script to the header and utilize an existing platform, that is generally better (in my opinion) than adding a plugin that might slow your site down and require additional attention. That is not always the case, but it has been my experience.