Switch from Matomo for WordPress

How it works

There's no Matomo importer. Vireo counts from the day you install it.

Cost

Free. Vireo Analytics is free on WordPress.org.

What carries over

• Your Google Analytics 4 history, if the site also ran GA4, through the Google Analytics importer
• Google searches from the last 90 days, once you connect Search Console

What doesn't

• Matomo's history: visits, pages, referrers, countries, devices, events, goals and ecommerce. They stay in Matomo's tables.
• The visitor log and visitor profiles. Vireo keeps daily totals and nothing about a single visitor.
• Matomo's segments, dashboards and settings

What you get with Vireo

• Visits counted on your own server and stored in your WordPress database, with no cookies on visitors' devices
• The Google searches behind each post, from Search Console, on that post's stats screen
• What AI crawlers take from your site, next to the readers AI assistants send back
• Bots kept out of the numbers and listed by category, so you can see what was filtered

What you give up

• Your Matomo history in the same charts as your new numbers
• The visitor log, visitor profiles, segments and real-time reports. Vireo Pro has a live view of the last 30 minutes.
• Ecommerce reports and Tag Manager, which Matomo for WordPress includes for free. Vireo Pro has revenue for WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, FluentCart, Freemius, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content, MemberPress, LifterLMS, GiveWP and SureCart, and Vireo has no tag manager.
• Heatmaps, session recordings and form analytics, if you bought them from Matomo. Vireo has none of them.

What you need

• A plan for your Matomo data before you uninstall Matomo, because uninstalling deletes it unless you change that first
• For GA4 history or searches: the access listed in the Google Analytics guide, or Restricted access in Search Console

Steps

1. Install Vireo Analytics from WordPress.org on the same site. It starts counting from that day. Matomo can keep running alongside it while you compare the two.
2. Decide what happens to Matomo's history. You can keep it in WordPress, export the reports you want, or move it to Matomo On-Premise or Matomo Cloud with Matomo's migration guides.
3. To keep the data in WordPress, open Matomo, Settings, Advanced and set it to keep its data on uninstall.
4. If the site ran GA4, import that history. In WordPress, go to Vireo Analytics, then Settings, then the Import & export tab. Choose Google Analytics and follow the Google Analytics guide.
5. To bring in searches, open the Search Console & API tab in Vireo's settings, give a service account Restricted access in Search Console, paste its key and the property exactly as Search Console lists it, and save. Then click "Fetch the last 90 days".
6. Deactivate Matomo for WordPress. Its tracking stops, and its tables stay in your database until you uninstall it.

Before you start

• Matomo for WordPress deletes all its tracked data, reports and settings when you uninstall it, unless you changed that under Matomo, Settings, Advanced. Sort out the history first.
• Matomo On-Premise and Matomo Cloud keep their data on Matomo's server, connected to WordPress through the Connect Matomo plugin. There's no importer for them either, and removing Connect Matomo leaves that server's data alone.
• Expect the two tools' visitor numbers to differ. Matomo recognises returning visitors with a cookie unless Disable cookies is ticked, and Vireo counts each visitor once per day.

Still deciding? Vireo vs Matomo compares the two feature by feature, with prices and where Matomo is ahead.

Matomo for WordPress is a trademark of its owner. This guide describes Vireo as of October 2026. Matomo for WordPress.