Compare
Fifteen tools people actually put next to us.
Some do the same job. Some do a different job that search lumps in. We say which is which. Cookie Free Analytics is a 1 KB cookieless counter in Frankfurt — not a PostHog, not a Hotjar, not a free GA with a paint job.
Same job, 100k pageviews
| Cookie Free Analytics | Plausible | Simple Analytics | Fathom | GA4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookies | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Unique visitor | HMAC + pepper, salt deleted daily | Daily salt hash | Landings, no id | Cookieless unique | Client ID |
| 100k / mo | €9 | €18* | €20 | from $15 | Free† |
| Hosted | Frankfurt + Ireland | EU | EU | US + EU isolation | |
| Free plan | Full + badge | Trial | Limited history | Trial | Yes, with cookies |
Same job
Cookieless pageviews. Different invoice, licence, or country.
vs Plausible
less for the same count.
No cookies, just insights. Made and hosted in the EU. Both products skip cookies. Cookie Free Analytics starts at €4 instead of $9, does not meter events, and publishes the volume curve. Plausible can add “European-owned infrastructure”; we host in EU regions — the split is on /europe.
vs Simple Analytics
A lower paid curve.
Simple Analytics proved you can sell privacy without a 40-column grid. We kept the hobby badge, started paid at €4, and put 100k views at €9 instead of €19–29.
vs Fathom
We are the cheaper count.
Fathom is what a lot of agencies actually buy: a calm dashboard, many sites on one bill, a script that does not need a banner. Cookie Free Analytics does that job at a lower pageview price. Beacons hit Frankfurt; pageviews sit in Ireland.
vs Cloudflare
Different ‘visitors’.
If the site is already on Cloudflare, turn their Web Analytics on. It is cookieless and $0. Cookie Free Analytics is for when you need a visitor that means a person-for-a-day, bounce, campaigns, and goals — and a vendor that is not also terminating TLS.
vs Umami
Us if you want Frankfurt.
Umami is a clean, cookieless, open-source analytics app you can docker-compose on a Friday. Cookie Free Analytics is for people who wanted that dashboard and did not want the box.
vs GoatCounter
That is a compliment.
GoatCounter is the rare analytics tool that is allowed to stay small. Free for non-commercial use, open source, EU, a page you can read. Cookie Free Analytics is what you buy when you want goals, a team login, and a company on the invoice.
vs Pirsch
So do we, for less.
Pirsch is cookieless, made in Germany, API-first, and priced from a low entry tier. Cookie Free Analytics is the same job with a published power-law and no event tax.
vs Swetrix
We compete on the invoice.
Swetrix is in the same neighbourhood: privacy-minded, EU, a script that is not GA. Cookie Free Analytics is narrower — pageviews, sources, goals — and publishes the price curve.
The big suites
GA, Matomo, Adobe. Keep them when you need that depth. Not for a banner-free count.
vs Google Analytics
not.
Google Analytics is a free ads product that happens to draw charts. Cookie Free Analytics is a 1 KB pageview counter that does not need a cookie, a consent popup, or a tag manager.
vs Matomo
We replace the count.
Matomo (once Piwik) is what you install when the brief says “Google Analytics, but we own it”. Cookie Free Analytics is what you install when the brief says “pageviews, no banner, no farm of plugins”.
vs Adobe Analytics
We are a script.
Adobe Analytics sits next to Launch, Target, and a statement of work. Cookie Free Analytics sits in a footer. Comparing them is only useful so procurement does not ask us to be Omniture.
Product analytics
PostHog and Mixpanel watch users in an app. We watch pages on a site.
vs PostHog
We count pages.
People search “PostHog alternative” when the bill arrived or the toolbar scared the lawyer. Cookie Free Analytics is not a smaller PostHog. It is a different tool.
vs Mixpanel
We are for pages on a site.
Mixpanel invented a generation of “track this click”. It is good at that. It is a poor blog counter and a poor fit for a site that should not set a cookie.
Replay and UX
Clarity and Hotjar film people. We will not.
vs Clarity
That is the whole product.
Microsoft Clarity gives you heatmaps and session recordings at $0. It is popular because it is free and because watching a cursor feels like insight. Cookie Free Analytics will not record anyone.
vs Hotjar
We refuse to.
Hotjar (and similar UX suites) sell recordings, heatmaps, and surveys. They need consent in the EU because they are doing something to the person, not just counting a GET.