Alternatives to Google Analytics

Web analytics tools from Estonia, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands under a European legal framework. Plausible, Simple Analytics and etracker operate cookie-free by default; Piwik PRO is GDPR compliant with integrated consent management. Compare privacy architectures, measurement accuracy and pricing for teams migrating from Google Analytics.

4 alternatives
Cookieless analytics
Updated 2026

Plausible

Cookie-free, open source, EU

In detail

Google Analytics compared to European web analytics tools

Google Analytics is a service of Alphabet Inc. (Google LLC), a US company. The Austrian data protection authority ruled in January 2022 that the use of Google Analytics violates the GDPR, since data is transferred to US servers and therefore falls under the CLOUD Act. Subsequently, the German and French data protection authorities (BfDI and CNIL) reached comparable findings. European website operators bear the liability risk for GDPR-compliant usage.

Google Analytics (GA4) collects user data such as IP addresses, device information, location data, on-page behavior and cross-session identifiers. The collected data feeds into Google's cross-service user profiles and is used for personalised advertising across other Google services. European alternatives such as Plausible and Simple Analytics collect no personal data and process only aggregated metrics.

GA4 requires a cookie banner, since tracking cookies may not be set without consent under the ePrivacy Directive. Cookie-free alternatives such as Plausible, etracker and Simple Analytics operate without a consent banner, as they do not use personal data or cross-site tracking cookies. This significantly simplifies the legal and technical burden for website operators.

Plausible is fully open source and self-hostable, Piwik PRO specialises in regulated industries and is HIPAA-ready, etracker has been developed in Hamburg since 2000 and is TÜV-certified. Simple Analytics (Netherlands) is a small independent company with no venture capital funding. None of these providers has a business model based on analysing user data for advertising.

Quick Compare

Provider	Country	Open Source	Cookie-free	Price (From)
Plausible	Estonia	Yes	Yes	Starter from $9/month (10k page views) · Growth from $14/month · Business from $19/month · Self-hosted free
Piwik PRO	Poland	No	Yes^*	Business from €35/mo · Enterprise on request (free Core plan discontinued Feb. 2026)
Simple Analytics	Netherlands	No	Yes	Free (30-day retention) · Simple from €15/mo · Team from €40/mo
etracker	Germany	No	Yes	Basic from €10.80/mo · Pro from €22.80/mo · Enterprise from €58.80/mo (30-day free trial)

* Piwik PRO: Cookie-free mode available (3 tracking tiers, cookie-free without consent requirement)

European alternatives

4 alternatives in detail

Plausible

Estonia

Lightweight, GDPR-compliant web analytics without cookies

Script only 1 KB, no performance impact
No cookie banner required
Open source and self-hostable

Open Source

Starter from $9/month (10k page views) · Growth from $14/month · Business from $19/month · Self-hosted free

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Piwik PRO

Poland

Analytics suite focused on data protection and compliance

Analytics, tag manager and consent manager in one
Three tracking modes: with cookies, session hash without cookies, fully cookie- and session-free
Cookie-free modes without consent requirement, no device fingerprinting

Business from €35/mo · Enterprise on request (free Core plan discontinued Feb. 2026)

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Simple Analytics

Netherlands

Privacy-oriented website statistics without personal data

Cookie-free, no banner required
Simplest dashboard in the industry
Public dashboards for transparency

Free (30-day retention) · Simple from €15/mo · Team from €40/mo

Visit Website → View details →

etracker

Germany

Cookie-free web analytics from Germany

Cookie-free tracking
GDPR-compliant, usable without consent (opt-out)
Conversion tracking and heatmaps

Basic from €10.80/mo · Pro from €22.80/mo · Enterprise from €58.80/mo (30-day free trial)

Visit Website → View details →

Frequently asked questions

Is the use of Google Analytics in the EU still legal?

Following the decisions of the Austrian (2022), German and French data protection authorities, the use of Google Analytics in its standard configuration is incompatible with the GDPR, as data is transferred to US servers subject to the CLOUD Act. European alternatives such as Plausible, Piwik PRO, Simple Analytics and etracker do not collect data that falls under these provisions.

Which alternatives do not require a cookie banner?

Plausible, Simple Analytics and etracker are cookie-free and generally do not require a consent banner, as no personal data is collected. Piwik PRO has an integrated consent management system that handles banners as needed.

Are the alternatives suitable for businesses?

Piwik PRO is specifically targeted at regulated industries (healthcare, finance, public sector) and is HIPAA-compliant, and offers on-premises hosting for full data sovereignty. etracker is TÜV-certified in Germany and is used by medium-sized and large enterprises. Plausible is particularly well suited for SMEs and content publishers.

How accurate are cookie-free analytics tools?

Cookie-free tools such as Plausible and etracker use fingerprinting-free methods and count page views and unique visitors based on technical characteristics without personal data. Measurements differ slightly from GA4 but are sufficient for operational decisions. Piwik PRO offers higher accuracy with consent-based tracking, at a slightly higher setup effort.

Can I export my Google Analytics data?

GA4 offers export to BigQuery and CSV. When switching to Plausible, Piwik PRO or other tools, data collection starts fresh; historical GA data cannot be directly imported. For most use cases it is sufficient to run both systems in parallel for a transition period.

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