Best cookieless analytics tools in 2026: 9 options compared, with prices
Cookieless analytics counts visitors without storing anything on their device, so analytics alone is no longer a reason for a consent banner, and you also count the people who would click Reject. There are now plenty of good options. Here's an honest comparison.
Disclosure: we make PageLens Analytics, which is on this list. We've tried to describe every tool fairly, including where others are the better pick. Prices are the cheapest monthly plan as listed on each vendor's site on 15 October 2026, and they change, so check before you buy.
Quick comparison
| Tool | From | Included | Free option | Hosting | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | $9/mo | 10k pageviews | 30-day trial | EU | Yes |
| Fathom | $15/mo | 100k pageviews, 50 sites | 7-day trial (card) | Own infrastructure, EU isolation available | No |
| Simple Analytics | $20/mo | Tiered by pageviews | Free plan, 30 days history | EU | No |
| Umami Cloud | $20/mo | 1M events, 20 sites | Free 100k events, 1 site | Cloud or self-host | Yes |
| Pirsch | $6/mo | 10k pageviews, 50 sites | 30-day trial | Germany | Partly |
| Matomo Cloud | €29/mo | 50k hits | Trial; self-host free | EU | Yes |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | Free | Pageviews, Web Vitals | Free | Cloudflare | No |
| PostHog | Free tier | Large free event quota | Free tier | US or EU | Yes |
| PageLens Analytics | $5/mo | 20k events, 3 sites | 7-day trial, no card | EU (Amsterdam) | No |
Plausible
The best-known privacy-friendly analytics, and a safe default. Clean one-page dashboard, goals, funnels on higher plans, open source with a self-hosted community edition, made and hosted in the EU. Best for: anyone who wants a simple, trusted Google Analytics replacement and likes supporting open source.
Fathom
Polished, fast and very simple, with a generous 100k pageviews and 50 sites on the base plan. Best for: agencies and people with many small sites who want zero configuration.
Simple Analytics
Dutch, privacy-first, with a free plan that keeps 30 days of history. Paid plans add full history and more. Best for: small sites that want a free start with an EU company.
Umami
Open source and easy to self-host on a small server for free. The cloud free tier (100k events, one site) is enough for a side project. Best for: developers who are happy to host it themselves, or who want a free cloud tier.
Pirsch
German, inexpensive, server-side tracking option, 50 sites even on the smallest plan. Best for: budget-conscious users who want EU hosting and many sites.
Matomo
The most complete open-source platform, closest to Google Analytics in depth: ecommerce, heatmaps and many plugins. Note it uses cookies by default, so you have to configure it to run cookieless. Best for: organisations that need GA-level depth and full data ownership, especially self-hosted.
Cloudflare Web Analytics
Free and cookieless, with pageviews, referrers and Core Web Vitals. No goals, funnels or custom events. Best for: a free basic traffic view if you're already on Cloudflare.
PostHog
A product analytics suite (events, session replay, feature flags, experiments) with a large free tier. It uses cookies by default, and has a cookieless mode you can switch on. Best for: product teams who want product analytics more than a marketing dashboard.
PageLens Analytics
Cookieless web analytics with funnels, session replay, errors, Core Web Vitals and revenue by source (Stripe, Paddle). What's different: it reads the server side too, so it shows which AI crawlers read your pages, which pages ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity open to answer people, and the visitors and revenue AI sends. Best for: small SaaS and online stores that want to know where paying customers come from, AI included. It's newer and closed source; if you need self-hosting, pick Plausible, Umami or Matomo.
How to choose
- Simplest trusted option: Plausible or Fathom.
- Free: Cloudflare Web Analytics, Simple Analytics free, Umami Cloud free or self-hosted.
- Self-hosted: Umami, Plausible community edition or Matomo.
- Product analytics: PostHog.
- Revenue by source and AI traffic: PageLens Analytics.
Whatever you pick, read how it counts visitors. All cookieless tools trade something away, usually recognising the same person across days; here's how that works and what it costs you.