Google Analytics alternatives without a cookie banner (2026): 8 options, with prices

What is the best Google Analytics alternative without a cookie banner?

For most sites the best cookieless alternatives to Google Analytics are Plausible or Fathom (simple and trusted), Umami or Simple Analytics (free options), Matomo (closest to GA in depth) and PageLens Analytics (funnels, revenue by source and AI traffic from $5 a month). They count visitors without storing anything on the device, so analytics alone is no longer a reason for a consent banner in the EU and UK.

Disclosure: we make PageLens Analytics, which is on this list. Google Analytics is still the right tool for some sites, and we say which ones below. Prices are each vendor's cheapest plan as listed in October 2026 (Plausible checked on 23 October, the others on 15 October); check before you buy.

Why Google Analytics usually needs a banner

Google Analytics 4 sets cookies (_ga) to recognise visitors, and data goes to Google. Under the EU ePrivacy rules and the GDPR, and the UK's equivalent, that needs consent first, which is why most European sites show a banner and run GA4 with Consent Mode. Everyone who clicks Reject is then missing from your reports or only modelled. A cookieless tool avoids both problems: no banner for analytics, and every visitor counted. (Other tools on your site, like ad pixels or chat widgets, may still need consent. More in do you need a cookie banner for analytics? Not legal advice.)

Quick comparison

The options

Plausible. The best-known cookieless tool: a clean one-page dashboard, goals, open source, made and hosted in the EU. Funnels, revenue and the API come with the $19 Business plan. Pick it if you want the safest, simplest switch.

Fathom. Polished and very simple, with 100,000 pageviews and 50 sites on the base plan. Pick it for agencies or many small sites.

Simple Analytics. Dutch and privacy-first, with a free plan that keeps 30 days of history. Pick it for a free start.

Umami. Open source and easy to self-host; the cloud free tier covers a side project. Pick it if you're happy to run it yourself.

Pirsch. German, inexpensive, 50 sites on the smallest plan, with a server-side tracking option. Pick it on a budget.

Matomo. The closest to Google Analytics: ecommerce, heatmaps, many plugins and an importer for GA data. It uses cookies by default, so you have to switch it to cookieless mode. Pick it if you need GA-level depth and own your data.

Cloudflare Web Analytics. Free and cookieless, with pageviews, referrers and Core Web Vitals, but no goals or events. Pick it for a free basic view.

PageLens Analytics. Cookieless analytics with funnels, journeys, revenue by source (Stripe, Paddle), JavaScript errors and Web Vitals, with session replay on the Business plan. It also shows what GA4 can't: which pages AI crawlers like GPTBot read, which ones ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity open while answering someone, and the visits and revenue AI assistants send. Pick it if you want to know which sources bring paying customers, AI included. It's newer and hosted only.

What you give up by leaving Google Analytics

• Google Ads integration: audiences, conversion import and bidding signals. If you spend a lot on Google Ads, keep GA4 (with consent) for that, and use a cookieless tool for honest traffic numbers.
• Depth: GA4 has explorations, BigQuery export and cohorts at a scale small tools don't match. Most small sites never use them.
• Price: GA4 is free. The cookieless tools cost a few dollars a month, or are free with limits.
• History: your GA data stays in GA. Matomo can import it; with most others you start fresh, so run both side by side for a month before you switch.

How to switch

1. Add the new tool's script next to GA4 and run both for two to four weeks to compare.
2. Recreate the goals and funnels you actually look at, usually a handful.
3. Remove GA4, then check whether your banner is still needed for anything else on the site.

Comparisons in detail: PageLens vs Google Analytics, vs Plausible, vs Fathom, vs Matomo. More lists: best cookieless analytics tools, Plausible alternatives.