Simple Analytics
EU-hosted, no-cookies analytics. Even simpler than Plausible, pageviews and referrers only.
VISIT SIMPLE ANALYTICSKey takeaway: Choose Simple Analytics when the honest requirement is a pageview count and a list of referrers, and every extra chart is noise nobody will open. It is the most stripped-back of the EU-hosted privacy trio. If there is any chance you will want funnels or product signal later, start with Plausible instead and save yourself a migration.
Quick facts
- CategoryPrivacy-first web
- PricingPaid
- Starts at$19/mo
- LicenseProprietary
- Created2018
- GitHub starsclosed
- Script size~3KB
- CookielessYes
- Self-hostNo
What it is
Simple Analytics is the most minimalist of the privacy-first three. EU-hosted (Netherlands), cookieless, no funnels, no cohorts, no events by default. The pitch: pageviews and referrers, that is enough. 3KB script. Sister product to Plausible philosophically; slightly less feature-rich.
Best for
- Teams who explicitly want less dashboard, not more
- EU-jurisdiction sites where the Dutch hosting story matters
- Anyone who finds even Plausible too feature-y
When not to pick it
Skip Simple if you need events, funnels, or any product-analytics signal. It is intentionally limited.
My take
Simple Analytics is for teams who treat analytics as a chore and want the lightest possible solution. Plausible is the better default for most; Simple is the right pick if even Plausible feels overengineered.
Feature poverty as the actual product
Most analytics tools compete by adding. Simple Analytics competes by refusing. No funnels, no cohorts, no retention curves, and events sit off to the side rather than at the centre of the product. What you get is pageviews, referrers, top pages, and countries, on one screen, loading fast. That reads as a weakness and for plenty of teams it is exactly right: the honest usage pattern for a small marketing site is a glance once a week to see whether anything moved, and every additional module is another thing to ignore. The failure mode is equally predictable. Six months in, someone asks which landing page converts, the tool has no real answer, and you are migrating with nothing useful to bring with you. Be honest about which of those two teams you are before you pick this one.
Dutch hosting and the compliance paragraph
The data is processed in the Netherlands, no cookies are set, and no personal identifiers are stored, which makes the privacy-policy section short and the legal review shorter. For EU organisations that have to name their processors and their jurisdictions in a public document, that is worth real money in avoided argument. It is cloud-only and closed source, so there is no self-host route and no code to audit. You are trusting the vendor's word and their published documentation. Pirsch is the comparable German-hosted option and adds server-side tracking, which Plausible does not do. Plausible is EU-hosted too, has the AGPL escape hatch, and leaves more room to grow into custom events and goals. Simple Analytics wins this group on exactly one axis: being the least tool in the room.
Frequently asked questions
Does Simple Analytics track events?
Event tracking exists, but it is not what the product is built around, and there are no funnels, cohorts, or retention reports to attach events to. If you need to measure signups, funnel steps, or feature usage properly, this is the wrong tool. Plausible handles lightweight goals, and PostHog handles real product analytics with funnels, retention, and session replay.
Simple Analytics or Plausible?
Plausible for almost everyone. It is equally cookieless and EU-hosted, has a larger ecosystem, an open-source self-host option, and room to add goals and custom events later. Choose Simple Analytics only if you have looked at Plausible's dashboard and genuinely concluded it already shows more than you ever want to see.
Is Simple Analytics cookieless?
Yes. No cookies are set and no personal identifiers are stored, and processing happens in the Netherlands. On its own it does not trigger a consent requirement in most EU legal reviews. Other scripts on the page, including ad pixels, embedded video, and chat widgets, are a separate question and may still put a banner in front of your visitors.
Links
Similar tools you should also consider
If Simple Analytics is your pick, the next conversation is short
The 30-min call is where your analytics choice becomes a real implementation, an event-tracking plan that fits your product, and a privacy story that does not need a 4-screen cookie banner.