Pick the analytics tool that fits, even if it is not ours
We read the source and the pricing pages of eight privacy analytics products, then wrote down where each one beats us. Every comparison below names a real reason to choose the other tool.
~30% more visits recorded than consent-gated, cookie-based tools, because there is no banner to decline and the script is not blocked.
Checked at the source
How we compare, including where we lose
Eight privacy analytics products, checked at source. Where one of them beats us, the row says so.
- Free plan
- VeritaMetrics: 3 sites, 10,000 pageviews a month
- Other products: Umami Cloud gives 1 site. Fathom has no free plan.
- Script size, gzipped they win
- VeritaMetrics: ~6KB
- Other products: Plausible is smaller at 2.5KB. PostHog is 75.6KB.
- Captured without tagging
- VeritaMetrics: Clicks, forms, outbound links, downloads, scroll depth
- Other products: Umami captures none of these.
- Page speed from real visits
- VeritaMetrics: LCP, INP and CLS
- Other products: Plausible collects none. Matomo sells a plugin at 89 EUR a year.
- Rage and dead clicks
- VeritaMetrics: Both, on every plan
- Other products: Of the eight we compared, only PostHog has both.
- Events that fail to send
- VeritaMetrics: Saved on the device and re-sent on the next page load
- Other products: PostHog retries in memory, so a closed tab loses them.
Competitor figures checked 3 August 2026. Products move, so see the full comparison for the current detail on each one.
What Sets VeritaMetrics Apart
Privacy by Default
Cookieless, no consent banners, and no IP address on a stored analytics row.
Learn moreComplete Data Capture
Ad blocker resilience and a no-JS pixel fallback keep more of your traffic in view.
Learn moreRanked growth fixes
Growth diagnostics that scan your analytics and surface the most impactful improvements.
Learn moreSession Reconstruction
Privacy-safe journey replay without recording screens. Debug funnels without surveillance.
Learn moreDetailed Comparisons
vs Google Analytics 4
The free, ubiquitous incumbent. Powerful and tied into Google Ads and BigQuery, but it sets cookies, needs a consent banner, and its script is roughly 145KB.
vs Plausible Analytics
A cookieless, open-source, EU-hosted favourite with a very light script. Simpler by design, so it leaves out session replay, automatic events, and AI insights.
vs Fathom Analytics
A simple, cookieless tool with EU isolation on by default and a light script. Deliberately narrow: no funnels, session replay, or automatic event capture.
vs Matomo
The mature open-source platform, free to self-host with heatmaps, A/B testing, and more. Defaults to cookies, needs consent setup, and carries a heavy script.
vs PostHog
A broad product-analytics suite with session replay, feature flags, and experiments, and a large free tier. Heavy (~73KB) and cookie-setting by default.
vs Simple Analytics
A cookieless, EU-domiciled tool with a light script and a conversational AI. No session replay, revenue tracking, or self-hosting.
vs Umami
Open-source and free to self-host, with a small script and recent session replay. Automatic capture is limited, and there are no AI insights.
vs Cloudflare Web Analytics
Free with no traffic cap, cookieless, with a no-JS edge mode and Core Web Vitals. Basic: no events, funnels, session replay, or CSV export.
At a Glance
| Feature | VeritaMetrics | GA4 | Plausible | Fathom | Matomo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookieless by default | |||||
| No consent banner needed | Usually, see /privacy | Claimed, no caveat | Claimed, with caveat | Requires configuration | |
| Script size (gzipped) | ~6KB | ~ 145 KB | ~ 2.5 KB | ~ 2 KB | ~ 47 KB |
| Ad blocker resilience | Proxy required | Custom domain (degraded) | Proxy required | ||
| Automatic event capture | Enhanced measurement (partial) | Outbound / downloads (needs goals) | Pageviews + downloads (partial) | ||
| Rage & dead click detection | |||||
| Session replay | Privacy-safe reconstruction | Paid plugin | |||
| Growth insights (AI) | Anomaly detection only | Rule-based, no AI | |||
| Funnels | Manual (Explore) | Business tier | Paid plugin (self-host) | ||
| Revenue attribution | Manual tagging | Business tier (manual) | Event values only | ||
| Open source | AGPL | Lite only | GPL core |
Also considered
Other privacy-first analytics tools worth knowing about.
Pirsch
German and cookieless, from $6/mo. Funnels and goals, no session replay. A Go-native, server-side option with a paid self-host tier.
GoatCounter
Free and open-source (EUPL), self-hostable as a single Go binary. Deliberately minimal: pageviews and referrers, no funnels or replay.
Counter.dev
Pay-what-you-want and open-source (AGPL), EU-hosted. The lightest script here at about 1.1KB, but pageviews only.
Before you choose
- How does cookieless web analytics actually work?
- A visit is counted from a one-way hash instead of a stored identifier. We cut the IP address to its first three blocks, hash it with the User-Agent, the date and a salt that rotates daily, and keep the result. Nothing is written to the visitor device, so there is no cookie to block or clear, and the hash changes every day. For visitors who block JavaScript, a 43-byte pixel records the page view on our server instead.
- Is cookieless analytics as accurate as Google Analytics?
- It is usually more complete, because the two lose data in different ways. Ad blockers and consent refusals remove visits from a cookie-based tool before it counts them, which industry estimates put at 10 to 40% of visits. A cookieless tool counting on its own servers keeps those. What it gives up is cross-day identity: we cannot tell you that the same person returned last week, because the daily hash is designed not to support that.
- Do I still need a cookie banner if I switch?
- That depends on your jurisdiction and on what else you run, and it turns on ePrivacy Article 5(3) and PECR rather than on cookies alone. Setting no cookies answers part of the question and not all of it. We set out our position, and what it depends on, on our privacy pages. It is not legal advice.
- Can I run this alongside Google Analytics?
- Yes, and most teams do. Our snippet counts independently of GA4 and Tag Manager, so nothing needs removing and your Google Ads and Search Console setup keeps working. You can run both for a period and compare the two counts before deciding anything.
See how these features work
Jump to another guide.
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