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A website owner asks what analytics costs, whether it can be tried free of charge, where visitor data is stored and whether the payment can be refunded. These decide 50 points out of a hundred.
Score shows how the company does on our comparison criteria, on a 0–100 scale. Rankings cannot be bought.
Basic metrics · 78.1
+ Completely cookie-free and requires no cookie or GDPR consent banner, which simplifies the site's legal compliance
Basic metrics: 78.1, rank 2 · ▲ 1 place
Basic metrics · 72.7
+ Cookie-free and collects no personal data, so no consent or cookie banner is needed
Basic metrics: 72.7, rank 4 · ▲ 2 places
Basic metrics · 63.0
+ The free standard tier (GA4) makes it the most widely used tool on the market, and the integrations with Google Ads and Search Console are comprehensive
Basic metrics: 63.0, rank 7 · ▲ 4 places
– Data location: The data location is not stated on the Analytics product page.
Basic metrics · 75.7
+ Cookie-free and does not require a consent banner; complies with GDPR without a consent pop-up
Basic metrics: 75.7, rank 3 · ▼ 1 place
– Refund: Refunds are not covered on the price list page or in its FAQ.
Basic metrics · 78.2
+ Open source and a free self-hosted On-Premise option give full data ownership on your own server
Basic metrics: 78.2, rank 1 · ▼ 4 places
– Monthly price: In the text of the price list page, the price of the smallest package appears without a currency symbol (29 per month), so the currency cannot be verified. Checked the price list and the cloud service terms.
Basic metrics · 70.3
+ Cloud service data is hosted in the EU (Sweden), and at Enterprise level the data centre location can be chosen
Basic metrics: 70.3, rank 6 · no change
– Refund: Refunds are not covered on the price list page or in its FAQ.
Basic metrics · 71.8
+ Privacy-friendly by default: IP addresses are anonymised, no cookies, so no consent banner is needed
Basic metrics: 71.8, rank 5 · ▼ 2 places
– Monthly price: The pricing page clicky.com/pricing returned 404, and neither the front page nor the terms of use contain a current price. The price of 9.99 dollars mentioned in the terms dates from 2018.
Weights are fixed. All companies are measured on the same scale. Read the full methodology.
| Buying motive | What is measured | Scale | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price QUESTIONHow much does the cheapest paid package cost per month? | Amount of the cheapest published monthly price in the currency shown on the page, before VAT. | 0 = 100 points, 40 or more = 0, in between directly proportional. | 22 p |
| Free trial or tier QUESTIONCan I try the service for free before paying? | Whether there is a permanently free tier, a trial without a payment card or a trial with a card. | Permanent free use = 100, trial without a card = 60, trial with a card = 25, no trial = 0. | 10 p |
| Data location QUESTIONWhere is visitor data stored? | The service's own statement of where data is stored. | All data in the EU = 100, only EU visitors' personal data in the EU and the rest in the USA = 50. | 10 p |
| Refund QUESTIONCan I get my payment back if the service doesn't suit me? | What the service's own terms say about refunding payments made. | Return according to terms = 100, discretionary return on request = 40, no returns = 0. | 8 p |
| Basic metrics | Digital quality, transparency, reachability and AI quality score | Basic metrics × 0.5 | 50 p |
We scored 7 website visitor tracking, i.e. web analytics, tools on 20 metrics: technical quality, transparency, reachability and AI quality. The most important question after cookie consent: is the monthly price or free tier publicly visible, where is your data located (EU or US), and can you track visitors without cookies?
Web analytics software tells you how many visitors come to your site, where they come from and what they do. The tools differ in three decisive ways: what they cost, where they store data and whether they need cookie consent. We scored the market's best-known tools with a transparent formula in which every point can be traced to the service's own page.
Monthly price or free tier publicly shown without making contact (25), free version, self-hosted tier or trial and its limits stated (15), data location (EU or USA) clearly stated (20), tracking that works without cookies or without a consent banner stated (15), data ownership and export stated (10), contract period and cancellation stated (5), owning company stated on the site (10)
Transparency is 30% of the basic metrics, i.e. 15% of the total points · these metrics make up its 100 points · the full formula and the other pillars
How to read the comparison correctly: Half of the points come from buyer's questions, i.e. things the buyer finds out before deciding. The other half measures how openly the company publishes its prices, terms and contact details. Clear differences in points indicate a genuine difference: one tells you the price immediately, another only after logging in. Close scores should not be read as a ranking order, because every measurement has a margin of variation. The measurement accuracy and the full calculation formula are open in the methodology.
Customer experience is brought into the assessment separately. We also collect customer feedback and customer experiences about companies through separate surveys. The survey results will be added to the overall assessment later.
Data location is the most important question in this comparison. Google Analytics transfers data to the United States, and EU data protection authorities (Austria, France, Italy) have in several decisions in 2022-2026 considered this problematic. European tools such as Plausible (Estonia), Simple Analytics (Netherlands), Piwik PRO (Sweden) and Matomo Cloud (Germany) keep the data in the EU. We measure whether the service states the data location clearly before you add it to your website.
Cookieless tracking removes the consent banner. Some of the tools (Plausible, Fathom, Simple Analytics, Clicky) track visitors without cookies and therefore require neither a cookie nor a GDPR consent banner, whereas Google Analytics uses cookies and requires consent. Cookie-free operation simplifies the site's legal compliance and improves data coverage, because visitors who reject the banner would otherwise go unmeasured.
Why are there seven tools on the list? The best-known web analytics tools on the market with owners independent of one another were included: all seven are different companies. The free Google Analytics is included as a reference point for price and data location. All are global digital services, so we show the owning company instead of the business ID (Y-tunnus).
Every company is measured with the same public formula: half of the points come from buyer's questions and half from basic metrics, which have four pillars: technical quality, transparency, reachability and AI quality score. Ranking cannot be bought, and you can see the origin of each point on the company's profile. Read the full methodology →
Because this comparison measures transparency, not popularity. Google Analytics is free of charge and its documentation is comprehensive, but data processing is focused on the United States and tracking requires cookies and a consent banner. Data location and cookie-free operation weigh heavily in the scoring, because they are essential for visitor privacy.
A cookie-free tool measures visitor numbers without cookies stored in the browser and does not collect identifiable personal data. The site then needs no cookie or GDPR consent banner for analytics. It also improves data coverage, because visitors who reject the banner are not left unmeasured.
Yes, if you process EU visitors' personal data. In several decisions in 2022-2026, EU data protection authorities have considered analytics data transferred to the United States problematic. A tool that keeps data in the EU reduces this risk. We show the data location of each tool.
It can't. A ranking cannot be bought, and it cannot be influenced by paying. Every point comes from publicly measured data verified on the service's own pages, and the metrics and weights are visible on every page.
The free pre-analysis shows every item where your company loses points and which rank fixing it is enough for. The paid analysis shows what the items are and how to fix them.
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