# GDPR-friendly European alternatives to Google Analytics in 2026

Last updated: 2026-11-10

For a simple traffic dashboard without cookies, **Plausible** from Estonia, **Simple Analytics** from the Netherlands and **Pirsch** from Germany are the three to try first. If you need the depth of Google Analytics, with funnels, heatmaps and a tag manager, look at **Matomo**, either self-hosted or in its cloud, or at **Piwik PRO** for regulated industries.

All five keep visitor data in Europe by default. They differ in who owns the servers underneath, how much they track and what you pay per pageview.

## The analytics tools at a glance

| Tool | Company | Visitor data stored | Cookies | Starts at | Self-host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Incorporated in Estonia | EU, on infrastructure owned by European companies | None | $9 a month for 10k pageviews | Yes, Community Edition under AGPLv3 |
| Simple Analytics | Simple Analytics B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands | EU, primary infrastructure in the Netherlands | None | Free plan with 30 days of history, then €20 a month for 100k pageviews | Not documented |
| Pirsch | Emvi Software GmbH, Germany | Germany | None | $6 a month excl. VAT for 10k pageviews | On-premise on the Enterprise plan |
| Matomo | InnoCraft Ltd. | Frankfurt on AWS, backups in Dublin, for Matomo Cloud | Configurable | On-Premise free, Cloud priced by monthly hits excl. tax | Yes, On-Premise |
| Piwik PRO | Not stated | EU-operated hosting in Sweden on the Business plan | Optional, with anonymous tracking when visitors decline | €36 a month | Private cloud on its top tier |

Prices are from each provider's own page, checked on 10 November 2026. Plausible and Pirsch show dollar prices by default, and the page may switch currency for your location.

## What to check before you drop Google Analytics

- **Where the data lands and who owns the machines.** A European vendor can still store data on a US cloud. Matomo Cloud, for example, names Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL as its hosting subprocessor. Plausible says its servers belong to European companies, and Simple Analytics keeps its main infrastructure in the Netherlands.
- **Whether you still need a consent banner.** Tools that set no cookies and store no personal data are built to avoid one, and their vendors say so. Whether that holds for your site depends on your country's rules and what else you load, so confirm with your data protection officer.
- **How much you actually use.** Most sites read pageviews, referrers, campaigns and a few goals. If that's you, a lightweight tool is enough. If marketing lives in funnels, cohorts and session recordings, pick a fuller suite.
- **How the bill grows.** Every tool here prices by pageviews, hits or events. Estimate a busy month, not an average one.
- **Importing your history.** Plausible lists Google Analytics import on its entry plan, and Pirsch lists imports from Google Analytics, Plausible and Fathom. Check what each tool can bring over before you switch off GA4.

## 1. Plausible

Plausible is an open-source analytics company based in the EU, with its legal entity incorporated in Estonia. It doesn't use cookies or persistent visitor identifiers, and it derives country, browser and device from each request without storing raw IP addresses or user agents. Visitor data is processed and stored in the EU on infrastructure owned by European companies.

- **Best for:** sites and SaaS products that want one clear dashboard and no cookie banner for analytics.
- **Price:** from $9 a month for up to 10k monthly pageviews and one site, with a 30-day free trial and no card. Paying yearly gives two months free, and Google Analytics import is included.
- **Self-hosting:** Plausible Community Edition is free under AGPLv3, and you run, update and back it up yourself.
- **What it lacks:** funnels and ecommerce revenue attribution below the $19 Business plan. Plausible also publishes its own page on when it isn't a fit.

## 2. Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is a Dutch company founded in Amsterdam in 2018. It records pageviews, referrers, campaigns and events without cookies, personal data or fingerprinting. Website data stays in the EU with its main infrastructure in the Netherlands, and leaves the EU only if you turn on a feature that needs it, such as its AI assistant.

- **Best for:** small sites that want a free plan, and teams that want an EU vendor with an MCP server and API.
- **Price:** a free plan for up to 5 websites and 1 user, with unlimited pageviews under fair use and 30 days of history. Paid plans start at €20 a month for 100k pageviews, with a 14-day trial.
- **What it lacks:** long history and a clean page on the free plan. Data older than 30 days is deleted, and a Simple Analytics badge is required.

## 3. Pirsch

Pirsch is made by Emvi Software GmbH in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany. Its pricing page lists the hosted service in Germany, and its privacy policy describes Pirsch as cookie-free analytics that counts visitors with a hash instead of an identifier stored in the browser. All plans include unlimited data retention, events, conversion goals and a REST API.

- **Best for:** agencies and small teams that want a German vendor and many sites on one account.
- **Price:** from $6 a month excl. VAT for 10,000 monthly pageviews and up to 50 websites, with a 30-day free trial and no card. Funnels, A/B testing and teams sit on the $12 Plus plan.
- **Self-hosting:** on-premise installation is part of the Enterprise plan, priced on request.

## 4. Matomo

Matomo is an open-source analytics suite that covers most of what Google Analytics does, with goals, funnels, heatmaps, session recordings and a tag manager. Matomo On-Premise is a free download you install on your own server, so you pick the country. Matomo Cloud is run by InnoCraft Ltd. and stores data in Frankfurt.

- **Best for:** teams that need GA-style depth and want to own the database.
- **Price:** On-Premise is free, with paid plugin bundles. Matomo Cloud is priced by monthly hits, from 50,000 hits a month, excl. tax, with a 21-day free trial.
- **What it lacks:** a European-owned cloud. Its subprocessor list names Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL in Luxembourg for servers in Frankfurt and backups in Dublin. Self-host it if a US-owned provider is a problem.

## 5. Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO is an analytics suite aimed at regulated industries such as healthcare, banking and the public sector, with a tag manager and consent manager in the same product. Its Business plan uses EU-operated hosting in Sweden.

- **Best for:** larger teams that need analytics, consent and tag management from one vendor.
- **Price:** the Business plan starts at €36 a month with a 30-day free trial and no card. Enterprise starts at €366 a month, billed annually.
- **What it lacks:** a simple self-serve tool for small sites. Higher plans let you choose data centres in Germany, the Netherlands, the US, Sweden, Hong Kong or the UAE, so pick a European one on purpose.

## Where Eurobase fits

Eurobase hosts websites and apps, not analytics. It's a business registered in Warsaw, Poland, and your apps run on European infrastructure run by Scaleway, a French provider. Any of the hosted tools above works with a site on Eurobase: you add their script tag and nothing else changes.

A project's Logs page on Eurobase keeps HTTP request logs for up to 30 days, capped at the newest 10,000 entries of each kind. That tells you whether anyone is visiting a small site, but it isn't a dashboard. Self-hosting Matomo is a poor fit, because Matomo needs MySQL or MariaDB and Eurobase has no managed MySQL. A plain virtual server does that job better: Hetzner's list price for a CPX02 in Helsinki is €5.49 a month excl. VAT, or €6.49 in Falkenstein or Nuremberg, yet on 10 November 2026 those smallest servers couldn't be ordered.

For the rest of an EU-only stack, read [EU-only data for a SaaS](/i/saas-hosting-eu-data) and the [GDPR hosting checklist](/i/gdpr-hosting-checklist).

## How to choose

- Pick **Plausible** for a cookie-free dashboard on European-owned servers, with the option to self-host later.
- Pick **Simple Analytics** if you want a free plan from an EU company and can live with 30 days of history.
- Pick **Pirsch** for a German vendor with low entry pricing and many sites per account.
- Pick **Matomo On-Premise** when you need GA-level reports and control of the database.
- Pick **Piwik PRO** if compliance teams want analytics, consent and tags under one contract.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Google Analytics illegal in the EU?

No. The European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, and personal data can flow to US companies that take part in it. You still need a legal basis and, where cookies are set, consent. Many teams switch because they'd rather not depend on that framework or run a consent banner for analytics.

### Which Google Analytics alternative doesn't need a cookie banner?

Plausible and Simple Analytics say they set no cookies and collect no personal data, which is why they're used without a banner. The final call depends on your national rules and on the other scripts your site loads.

### Is Matomo Cloud hosted in Europe?

Yes. Matomo says Cloud data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany, with backups in Dublin, Ireland. The servers are provided by Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, and Matomo notes that AWS in the US takes part in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

### Is there a free European alternative to Google Analytics?

Simple Analytics has a free plan with 30 days of history. Plausible Community Edition and Matomo On-Premise are free software, but you pay for and run the server yourself.

### Can I import my Google Analytics data?

Plausible and Pirsch both list Google Analytics import on their entry plans. For the other tools, check the import options in their documentation before you switch GA4 off, because history you don't export can't be recovered later.

## Sources

- [Plausible data policy](https://plausible.io/data-policy), [About Plausible](https://plausible.io/about), [Plausible pricing](https://plausible.io/#pricing) and [Plausible self-hosted](https://plausible.io/self-hosted-web-analytics)
- [Simple Analytics pricing](https://www.simpleanalytics.com/pricing) and [About Simple Analytics](https://www.simpleanalytics.com/about)
- [Pirsch pricing](https://pirsch.io/pricing) and [Pirsch privacy policy](https://pirsch.io/privacy)
- [Matomo pricing](https://matomo.org/pricing/), [Matomo requirements](https://matomo.org/faq/on-premise/matomo-requirements/), [Matomo Cloud](https://matomo.org/matomo-cloud/) and [Matomo Cloud subprocessors](https://matomo.org/matomo-cloud-dpa/subprocessors/)
- [Piwik PRO pricing](https://piwik.pro/pricing/)
- [European Commission: EU-US data transfers](https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/eu-us-data-transfers_en)
- [Hetzner Cloud](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/)
- [Eurobase getting started: Logs](/docs/getting-started) and [Eurobase subprocessors](/legal/subprocessors)