Alternatives & comparisons
Picking a tool? Honest, side-by-side breakdowns — no tool is crowned "best" by default.
9 Best Google Analytics Alternatives
Nine privacy-first tools compared on privacy, pricing, self-hosting and features.
Cookieless Analytics Tools Compared
A feature-by-feature comparison of the leading cookieless tools, with a full spec table.
The Best GA4 Alternative
Why teams are leaving GA4 in 2026 — and the simpler, privacy-first tools they move to.
Plausible Analytics Alternatives
Love cookieless but want flat all-sites pricing or hosted simplicity? Your options.
Fathom Analytics Alternatives
Fathom compared with other hosted, cookieless analytics on price, features and privacy.
Matomo Alternatives
Tired of self-hosting Matomo? Hosted, cookieless options with no server to maintain.
Simple Analytics Alternatives
How Simple Analytics compares — and where other privacy-first tools fit.
Best Privacy-Friendly Analytics
The best privacy-first analytics of 2026, judged on their actual privacy models.
Google Analytics vs Plausible vs GhostMetrics
GA4, Plausible and GhostMetrics compared honestly — where each one genuinely wins.
Cloudflare Web Analytics Alternatives
Free and private, but it hits limits fast. What it lacks, when it's still enough, and the honest alternatives.
Umami Analytics Alternatives
Solid open-source analytics — if you run the server. The real cost of self-hosting, and six hosted picks.
GA4 vs Cloudflare Web Analytics
Different problems, not a ranking — consent, install weight, data depth, export and retention, compared honestly.
Netlify Analytics Alternatives
Honest server-log analytics with real limits. Where it stops, and how to add a deeper tool to a Netlify site.
WordPress Analytics Without Google Analytics
Cookieless analytics for a WordPress site — plugin and snippet routes compared honestly.
Plausible vs Fathom vs GhostMetrics
The three hosted, cookieless tools compared head to head.
Vercel Analytics Alternatives
Where the built-in option stops, and five alternatives compared.
Cookies, consent & GDPR
The legal and practical side — banners, GDPR, and what's really going on with Google Analytics.
How to Remove the Cookie Consent Banner
Legally ditch the cookie banner while keeping your analytics — here's how.
Is Google Analytics GDPR Compliant?
A nuanced 2026 guide to GA and GDPR, the EU rulings, and the clean path forward.
GDPR-Compliant Analytics Tools
What makes analytics GDPR-friendly, and the tools that get you there without the banner.
Analytics Without a Consent Banner
Run web analytics with no cookie consent banner, legally — and which tools allow it.
Google Analytics Privacy Issues
The real privacy problems with GA in 2026 — data sharing, EU rulings, banners.
Do I Need a Cookie Banner?
It depends on the cookies you set. When you can skip the banner, and how cookieless analytics helps.
How cookieless tracking works
The technical foundations — measure everything, store nothing on the visitor's device.
Cookieless Tracking, Explained
What cookieless tracking actually is, how it works, and why it stays privacy-safe.
Track Website Traffic Without Cookies
The practical methods for measuring traffic with no cookies and no persistent IDs.
UTM Parameters Guide
The five parameters, naming rules that don't break reports, and how cookieless first-touch differs from GA4.
Direct Traffic Explained
Why your direct traffic runs so high, and what it really contains.
Practical guides & buyer's guides
Measuring the right things, for the kind of site you actually run.
How to Measure Website Traffic
The metrics that matter, the tools to use, and why cookieless-first keeps the numbers honest.
Website Analytics for Small Business
Four numbers, a privacy-safe setup, and ten minutes a month — no data team required.
Privacy-First Analytics for SaaS
GDPR, DPAs, data residency and dropping the banner — a buyer's checklist for SaaS teams.
Track Custom Events Without Google Analytics
Button clicks, signups and downloads without GA, Tag Manager or a cookie banner. Real code included.
Add Analytics to a Static Site
Head-partial snippets for Astro, Hugo, Eleventy, Jekyll, Next.js and SvelteKit — no cookie banner.
Core Web Vitals Real User Monitoring
Lab scores lie. Monitor LCP, CLS, FCP and TTFB from real visitors without a heavy RUM SDK.
Website Analytics for Agencies
One login for every client site, not six dashboards — how five tools handle multi-site analytics.
How to Share Website Analytics Publicly
Public dashboards for build-in-public founders, agencies and sponsors — six tools compared honestly.
Ghost CMS Analytics
Track readers on a Ghost site without Google.
Newsletter Traffic Analytics
Follow a reader from the email click to your site, cookieless.
Migrate from Google Analytics to GhostMetrics
The switch, step by step.
Next.js Analytics Without Google Analytics
Adding a cookieless tracker to a Next.js app.
Analytics for Open Source Project Docs
Measuring a docs site without cookies or a banner.
GA4 Data Retention: Export Your History
What GA4 keeps, what it drops, and how to export before it is gone.
Track Outbound Link Clicks Without Google Analytics
See which links send visitors away, cookieless.
Scroll Depth Tracking Without Google Analytics
How far readers get, measured without cookies.
GA4 Data Thresholding and Sampling Explained
Why GA4 hides rows and estimates numbers, and what to do.
Analytics for Portfolio and Personal Sites
Lightweight, cookieless measurement for small personal sites.
Bounce Rate vs Engagement Rate Explained
What each metric counts, and how GhostMetrics defines a bounce.
Hugo, Jekyll, Astro and Eleventy Analytics
One head-partial snippet per static site generator.
How to Test Your Analytics Install
A checklist to confirm your tracking script really works.
Landing Page and Campaign Analytics
Measure launch pages and UTM-tagged campaigns without Google.
How to Read Your Analytics Weekly
A ten-minute routine: trend, pages, sources, engagement.
Entry Pages and Exit Pages Explained
Where visits start and end, and what each panel can and cannot tell you.
Analytics for Nonprofits and Community Sites
Lightweight, consent-light measurement for volunteer-run sites.
Time on Page vs Session Duration
How each is measured, and why hit-based tools report zero for a one-page visit.
Single-Page App Analytics
How route changes become pageviews, and what a router can break.
Analytics for Podcasts and Creator Sites
Measuring episode pages, show notes and newsletter traffic without cookies.
Unique Visitors Without Cookies
How a visitor count is built without cookies, and what it can and cannot mean.
Bot Traffic and Referrer Spam
How to spot automated and fake-referrer visits, and what filtering can and cannot catch.
Conversion Funnels Without GA4
Measuring a signup or pricing funnel between two pages, and what that count cannot show.
Traffic Sources and Referrers
Referrer vs UTM vs direct: how visits get sorted, why referrers go missing, and a 20-minute audit.
Visitor Location Without IP Tracking
Where country and city come from in a cookieless tool, how accurate they are, and what not to do with them.
Browser, OS and Device Analytics
What the panels count, where user-agent parsing misleads, and how to set a support policy.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track
What the two signals mean, how analytics can respect them, and a browser test for any tracker.
Analytics Script Size and Page Speed: What the Tag Costs You
How much an analytics script adds to page weight and Core Web Vitals, with real byte counts for gm.js, how to measure any tag yourself, and when script size matters.
What Cookieless Analytics Cannot Tell You
Cookieless analytics trades identity for privacy. What it answers, what it cannot (returning visitors, cross-device, revenue, per-user funnels), and what to use.
Pageviews, Sessions and Visitors Explained 2026
What pageviews, sessions, visitors, events and bounces actually count, how GhostMetrics defines each, and how to reconcile two analytics tools.
How to Remove Google Analytics From Your Site 2026
A step-by-step teardown: inventory every Google Analytics loader, export first, remove it, handle the consent banner, and verify in DevTools.
Self-Hosted vs Hosted Privacy Analytics in 2026
Self-hosting Plausible CE, Umami or Matomo trades a subscription for ops work. What it costs in upgrades, backups, uptime and data location, and who should do it.
See it instead of reading about it
GhostMetrics is cookieless analytics with a real free tier and no consent banner. We run it on our own sites — so you can open a live dashboard of our real, unfiltered traffic with no signup, then start free in a minute.