Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is a privacy-first web analytics service for site owners and marketing teams. It is strongest for people who need traffic and conversion reporting without identifying visitors. Its mix of events, funnels, exports, and EU-hosted data is compelling, but the free tier’s short history and the paid plans’ differing terms deserve close attention.

Overview

The product reports pageviews, referrers, campaigns, and visitor journeys, including visits from people who reject consent. Simple Analytics says it uses no cookies or persistent identifiers, stores no IP addresses, and does not track or profile people across sites. That makes it a strong choice for aggregate performance measurement, but not for teams whose work depends on persistent user profiles or cross-site tracking.

Analytics data is hosted in the Netherlands, encrypted in transit and at rest, and not transferred outside the EU. The company describes the service as GDPR-compliant by design; its SOC 2 Type II certification is in progress, rather than complete.

Key features

Event tracking covers button clicks, form submissions, downloads, custom interactions, and goals. Conversion funnels add a view of multi-step journeys, making the service useful for measuring actions as well as traffic. Weekly or monthly email reports, embeddable live visitor statistics, CSV downloads, and APIs accommodate routine reporting and further analysis.

The Stats API returns aggregated statistics, while the Export API provides raw data in CSV or JSON. Integrations include WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, Wix, Ghost, Cloudflare, Netlify, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio, and Power BI. Historical Google Analytics imports can carry prior reporting into a migration instead of leaving a new account to start from zero.

The iOS and macOS apps include widgets, and Chrome and Firefox extensions can block your own visits. The 14-day self-serve trial requires no credit card and opens advanced features without restrictions, giving teams a meaningful period to assess workflows before choosing a plan.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing, forever. It allows one user, five websites, unlimited pageviews subject to fair use, and one month of history, and requires a badge. Data older than 30 days is deleted automatically. This is a practical starting point for a solo owner or a small site portfolio, but the single seat and rolling short history make it a poor fit for shared reporting or year-over-year analysis.

Self-serve costs £20 a month for 100k pageviews and includes one user. Each extra user costs +£20/mo, and usage-based billing applies up to 2.5M pageviews. That makes it the clear step up for a small team that needs longer-running analytics and more traffic capacity, but adding seats raises the cost quickly. The plan named Simple, privacy-friendly analytics shows 100k pageviews at the starting price, but has custom pricing. Enterprise also has custom pricing and adds raw data access, team reporting, single sign-on, role-based access, SOC 2 compliance support, and priority support. Those controls are aimed at organizations with formal access and support needs, not solo users.

Platforms

Simple Analytics supports web, API, browser extension, iOS, and macOS. That combination covers browser-based reporting, programmatic access, and companion apps, although the product’s core job remains website analytics.

Who it's for

Choose it if you need aggregate website performance, event and funnel measurement, and reporting that avoids cookies and persistent identifiers. It is especially well suited to privacy-conscious publishers and marketing teams that can work without individual visitor profiles. Look elsewhere if identity-based journeys are central to your analysis, or if the Free plan’s history and seat limits are too restrictive and the paid seat cost does not fit.

Pros and cons

Pros: No cookies, persistent identifiers, or stored IP addresses support privacy-focused analytics without abandoning event and funnel reporting.

Pros: EU hosting, encryption in transit and at rest, and no analytics-data transfer outside the EU are useful for organizations prioritizing data location.

Pros: The Stats and Export APIs, integrations, and Google Analytics import support varied reporting and migration needs.

Cons: The free tier is limited to one user and one month of history, with older data deleted after 30 days; it cannot serve as a long-term archive.

Cons: Self-serve charges +£20/mo for every additional user, so a growing reporting team can raise the bill substantially.

Cons: SOC 2 Type II certification is still in progress, which may not satisfy organizations requiring completed certification.

Alternatives

Compare web analytics tools if you want to weigh this privacy-first approach against other products in the category.

Consider Zoho Apptics as an alternative if you want a freemium product with broad platform support including Android, Windows, and Linux. PostHog is worth comparing if an open-source product licensed under MIT is important to your choice; unlike Simple Analytics, it has no free trial. Umami offers a free cloud plan and a Pro plan at $20 a month with one million events per month and up to 20 websites, which may suit a reader whose priority is a larger stated event allowance at a dollar-denominated monthly price.

Jetpack Stats is another freemium option, with a free plan for basic traffic and content statistics. Adobe Analytics is paid and offers a free trial, with Select, Prime, and Ultimate plans carrying custom pricing. Matomo has a free self-hosted Community plan with unlimited users and hits, a better fit for readers who want self-hosting and those uncapped quantities. Triple Whale has a free plan for 10 users and 12 months of data storage and retention, which may appeal if those limits matter more than Simple Analytics’ privacy approach. Visitor Analytics (TWIPLA) has a free plan capped at 400 monthly page views, 20 monthly events, and one conversion funnel.

Verdict

Simple Analytics is a strong choice for privacy-conscious site owners and marketing teams that want traffic, event, and funnel reporting without persistent visitor tracking. Its breadth of reporting and integrations stands out, and the no-card trial gives a useful way to assess advanced features. Choose another product if you need individual-level tracking, a longer free history, or lower-cost additional seats.