Google Analytics alternatives that don't use cookies

Google Analytics is still the default analytics tool for most websites. It is free, familiar, and connects neatly to Google Ads. It also sets cookies, which means many sites need a consent banner before it can run in the EU — and a meaningful share of visitors decline, so your reports get thinner.

Cookie-free analytics tools avoid that trade-off. They count visits without storing identifiers in the browser, so they can run without a consent banner in most setups. Here are the options worth knowing, and the honest differences between them.

What “cookie-free” actually means

A cookie-free tool does not write tracking cookies and does not build a persistent profile of a visitor across sites. Many still derive a short-lived, rotating visitor hash on the server so they can tell a new visit from a repeat view within a short window. No personal data is stored, and nothing follows the visitor after they leave.

That is enough for the questions most site owners actually ask: how many people came, where from, what they read, and on what device. It is not enough to follow an individual across sessions and channels the way an ad platform does.

The tools worth a look

Plausible is the best-known privacy-first option. It is polished, has a long track record, offers 3–5 years of history, and can be self-hosted. There is no free tier; plans start around $9/month for 10k pageviews.

Fathom is another established product with a clean dashboard and unlimited retention. Paid plans start around $15/month for 100k pageviews. If keeping history forever matters to you, it is a strong choice.

Simple Analytics and Umami round out the field. Simple Analytics is simple and has a free plan with limits. Umami is open source and can be self-hosted, which appeals to teams who want full control.

Lumenlytic is the newest of the group. It keeps the script to 3.5 KB, meters events rather than pageviews, and includes a permanent free tier: 250,000 events per month, one website and 30 days of history. Paid plans start at $6/month and stay low as traffic grows.

How to choose

• If you need years of retention, compare Fathom and Plausible first.
• If self-hosting or open source is a requirement, look at Umami.
• If you want to start free and keep costs low at volume, compare Lumenlytic's event pricing.
• If you need ad-platform attribution, cookie-free tools are not a like-for-like replacement for Google Analytics.

Whatever you pick, check the script size, the retention window and how usage is metered. Those three details explain most of the price difference between tools.

Switching is one script tag

All of these tools install the same way: one script tag in your site's head, with a site identifier. There is no SDK to bundle and no tag manager to configure. You can run a new tool alongside Google Analytics for a week, compare the numbers, and then remove whichever you do not want.

Expect the cookie-free numbers to be lower than Google Analytics. That is the point: no cookies, no consent-banner drop-off, and bots filtered out. Fewer visits, but the ones you see are closer to real people.