How it works
Tools such as Plausible, Fathom, Umami, Simple Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics record page views, referrers, campaigns, countries, devices and custom goals without storing anything on the visitor's device. To count unique visitors, some combine the IP address and browser details with a secret that changes every day and keep only the resulting hash, so nobody can be followed from one day, or one site, to the next.
The scripts are a small fraction of the size of Google's tag, and the dashboards fit on one page. The trade-off is depth: there are no long-term user journeys, fewer audience features and weaker ad attribution. Because nothing is stored on the device and no personal data is kept, many sites run them without a consent banner, although the legal position depends on the country and on the setup.
Plausible (AGPL) and Umami (MIT) are open source and can run on your own server or be used as hosted cloud services; Fathom is a hosted service only.
Cookieless analytics pros and cons
Pros
- Small scripts, so pages stay fast
- No cookies or personal data, often no consent banner needed
- Counts visitors who would have declined cookies, so numbers are more complete
- Simple dashboards that anyone on a team can read
- Open-source options you can host yourself
Cons
- No long-term user journeys or detailed audiences
- Weaker ad attribution than Google or Meta tools
- Hosted plans cost money beyond small free tiers
- Some ad blockers still block the scripts
When to use Cookieless analytics
Pick it when
- Blogs, content sites and marketing pages that need traffic, sources and goals
- You want to avoid a consent banner or keep visitor data away from ad networks
- A client wants a dashboard they can understand at a glance
Skip it when
- You depend on Google Ads audiences, remarketing or detailed funnels
- A product team needs per-user behaviour inside an app (product analytics fits better)
Cookieless analytics pricing
Open source
Plausible CE and Umami are free to self-host. Hosted: Umami Cloud has a free Hobby plan, Plausible prices by monthly pageviews after a 30-day trial, and Fathom starts at about $15 a month.
Cookieless analytics pricing page (opens in a new tab)Approximate, checked September 2026.What the other tools cost
Cookieless analytics vs the alternatives
Related terms
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