Compare Alceris Analytics and Hotjar on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Google Analytics, Mixpanel
Germany· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist when you need German-operated, cookieless pageview/event analytics with a free monthly allowance and one-line install. Skip when you need self-hosting, open-source core, enterprise cert packs, or deep product analytics—consider Plausible, Simple Analytics, Pirsch, or Matomo instead.
France· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist for Contentsquare-owned heatmaps and replay with a public DPA and Ireland defaults. Skip if you need an independent recorder or no US-group cloud. Consider Mouseflow.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Alceris Analytics | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Germany | France |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | Germany | France |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer, Innere Passauer Str. 45, 94315 Straubing, Germany (VAT DE353601960) | Content Square SAS, Paris (EU Hotjar contractor). Historical Hotjar Ltd Malta merged 1 July 2025. |
| Governing law | Germany | Not listed |
| US parent / control | No known US parent | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Medium | Medium |
| Hosting / residency | Vendor claims analytics data is stored and served only on European servers and aggregated on arrival. Named external paths: Paddle (paid billing MoR) and optional Google Search Console. No official named infrastructure/subprocessor inventory beyond those; public site IP/ASN currently associated with netcup GmbH (Germany). DNS nameservers observed on Hetzner. | Visitor data: AWS and Azure Ireland for Free/Growth and VoC Observe/Surveys. Pro/Enterprise may pick Ireland or Virginia. Defaults: EU/Japan to EU; US and most other APJ to US. Support: Content Square, Inc. and Zendesk (USA), Atlassian (Australia). Sense AI on AWS Bedrock/Azure; survey AI on Azure OpenAI France. Engage: Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous. |
| Summary | German cookieless website analytics SaaS: aggregate pageviews, events, and UTM campaigns without cookies or IP logs, operated from Straubing with EU-oriented hosting claims. | Contentsquare-owned heatmaps, session replay, and on-site surveys. French-group SaaS with default EU hosting on AWS and Azure Ireland, not an independent Maltese startup. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Alceris Analytics | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Straubing, Germany | Not listed |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer (sole operator) | Not listed |
| Deployment | Hosted SaaS only | SaaS JavaScript tag; not self-hosted; not open source |
| Open source | Product SaaS closed; WP plugin on WordPress.org | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Free volume-capped tier; paid via Paddle | Free tier plus paid Growth, Pro, and Enterprise (see vendor site for current terms) |
| Governing law | Germany (per terms) | Not listed |
| Current HQ / entity | Not listed | Content Square SAS, Paris, France |
| Origin | Not listed | Founded in Malta in 2014 (vendor history) |
| Ownership | Not listed | Contentsquare group (acquired 2021, merged 1 July 2025) |
| Hosting (public) | Not listed | AWS/Azure Ireland default for EU Free/Growth; Virginia optional on higher plans |
| Key capabilities | Alceris Analytics | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless by design | Yes | Not listed |
| EU-operated (Germany) | Yes | Yes |
| Realtime dashboard | Yes | Not listed |
| Free tier (volume-capped) | Yes | Not listed |
| SaaS only (no self-host) | Yes | Not listed |
| Heatmaps + session replay | Not listed | Yes |
| Surveys and feedback | Not listed | Yes |
| Public B2B DPA | Not listed | Yes |
| ISO 27001 (claimed) | Not listed | Yes |
Cookieless aggregation without IP storage
Per the privacy policy, Alceris does not set cookies, session IDs, or similar client storage; IPs are not logged; the full User-Agent is not stored. Only aggregated fields such as page URL, referrer, parsed browser/OS, language, and timezone-based country are retained—aimed at sites that want stats without an analytics cookie banner.
One-line async script, deferred events, WordPress plugin
Install via a single async script from alceris.com with your site data-id (docs include a deferred alceris() queue so early events are not lost). WordPress operators can use the official plugin and paste the dashboard site ID. SaaS-only—there is no self-hosted server package.
Realtime pageviews and custom events with metadata
Pageviews and events are processed immediately into the dashboard. Custom events are sent with alceris('event', name, { ...metadata }), useful for button clicks, form steps, or content attributes without building a full product-analytics stack.
UTM campaigns, outbound links, and cross-domain flows
UTM parameters are extracted for campaign reporting; outbound link clicks are tracked automatically; cross-domain tracking follows visitors across owned domains. Scope is web traffic measurement—not session replay or heatmaps.
Optional Google Search Console and first-party proxy
Connect Search Console to import query impressions, clicks, and terms (data removed on unlink). Docs also describe reverse-proxying script.js and the img.alceris.com data endpoint through your own domain so ad-blockers are less likely to drop hits—at the cost of operating that proxy yourself.
Click, move, and scroll heatmaps with Attention Maps
Aggregated overlays show where visitors click, hover, and scroll. Contentsquare documents Attention Maps (engagement, not only clicks) and, on the wider platform, zone-based heatmaps that attach conversion context to page elements. Use this when a page-level bounce rate does not explain the layout. Coverage is limited to sessions the tag actually captures and to pages the recorder can reconstruct.
Session replay with claimed automatic masking
Replays mouse movement, clicks, taps, and scrolls so UX and engineering can watch a single journey. Official pages describe event-triggered recording, comments, and jump-to-replay from heatmaps or surveys. Contentsquare states that card and bank details are masked automatically. You still must suppress other personal data with blocking scripts or field exclusion. This is a browser reconstruction, not a server-side log archive.
Surveys, feedback widgets, and Engage research
On-site surveys and feedback widgets (Ask) plus user interviews and unmoderated tests (Engage). The DPA treats this as Voice of Customer. Observe and survey visitor data is hosted on AWS Ireland. Interview and user-test recordings are retained for 2 years per the DPA. Engage adds extra subprocessors (Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous). Response volume is plan-gated.
Funnels that open the matching recordings
Build step funnels and open sessions that converted or dropped at a step. That pairing is the reason teams keep a recorder next to GA-style charts. Advanced journey and multi-session funnel work sits on Contentsquare product analytics (Heap lineage), not on the classic Hotjar-only recorder. Funnel depth and comparison features are plan-dependent.
Error and speed context on the Contentsquare platform
The unified platform adds JavaScript error lists ranked by impact and speed analysis tied to behavior. Classic standalone Hotjar was weaker here. Full network-waterfall debugging is a platform capability. If you refuse the DXA transition you may not get this layer. Errors are only as good as what the browser tag can see.
| Assurance & compliance | Alceris Analytics | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found No public third-party audit of cookieless/no-IP claims found | On request / NDA Vendor claims annual external penetration tests and publishes a Trust Portal with pentest reports behind access. No public independent no-logs audit (this is a recorder, not a no-logs VPN). |
| ISO 27001 | Not found No ISO 27001 claim on public site/security pages (none published) | Vendor claimed Contentsquare states it is ISO 27001 certified (also claims ISO 27017, 27018, 27701). Certificates are on the Trust Portal; not independently downloaded for this draft. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found No SOC 2/3 report referenced publicly | Vendor claimed Trust portal and security pages claim a SOC 2 Type II report. Report not independently downloaded. |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed German controller; cookieless/no-IP design claims on privacy policy (last updated 2022). Not legal advice—confirm with counsel and DPA. | Vendor claimed EU parent and contracting entity for non-Americas Hotjar Services. Public DPA, SCCs, and GDPR language. Customer is controller and must supply a lawful basis for visitor capture. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Partial EU sole proprietor, no known US parent; vendor EU-hosting claims and DE-associated hosting for the public site. Optional Google Search Console involves Google; Paddle handles payments; infrastructure subprocessors not fully named. Indicative only—not legal advice. | Partial Assessment, not a vendor slogan. French parent and no known US parent, but AWS and Azure host visitor data, Content Square, Inc. and Zendesk process support data, and US regions exist. Not legal advice. |
| Data processing agreement (B2B) | Not found No public DPA page or in-product DPA download found; ask vendor before production use | Vendor claimed Public Contentsquare DPA incorporated by the MSA. Execution of the MSA or an order form is treated as execution of the DPA and SCCs. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Web analytics measurement product; not marketed as an AI system | Not applicable Core product is analytics and replay, not an AI system sold as such. Sense AI and survey LLMs exist as optional features. Confirm AI Act role if you enable those modules. |
| CSA STAR | Not listed | Vendor claimed Security page displays a STAR badge. Scope and level not independently verified. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Alceris Analytics | Hotjar |
|---|---|---|
| Solo / small-operator continuity | Medium Imprint shows an individual operator in Straubing. Terms provide service as-is with email support on reasonable effort and reserve the right to modify or discontinue the service. Practical impact: backup exports and an exit plan matter more than with a large SaaS vendor. | Not listed |
| Thin public compliance packaging | Medium No ISO/SOC claims, no independent audit, no public DPA template, and no named infrastructure subprocessor list despite terms referring to third-party hardware/storage vendors. Practical impact: slower security review for regulated buyers. | Not listed |
| Optional Google Search Console path | Low Connecting Search Console pulls query metrics from Google into Alceris. Leave it disconnected if US providers are out of policy for any analytics-adjacent data. | Not listed |
| Billing via Paddle MoR | Low Paid plans are contracted with Paddle, not Alceris directly. Review Paddle's terms and data role for finance/procurement. | Not listed |
| WordPress plugin maintenance signal | Low WordPress.org lists the plugin as not tested with the latest major WP releases and few active installs. Prefer manual script install or re-test thoroughly on your WP version. | Not listed |
| No longer an independent Maltese company | Not listed | High Acquired in 2021 and described as merged into Contentsquare on 1 July 2025. New contracts are Contentsquare entities. A scheduled DXA transition from 18 August 2026 can move data and retire the old UI unless you elect to stay. Practical impact: vendor risk, product roadmap, and DPA counterparty are the French group, not Hotjar Ltd. |
| US-group cloud and US support path | Not listed | Medium Visitor data sits on AWS and Azure. Zendesk (USA) and Content Square, Inc. handle support. US regions are default for some geographies. Practical impact: an Ireland region does not remove US-group infrastructure from a CLOUD Act discussion. |
| Session replay can capture extra personal data | Not listed | Medium The vendor asks customers to block non-permitted personal data and claims card masking. Misconfigured tags still record inputs or on-screen PII. Practical impact: you need a suppressions review and a consent story before go-live. |
| SaaS tag only | Not listed | Low No official self-hosted or open-source edition. Practical impact: skip this product if residency rules require your own servers. |
| Optional LLM features add extra processors | Not listed | Low Sense AI and survey AI use AWS Bedrock and Azure OpenAI. Practical impact: disable those features or map their regions if procurement treats LLMs as a separate transfer. |
When: You want a more established cookieless SaaS brand with stronger public compliance packaging
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics
Similar lightweight privacy analytics category; different ownership and documentation maturity
When: You need self-hosted or on-prem control of the analytics stack
Consider: Matomo (self-hosted) or catalog Matomo hosting variants
Alceris is cloud-only; proxying the script still sends data to Alceris
When: You need German-hosted open-source cookieless analytics with a different product surface
Consider: Pirsch Analytics
Peer German privacy-analytics option for side-by-side evaluation
When: You need full GA4-class product and marketing analytics depth
Consider: Google Analytics (accept its data model) or a heavier EU suite
Alceris intentionally stays narrow
When: You want session replay and heatmaps from an independent European vendor, not the Contentsquare group
Consider: Mouseflow
Danish SaaS with selectable EU or US Google Cloud residency and a public DPA.
When: You only need page or privacy-oriented analytics without replaying mouse paths and form fields
Consider: Plausible Analytics or etracker
Lighter measurement. Not a substitute for session replay.
When: You want a no-contract recorder and will accept a US vendor
Consider: Microsoft Clarity
Free Microsoft product. Different jurisdiction and contract posture than Content Square SAS.
When: You need a US-native event warehouse more than qualitative replay
Consider: Mixpanel or Amplitude
Product analytics incumbents. Pair with a recorder only if you still need heatmaps.