Compare Alceris Analytics and Plausible Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics, Matomo
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.
Estonia· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist when you need cookieless website analytics with EU-owned visitor hosting, a lightweight script, AGPL transparency, and either managed Cloud or self-hosted CE. Skip when you need heatmaps/session replay, multi-day user-level product analytics, HIPAA/BAA, free forever hosted analytics, or zero non-EU SaaS anywhere in vendor ops—consider Matomo-class (e.g. Friendly Analytics / Piwik PRO), Pirsch, or Simple Analytics depending on depth vs simplicity.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Alceris Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Germany | Estonia |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | Yes |
| Headquarters | Germany | Estonia |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer, Innere Passauer Str. 45, 94315 Straubing, Germany (VAT DE353601960) | Plausible Insights OÜ, Västriku tn 2, 50403 Tartu, Estonia |
| Governing law | Germany | Estonian / EU law context for the OÜ; confirm contract terms for governing law clauses |
| 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 analytics: Hetzner (Falkenstein, Germany), UpCloud (Finland, DB/exports), Bunny (Slovenia, CDN/DNS/DDoS)—European-owned; vendor states visitor data never leaves the EU. Customer-account subprocessors include Paddle (payments), Postmark (email), Gravatar, optional Google (GA import), Help Scout, Nolt; site tools may include hCaptcha, Algolia, Mailchimp. SCCs claimed for non-EU processors. |
| 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. | Estonian open-source, cookieless web analytics (AGPLv3): lightweight script, EU-owned hosting on Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny, managed Cloud plus self-hosted Community Edition. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Alceris Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Straubing, Germany | Tartu, Estonia |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer (sole operator) | Plausible Insights OÜ (reg. 14709274) |
| Deployment | Hosted SaaS only | Not listed |
| Open source | Product SaaS closed; WP plugin on WordPress.org | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Free volume-capped tier; paid via Paddle | Pageview-based Cloud SaaS; free CE self-host |
| Governing law | Germany (per terms) | Not listed |
| Visitor hosts | Not listed | Hetzner DE; UpCloud FI; Bunny SI |
| License | Not listed | AGPLv3; Cloud + Community Edition |
| Tracking model | Not listed | Cookieless; daily rotating hash; no PII stored |
| Key capabilities | Alceris Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless by design | Yes | Yes |
| EU-operated (Germany) | Yes | Not listed |
| Realtime dashboard | Yes | Not listed |
| Free tier (volume-capped) | Yes | Not listed |
| SaaS only (no self-host) | Yes | Not listed |
| EU-owned visitor hosts | Not listed | Yes |
| AGPLv3 open source | Not listed | Yes |
| Self-host CE | Not listed | Yes |
| DPA automatic | Not listed | Yes |
| Lightweight script | 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.
Cookieless measurement with daily rotating visitor hash
No cookies, localStorage, or persistent IDs. Uniques use hash(daily_salt + domain + IP + UA); salt rotates every 24 hours and raw IP/UA are never stored—so analytics can often run without a consent banner, at the cost of no multi-day user stitching.
Lightweight script and single-page traffic dashboard
Vendor claims a script ~54× smaller than Google Analytics with real-time updates (~30s), sources, pages, devices, UTM channels, scroll-depth goals, and optional Google Search Console import—built for marketers who refuse GA4 report complexity.
Goals, custom events, funnels, and revenue on Cloud
Codeless page goals, file downloads, outbound clicks, custom events/properties, AI-referral traffic views, and (on higher Cloud plans) funnels, user journeys, and ecommerce revenue attribution—not session replay or in-app product analytics.
EU-owned visitor hosting (Hetzner, UpCloud, Bunny)
Cloud visitor data is processed on European-owned infrastructure: Hetzner (Germany), UpCloud (Finland), Bunny CDN (Slovenia). Plausible states visitor data never leaves the EU and is not stored on US hyperscalers.
AGPLv3 open source with Community Edition self-host
Full codebase on GitHub; free CE for self-host (long-term releases ~twice yearly). Cloud-only features include advanced bot filtering, funnels/journeys, ecommerce revenue, SSO, and Sites API—self-host ops, backups, and upgrades are yours.
Automatic DPA, Stats API, exports, and enterprise SSO
Public DPA applies to Cloud customers by use; CSV export and Stats API for BI; Business/Enterprise add higher API limits, raw event exports, managed proxy, and SAML SSO (Google Workspace, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID per docs).
| Assurance & compliance | Alceris Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found No public third-party audit of cookieless/no-IP claims found | Not found Open-source code and security overview published; no public independent pen-test or no-logs audit PDF found on compliance/security pages. |
| ISO 27001 | Not found No ISO 27001 claim on public site/security pages (none published) | Not found No ISO 27001 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found No SOC 2/3 report referenced publicly | Not found No SOC 2/3 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed. |
| 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 entity; cookieless non-PII design; public data policy, DPA, and vendor-published legal assessment on GDPR/ePrivacy positioning. |
| 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 Estonian OÜ, no known US parent; visitor data on EU-owned Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny. Partial/medium because customer-account subprocessors include US-oriented SaaS (e.g. Postmark, Help Scout, Gravatar, optional Google). Indicative only—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 DPA applies automatically to Cloud customers by use of the service; lists processor duties and 48-hour breach notification target. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Web analytics measurement product; not marketed as an AI system | Not applicable Website analytics product; not marketed as an AI system under the AI Act. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Alceris Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| US-linked customer-account subprocessors | Not listed | Medium Visitor metrics stay on EU-owned hosts, but billing, email, support, and optional integrations use providers such as Postmark, Paddle, Help Scout, Gravatar, and Google—material for zero-US-processor policies. |
| No public ISO 27001 / SOC 2 | Not listed | Medium Compliance hub emphasizes product design and EU hosting rather than ISO/SOC certificates; orgs with mandatory cert checklists must request evidence or accept open-source + DPA packaging. |
| Self-host CE feature and release lag | Not listed | Low CE is free but long-term releases (~twice yearly) and omits Cloud-only funnels, journeys, ecommerce revenue, SSO, and advanced bot filtering—ops burden sits with you. |
| No multi-day user identity or replay | Not listed | Low Daily hash resets prevent cross-day visitor stitching by design; heatmaps/session replay are out of scope—teams needing those must add other tools. |
| Misconfiguration can reintroduce personal data | Not listed | Medium Passing emails, patient IDs, or other identifiers in URLs or custom properties undermines the non-PII model; vendor also states no HIPAA/BAA. |
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 need Matomo-depth features (heatmaps, session recording, heavy on-prem packaging)
Consider: Friendly Analytics, Piwik PRO, or self-hosted Matomo
Trade Plausible’s minimalism for plugin breadth and different operators.
When: You want a lean EU privacy analytics peer with a different stack or license posture
Consider: Pirsch Analytics or Simple Analytics
Compare hosting ownership, funnels/ecommerce gates, and self-host options side by side.
When: You only need edge-level basic counts and already run Cloudflare
Consider: Cloudflare Web Analytics
Simpler install path; US company and thinner marketing analytics surface.
When: You need free hosted analytics and accept Google’s data practices
Consider: Google Analytics
Different legal and commercial model—not an EU privacy substitute.