Compare Alceris Analytics and Pulse by Ciphera on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics
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.
Belgium· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist Pulse when you want cookieless traffic analytics plus uptime and Lighthouse in one Belgian-operated, Swiss-hosted SaaS and can accept a closed managed backend. Skip when you need full self-hosting or GA-style user-level history; consider Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics instead.
Highlighted rows differ between the two products.
| Feature | Alceris Analytics | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Germany | Belgium |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | Germany | Belgium |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer, Innere Passauer Str. 45, 94315 Straubing, Germany (VAT DE353601960) | Ciphera BV |
| Governing law | Germany | Belgian law (GDPR); Swiss FADP for infrastructure location |
| US parent / control | No known US parent | No known US parent |
| CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Medium | Low |
| EU-hosted status | Not listed | Partial |
| 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. | Primary compute and object storage on Exoscale in Switzerland (Zurich). Encrypted backups and domain registration via Infomaniak (Switzerland). CDN/DNS/DDoS via Bunny (Slovenia HQ, global edge for transient IPs). Payments via Mollie (Netherlands). GitHub (US) for public source code only, per Trust page. |
| 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. | Cookie-free web analytics with traffic, funnels, uptime and Lighthouse checks in one Belgian-operated, Swiss-hosted dashboard. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Alceris Analytics | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Straubing, Germany | Diegem, Belgium (Ciphera BV) |
| Legal entity | Manuel Bauer (sole operator) | Ciphera BV (KBO/BCE 1013.721.660) |
| 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 | Free Hobby tier; paid plans by traffic scale |
| Governing law | Germany (per terms) | Not listed |
| Founded | Not listed | 18 September 2024 (CBE) |
| Primary data region | Not listed | Switzerland (Exoscale Zurich) |
| License | Not listed | AGPL-3.0 client; managed backend closed |
| Cookieless | Not listed | Yes (vendor claim: no cookies, no fingerprinting) |
| Data residency regions | Not listed | Switzerland (Exoscale primary; Infomaniak backups) |
| Key capabilities | Alceris Analytics | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless by design | Yes | Yes |
| 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 |
| Open-source client | Not listed | Yes |
| Swiss-hosted data | Not listed | Yes |
| No analytics cookies | 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 traffic dashboard
Pageviews, unique-visitor estimates, referrers, UTM campaigns, device or browser splits, and country-level geo from a single script tag, without cookies or fingerprinting according to Ciphera's privacy docs.
Journeys and conversion funnels
Step-by-step path columns and multi-step funnels with drop-off analysis, filterable by page, country, device, or referrer for privacy-preserving conversion debugging.
Uptime monitors with alert routes
Built-in uptime checks with downtime and recovery alerts to email, Slack, Discord, or a webhook, so availability sits beside traffic in one console.
Daily Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals
Scheduled mobile and desktop Lighthouse runs with performance, accessibility, best-practices, SEO scores, and Core Web Vitals trends without a separate RUM product.
Inspectable AGPL client and read API
Dashboard and tracking script are AGPL-3.0 on GitHub; Ciphera also documents a public read API, CLI, and export paths while keeping the managed backend closed.
| Assurance & compliance | Alceris Analytics | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found No public third-party audit of cookieless/no-IP claims found | Not found Trust page states no independent audit yet; Tessera self-audit published; independent audit planned. |
| ISO 27001 | Not found No ISO 27001 claim on public site/security pages (none published) | Not found Ciphera explicitly states it holds no ISO 27001 certification. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found No SOC 2/3 report referenced publicly | Not found Ciphera explicitly states it holds no SOC 2 certification. |
| 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 Belgian controller; privacy policy describes GDPR/FADP bases and Pulse processor role. Not legal advice. |
| 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 EU (Belgian) entity with no known US parent; primary hosts are European (Exoscale, Infomaniak, Bunny, Mollie). Residual paths: GitHub (US) for source code only; Bunny global edge for transient IPs. 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 | On request / NDA Privacy policy: DPA available on request at privacy@ciphera.net for Pulse processor relationships. |
| EU AI Act | Not applicable Web analytics measurement product; not marketed as an AI system | Not applicable Web analytics product; not an AI system product page. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Alceris Analytics | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Managed backend is not open source | Not listed | Medium You can audit the browser script and dashboard code, but not the operated ingestion and storage service. Procurement that requires full-stack self-host or full server auditability should look elsewhere. |
| No ISO/SOC or independent audit yet | Not listed | Medium Ciphera publishes threat models, a warrant canary, and a subprocessor list, but explicitly has no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 and no completed independent audit. Enterprise security reviews will need questionnaires and a signed DPA. |
| Primary data residency is Switzerland, not EU/EEA | Not listed | Low Swiss adequacy covers many GDPR transfer questions, but policies that hard-require EU/EEA datacenter soil will classify this as partial rather than EU-hosted. |
| Marketing vs privacy wording conflicts | Not listed | Low Product FAQ pages disagree on whether custom events ship today and whether a DPA is needed. Prefer privacy@ and the privacy policy for legal commitments until Ciphera aligns the FAQs. |
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 a mature EU cookieless analytics product with an official full-stack self-host option
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Plausible (Estonia) is the common self-host plus SaaS peer; Pulse keeps the backend managed-only.
When: You want a minimal Dutch cookieless counter without uptime or Lighthouse bundles
Consider: Simple Analytics
Closer peer for strictly analytics SaaS; Pulse differentiates with ops-style panels.
When: You need enterprise analytics with strong EU residency controls and heavier compliance packaging
Consider: Piwik PRO or Friendly Analytics
Heavier Matomo-class or Swiss-hosted peers when Pulse's startup assurance set is too thin.