Contentsquare vs Stormly

Compare Contentsquare and Stormly on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Google Analytics

Logo: Contentsquare

Contentsquare

France· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist Contentsquare when a European-headquartered enterprise needs zone heatmaps, replay, journeys, and error-to-revenue analysis in one SaaS, with a public DPA and selectable Ireland hosting. Skip when you cannot accept AWS or Azure (US-group cloud), session replay of visitor pages, or a sales-led Pro and Enterprise stack. Consider Mouseflow for a smaller European heatmap and replay tool, or Plausible / Friendly Analytics when you only need privacy-first traffic analytics.

EU-operated (FR SAS)Zone heatmapsSession replayPublic DPAEU or US cloud regionISO 27001 (claimed)
Logo: Stormly

Stormly

Netherlands· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist Stormly when you need Dutch-contracted, e-commerce-first product analytics: SKU-aware report packs, Shopify/Adobe-oriented setup, inbox-style AI anomaly narratives, and a public DPA. Skip when you need cookieless privacy web stats only (consider Plausible, Simple Analytics, or Pirsch), open-source self-hosting, verified ISO/SOC on a public cert page, or a subprocessor chain free of US-group cloud and Azure OpenAI.

E-commerce product analyticsSKU-aware reportsAI anomaly insightsShopify / Adobe CommerceNL entity + public DPASaaS (not self-host)
Contentsquare vs Stormly: Snapshot
FeatureLogo: ContentsquareContentsquareLogo: StormlyStormly
Country of originFranceNetherlands
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
Open sourceNoNo
Self-hostedNoNo
HeadquartersFranceNetherlands
Legal entityContent Square SAS, 7 rue de Madrid, 75008 Paris, FranceMonon B.V. (Lutmastraat 1-3, 1072 JL Amsterdam; KvK 76248747 per Terms)
Governing lawNot listedNetherlands (Dutch law; Amsterdam courts)
US parent / controlNo known US parentNo known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)MediumMedium
Hosting / residencyVisitor hosting on AWS and Azure: Ireland (eu-west-1 / North Europe) by default for EU customers, or Virginia. Free and Growth stay in Ireland. Backup region unnamed. Support: Zendesk (USA), Atlassian (Australia), Content Square, Inc. (USA). Sense: Bedrock, Azure LLMs, OpenAI (PA chat). VoC: Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous. Conversation Intelligence: Deepgram, Snowflake, Salesforce.Client analytics subprocessors (Security Architecture): Hetzner (EU); Amazon AWS (US company, vendor states EU regions only for encrypted analytics backups); Vultr (US company); Microsoft Azure OpenAI (US company, vendor states EU Azure region). Plans market EU data residency. Controller privacy policy also references Vultr/AWS for account data, AuthSMTP EU + Amazon SES USA for email, Stripe for payments; marketing site uses Google Analytics and Hotjar.
Summary

Paris-headquartered experience intelligence platform: zone heatmaps, session replay, journey analysis, Voice of Customer, and Sense AI on AWS or Azure with selectable EU or US regions.

Dutch SaaS product analytics for e-commerce teams: SKU-aware reports, AI-assisted anomaly and root-cause insights, and Shopify/Adobe Commerce/Segment/GTM-oriented connections under Monon B.V. (Amsterdam).

Tags
At a glance: Contentsquare vs Stormly
At a glanceLogo: ContentsquareContentsquareLogo: StormlyStormly
HQParis, FranceNot listed
Legal entity (typical EU)Content Square SASNot listed
Founded2012 (Paris)Not listed
HostingAWS and Azure, Ireland or VirginiaNot listed
DeploymentMulti-tenant SaaS (not self-hosted)Not listed
Commercial modelFree and Growth self-serve; Pro and Enterprise sales-ledFree tier + monthly plan + custom; trial path on paid
HQ / entityNot listedMonon B.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands
CategoryNot listedE-commerce product analytics (SaaS)
Hosting (public)Not listedHetzner; AWS EU-region backups; Vultr; Azure OpenAI EU region (vendor docs)
Open sourceNot listedNo
Self-hostNot listedNo
Governing lawNot listedDutch law; Amsterdam courts
Key capabilities: Contentsquare vs Stormly
Key capabilitiesLogo: ContentsquareContentsquareLogo: StormlyStormly
EU-operated (FR SAS)YesNot listed
Zone heatmapsYesNot listed
Session replayYesNot listed
Public DPAYesNot listed
EU or US cloud regionYesNot listed
ISO 27001 (claimed)YesNot listed
E-commerce product analyticsNot listedYes
SKU-aware reportsNot listedYes
AI anomaly insightsNot listedYes
Shopify / Adobe CommerceNot listedYes
NL entity + public DPANot listedYes
SaaS (not self-host)Not listedYes

Contentsquare

  • Zone-based heatmaps and journey analysis

    Experience Analytics maps clicks, hovers, and scrolls to page zones and attributes engagement, conversion, and revenue to those elements. Journey analysis (Pro and Enterprise) follows visitors from entry to exit so CRO and UX teams can find drop-off without reconstructing funnels in a separate BI tool. Limit: Free and Growth include heatmaps but not the full journey module.

  • Session replay with Smart Capture

    The Main Tag and mobile SDKs auto-capture clicks, scrolls, taps, and swipes without a full custom event taxonomy. Replays can be summarized by Sense. Docs expose CSS-selector and page-level PII masking. Customer-submitted identifiers (email, username) are off by default. Limit: Shopify checkout replay and zoning require Shopify Plus, and checkout pages must use page masking. The product is multi-tenant SaaS, not a self-hosted recorder.

  • Error, speed, and frustration monitoring

    Experience Monitoring ties JavaScript errors, crashes, custom business errors, and page-speed metrics to the same sessions as replay. Frustration Score ranks journeys with rage clicks and similar signals. Impact Quantification estimates conversion and revenue effects so engineering can triage by business cost. Alerts and several of these modules are Pro and Enterprise only.

  • Voice of Customer and conversation intelligence

    Surveys and feedback (Ask), Observe, and Engage interviews or user tests sit on the same group platform as Hotjar-branded VoC. Conversation Intelligence (Loris) scores agent and requester chats, including optional audio via Deepgram. Interview and user-test recordings are retained for 2 years per the DPA. These modules pull extra subprocessors (Twilio, Daily.co, Postmark, Tremendous).

  • Sense AI on regional LLM endpoints

    Sense generates dashboards, error summaries, mapping help, and replay summaries from captured behavior. The DPA lists AWS Bedrock and Azure models for Growth, Pro, and Enterprise, served from EU or US regions based on customer location. Product Analytics Sense Chat can also call OpenAI. The vendor says customers should avoid putting personal data in prompts. This is in-product AI, not a self-hosted model.

  • Selectable AWS or Azure residency plus enterprise access

    EU-based customers default to Ireland (AWS eu-west-1 or Azure North Europe). US hosting (Virginia) is an explicit option. SAML 2.0 SSO and MFA are documented. Data Connect can export visitor data to a warehouse (Frankfurt or Virginia for Experience Analytics). There is no EU-sovereign cloud option that avoids US-group providers.

Stormly

  • AI agent for trends, anomalies, and root-cause style digs

    Stormly positions an AI agent that watches connected e-commerce data for trends and anomalies (for example conversion drops or product spikes), then delivers plain-language findings—often to the inbox—with root-cause style exploration for questions like mobile conversion drops or regional return spikes. AI assistant access is plan-dependent; the public DPA documents Azure OpenAI (Microsoft) handling of assistant queries with a 30-day retention window and property stripping rules. Best for merchandising and growth leads who want narrative answers without waiting on a data team.

  • SKU-aware e-commerce report library (plus custom builds)

    Ready reports target commerce questions: New Arrivals Performance (early SKU winners/laggards), Unviewed & Unsold Products, cart abandonment and revenue contribution by product/category, Conversion Journey and funnels by device/region, A/B test insights, Aha Moment Discovery, cross-selling analysis, and broader library items (retention, CLV, forecasting, SQL report, and more). Vendor materials state custom reports are included without a separate fee when a needed view is missing—useful for mid-market retailers that outgrow generic event charts.

  • Shopify, Adobe Commerce, Segment, and GTM-oriented connections

    Homepage setup emphasizes linking Shopify, Adobe Commerce, or Segment quickly, with Google Tag Manager also listed among integrations. The DPA describes additional programmatic paths (JS library, import, custom endpoints, third-party sources). Fits stores already on common commerce stacks; teams on exotic storefronts should validate event coverage and product-feed depth in a pilot before replacing an existing analytics stack.

  • End-user tracking with IP anonymization defaults

    Per the DPA, IP addresses for end-user analytics are not stored in full: the last octet is removed and geo/timezone are derived from the anonymized value. Web integrations automatically capture first-party cookie user ids, page/referrer/UTM context, and device metadata; app properties depend on client or CDP configuration. This is still full product analytics (not cookieless aggregate-only web stats)—clients remain responsible for consent banners and lawful basis for shopper tracking.

  • Public DPA, security architecture, and Dutch contracting

    B2B buyers can download a Data Processing Agreement (effective 2023-09-06) and a Security Architecture page listing subprocessors, encryption expectations, backup retention (analytics backups up to six months), and logical tenant isolation. Contracts and DPA are governed by Dutch law with Amsterdam courts. Useful for EU procurement packages—but US-group subprocessors (AWS, Vultr, Azure OpenAI) still require transfer and CLOUD Act diligence.

Assurance & compliance: Contentsquare vs Stormly
Assurance & complianceLogo: ContentsquareContentsquareLogo: StormlyStormly
Independent security / no-logs audit
On request / NDA

Trust portal lists a pentest report and security whitepaper behind access. Security page claims annual external pentests, monthly scans, and a public bug bounty. No public no-logs audit (wrong category for a behavior recorder).

Not found

Security Architecture describes encryption, monitoring, isolation, and vulnerability contact (security@stormly.com); no public third-party audit PDF found.

ISO 27001
Vendor claimed

Trust portal and security page state ISO/IEC 27001 certification (also 27017, 27018). Certificate files require portal access. Not independently verified in a public registry during this draft.

Not found

No public ISO 27001 certificate located on official legal/security pages reviewed.

ISO 27701
Vendor claimed

Vendor claims ISO/IEC 27701 on the trust portal and company page. Same access-gated evidence.

Not listed
SOC 2 / SOC 3
Vendor claimed

Vendor states it holds a SOC 2 Type II report. Report is on the trust portal, not a public PDF in this research pass.

Not found

No public SOC 2/3 report located on official pages reviewed.

GDPR / EU data protection
Vendor claimed

French SAS, public DPA with GDPR, UK GDPR, ePrivacy Directive, EU SCCs (French law, French courts), customer-as-controller. Customer still owns consent, masking, and lawful basis for visitor capture.

Vendor claimed

NL entity; public privacy policy and DPA (GDPR-oriented); IP last-octet anonymization for end-user analytics; SCCs language for restricted transfers in DPA.

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)
Partial

EuropeanStack assessment, not a vendor slogan. French entity and no known US parent, but visitor data sits on AWS and Azure (US-group clouds), a US affiliate provides support, and US SaaS subprocessors include Zendesk, Postmark, OpenAI, Deepgram, Snowflake, and Salesforce. US region is an explicit option. DPF covers the US entity. Not legal advice.

Partial

EU entity / no known US parent, but public client subprocessors include AWS, Vultr, and Microsoft Azure OpenAI (US-group companies). Account path historically also lists Amazon SES and Stripe. Residency claims do not remove US-group legal exposure. Indicative only—not legal advice.

Data processing agreement (B2B)
Vendor claimed

Public DPA last updated June 2026 (v.2026.2). Subprocessor objection window 30 days. SCCs Module Two and Three.

Vendor claimed

Downloadable DPA PDF linked from stormly.com/dpa (effective 6 September 2023); audit rights and subprocessor notice described; Security Architecture lists subprocessors.

EU AI Act
Partial

Sense is in-product generative AI over customer and visitor data (Bedrock, Azure, OpenAI). No public AI Act conformity statement found. Customer is told to avoid personal data in prompts. Not treated as not_applicable.

Partial

Product includes an AI assistant via Azure OpenAI; not positioned as a high-risk AI system marketing claim. Buyers should map AI assistant use to their own AI Act / internal AI policy—vendor does not publish a full AI Act conformity package on the pages reviewed.

EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework
Vendor claimed

DPA and services privacy policy state Content Square, Inc. is DPF certified (EU-U.S., UK Extension, Swiss-U.S.). Listing not re-opened during this draft.

Not listed
HIPAA
Vendor claimed

Security page displays a HIPAA mark. No public BAA text reviewed. Confirm with vendor if health data is in scope (DPA says the service is not designed for sensitive data).

Not listed
CSA STAR
Vendor claimed

Security page shows a STAR mark. Trust portal lists CAIQ. Registry entry not independently opened.

Not listed
Considerations & known limitations: Contentsquare vs Stormly
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: ContentsquareContentsquareLogo: StormlyStormly
AWS and Azure plus US SaaS subprocessors
Medium

Even with Ireland as the default EU region, the infrastructure providers are Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Support and AI paths include Zendesk, a US affiliate, Bedrock or Azure OpenAI, and in some modules OpenAI, Deepgram, Snowflake, and Salesforce. Practical impact: a residency policy that bans US-group processors will fail this vendor regardless of the France HQ story.

Not listed
High-sensitivity visitor capture
Medium

Session replay and zoning record on-page behavior and can include on-screen text. Masking is configurable, not a guarantee that every form is clean. The customer is controller for consent and special-category data. Practical impact: legal and privacy must review checkout, account, and health or finance pages before go-live.

Not listed
Full DX stack is sales-led
Low

Journeys, error and speed analysis, alerts, and Data Connect are documented as Pro and Enterprise. Free and Growth cover heatmaps and replay only. Practical impact: do not shortlist on the free signup if those enterprise modules are the actual requirement.

Not listed
Hotjar, Heap, and Loris live in one group
Low

Subprocessors and retention differ by module (13 months DXA, 37 months product analytics, 2 years for interview recordings). Practical impact: a Hotjar-only DPIA does not cover Conversation Intelligence or Sense Chat.

Not listed
ISO and SOC evidence behind the trust portal
Low

ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II are vendor-claimed. Independent certificate files were not downloaded in this draft. Practical impact: security review should request current reports before treating badges as verified.

Not listed
US-group cloud and AI subprocessorsNot listed
Medium

Despite Dutch HQ and EU residency marketing, client data paths publicly include AWS, Vultr, and Microsoft Azure OpenAI. Transfer tooling (SCCs) and encryption of backups are documented, but CLOUD Act / US legal process risk remains a diligence item for sovereignty-sensitive buyers.

No public ISO/SOC or independent auditNot listed
Medium

Enterprise security questionnaires may stall without ISO 27001/SOC 2 packs. DPA offers information/audit rights—plan time for NDA evidence requests.

Azure OpenAI retains assistant context 30 daysNot listed
Medium

AI queries and aggregate report results are stored on Microsoft Azure OpenAI for 30 days per DPA. Property stripping reduces some identifiers, but misconfigured event properties could still expose sensitive content—govern AI use and property hygiene.

Controller privacy policy vs security architecture driftNot listed
Low

Privacy policy (controller, effective 2019) still emphasizes Vultr USA wording in places, while Security Architecture (client data) lists Hetzner/AWS/Vultr/Azure. Ask for a single current subprocessor and region matrix at contract time.

Not a privacy web-analytics substituteNot listed
Low

Full product analytics with cookies/identifiers for web integrations—not a cookieless aggregate counter. Consent UX remains on the client.

Fit

Contentsquare

Best fit when

  • Enterprise or mid-market CRO, UX, ecommerce, and digital product teams that need zoning, journeys, and replay tied to conversion
  • European buyers who want a French SAS contracting entity and a public DPA with EU SCCs under French law
  • Teams already running GA4 or Adobe Analytics that need a visual DX layer rather than another pageview tool
  • Support and engineering groups that must reproduce errors from the visitor's screen and rank them by revenue impact
  • Organisations that can accept AWS or Azure Ireland as the primary region and will configure PII masking on checkout and forms

Poor fit when

  • Buyers who require no US-group cloud, no US affiliate support access, and no US SaaS subprocessors
  • Teams that only need cookieless traffic analytics without session replay or heatmaps
  • Procurement that mandates self-hosted or open-source DXA with data never leaving owned infrastructure
  • Sites that cannot deploy a third-party Main Tag or mobile SDK, or cannot mask PII in replays

Consider instead when

  • When: You want European heatmap, replay, and friction analysis at a smaller scale than enterprise DXA

    Consider: Mouseflow

    Danish SaaS in the catalog. Confirm its own hosting and DPA independently.

  • When: You only need privacy-first page analytics without session video

    Consider: Plausible Analytics or Friendly Analytics

    Different job: traffic and privacy, not zoning or replay.

  • When: You already use Hotjar for surveys and light replay and do not need enterprise quantification

    Consider: Stay on the Hotjar (Ask / Observe / Engage) SKU in the same group

    Same French SAS for non-Americas contracts. Not a separate catalog product at draft time.

  • When: You need US-parented enterprise DXA already standardized in the US stack

    Consider: FullStory, or Adobe Analytics plus a replay add-on

    Closer operationally to Contentsquare's full suite, but not European-operated.

Stormly

Best fit when

  • Merchandising, product, UX, and growth teams on Shopify or Adobe Commerce who need SKU, cart, and assortment analytics without a dedicated data science org
  • Retail brands that want ready e-commerce report templates (new arrivals, unviewed/unsold, funnels, A/B, aha moments) plus vendor-built custom reports
  • EU buyers who want a Dutch legal entity, Amsterdam courts, and a downloadable DPA/Security Architecture package
  • Teams that value AI-generated trend/anomaly narratives delivered to the inbox more than building every chart from a blank event schema
  • Stacks already using Segment or Google Tag Manager as the event pipe into analytics

Poor fit when

  • Publishers or marketing sites that only need lightweight privacy-friendly page analytics (not product/SKU depth)
  • Orgs that require open-source self-hosting or full control of a private analytics warehouse as the default
  • Procurement policies that forbid US-group subprocessors (AWS, Vultr, Microsoft Azure OpenAI) even when EU regions are claimed
  • Assurance programs that require public ISO 27001/SOC 2 evidence before pilot (not found on vendor pages reviewed)
  • Companies operating blockchain products/services—restricted by Stormly’s terms

Consider instead when

  • When: You only need privacy-oriented website metrics (pageviews, sources) rather than SKU-level product analytics

    Consider: Plausible Analytics, Simple Analytics, or Pirsch Analytics

    EU web-analytics peers; different category from e-commerce product analytics

  • When: You need deep general-purpose product analytics, large ecosystem, and mature multi-product SaaS event modeling

    Consider: Mixpanel or Amplitude

    US incumbents; stronger breadth, different jurisdiction and commercial model

  • When: You primarily need free/universal marketing acquisition reporting already embedded in the stack

    Consider: Google Analytics (incumbent) or dual-run GA for marketing + Stormly for product/merch

    GA is not SKU-first product analytics; Stormly is not a GA replacement for every report

Open questions for due diligence

Contentsquare

  • What is the geographic backup or DR region for the Ireland pipeline (security page says a backup region, not which one)?
  • Can a reviewer download current ISO 27001, ISO 27701, and SOC 2 Type II reports from the trust portal, including scope and expiry?
  • Is Content Square, Inc. support access to EU visitor data on by default, or only when a ticket requires it?
  • Who holds controlling ownership after SoftBank Vision Fund, Sixth Street, and other rounds (no US parent found, but cap table is private)?
  • For Sense, what exact visitor fields leave the selected region when Bedrock, Azure, or OpenAI is invoked?
  • Does the latest public-authorities transparency report show any US law-enforcement requests for EU visitor data?

Stormly

  • Can Stormly provide a current region map (which data classes live on Hetzner vs Vultr vs AWS) under NDA for our DPIA?
  • Are ISO 27001, SOC 2, or penetration-test summaries available on request for enterprise security review?
  • Which event properties from our Shopify/Adobe feed are excluded from Azure OpenAI prompts by default in our tenant?
  • Do custom report builds and SQL access sit only on the custom tier, and what SLAs apply?
  • Has the 2019 controller privacy policy been superseded for hosting wording relative to the Security Architecture list?