Compare digistats Analytics and Plausible Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics, Matomo
Switzerland· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist digistats when you want managed Swiss cookieless analytics with multi-site, events, API, and CSV on every listed tier and you accept SaaS-only operations. Skip when you need self-host/OSS, GA4-depth product analytics, or published ISO 27001/SOC 2—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 | digistats Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Switzerland | Estonia |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | Yes |
| Headquarters | Switzerland | Estonia |
| Legal entity | digistats Analytics Ltd., Täfernstrasse 2A, CH-5405 Dättwil AG (UID CHE-296.235.462) | Plausible Insights OÜ, Västriku tn 2, 50403 Tartu, Estonia |
| Governing law | Swiss law; venue Bremgarten AG (per AGB) | 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 | Privacy policy: customer data processed/stored in Switzerland, not in the USA or outside the EU; pricing lists Switzerland Data Center. Hosting provider legal name not in a public subprocessor list. Payment subprocessors: Stripe, Inc. (USA) and Coinbase (crypto; German entity listed in AGB). | 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 | Swiss cookieless web analytics SaaS from digistats Analytics Ltd.: realtime traffic, city-level geo, events, and multi-site dashboards without storing cookies, IPs, or fingerprints. | 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 | digistats Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Dättwil AG, Switzerland | Tartu, Estonia |
| Legal entity | digistats Analytics Ltd. (CHE-296.235.462) | Plausible Insights OÜ (reg. 14709274) |
| Hosting | Switzerland data center (host brand not named publicly) | Not listed |
| Deployment | Managed SaaS only | Not listed |
| Open source | No | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Free low-traffic tier + pageview-based subscription | Pageview-based Cloud SaaS; free CE self-host |
| 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 | digistats Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | Yes |
| No stored visitor IPs | Yes | Not listed |
| Swiss data center | Yes | Not listed |
| Unlimited websites | Yes | Not listed |
| API + CSV export | Yes | Not listed |
| Managed SaaS | 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 script without stored IPs or fingerprints
Vendor docs describe a sub-1 kB tag that measures traffic without cookies, without retaining visitor IPs (IP used only for live geo lookup), and without fingerprinting—aimed at sites that want analytics without a consent banner for non-essential cookies.
Realtime dashboard with geo, tech, events, and channels
Live visitor and pageview views plus city-level geography, browser/OS/device signals, custom conversion events, referrer/search/social acquisition, landing pages, and continuous site reachability (online status)—enough for content and marketing ops, not a full product-analytics suite.
Ad-blocker-resistant capture (vendor claim)
Marketing materials contrast digistats with Google Analytics being stripped by major blockers and state digistats is not blocked by common ad-block extensions. Useful for traffic completeness debates; treat as first-party claim until you validate on your stack.
Multi-site SaaS with API, email reports, and CSV on every tier
Published plans include unlimited websites and events, API access, email reports, Swiss data-center storage, and CSV export—even on the free low-traffic tier—so agencies can run multiple client properties without plan-gated feature cliffs.
Swiss entity and Swiss analytics data center
Operated by digistats Analytics Ltd. (Dättwil AG); privacy policy commits to storing customer data in Switzerland. Managed hosting only—no self-hosted edition in public materials.
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 | digistats Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found Vendor claims no IP storage and no fingerprints; no public third-party audit PDF 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 Not claimed on reviewed pages. Host partner ISO 14001 (environmental) is not an ISMS cert. | Not found No ISO 27001 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found | Not found No SOC 2/3 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed. |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed Swiss entity; privacy policy cites DSG and GDPR/DSGVO, cookieless design, Swiss storage. Not legal advice. | 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 Swiss Ltd, no known US parent, analytics residency claimed in Switzerland; billing via Stripe, Inc. (US) and Coinbase. EuropeanStack assessment — not a vendor certification. 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) | Partial Privacy policy describes Art. 28-style processing on behalf of customers; dedicated public DPA download not found — request signed DPA. | 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 product; not positioned as an AI system product. | Not applicable Website analytics product; not marketed as an AI system under the AI Act. |
| Considerations & known limitations | digistats Analytics | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| No public independent security audit | Medium Cookieless and no-IP claims are first-party only. Security questionnaires that require audit reports will need vendor outreach or a different product. | Not listed |
| US-linked payment subprocessors | Medium AGB names Stripe, Inc. (San Francisco) for cards and Coinbase for crypto. Billing and account data may leave the pure Swiss analytics path even if telemetry stays in Switzerland. | Not listed |
| Hosting provider not named publicly | Low Switzerland data-center claim without a published host legal name or full subprocessor list complicates transfer and residual-risk assessments. | Not listed |
| No self-host or open-source path | Medium Cannot pin collector versions, run fully air-gapped, or satisfy hard self-host mandates. Operational dependency on digistats uptime and roadmap. | Not listed |
| Registration path may be restricted | Low At research time the login UI stated registrations were disabled and /developers redirected to login. Confirm trial and API access before scheduling migration. | 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 need open-source and optional self-hosting with a large community
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Matomo
Plausible is cookieless SaaS + self-host; Matomo is the full self-host suite.
When: You want another lightweight EU cookieless SaaS without Swiss seat as a requirement
Consider: Simple Analytics or Pirsch Analytics
NL and DE peers in the same category band.
When: You need enterprise analytics, tag manager, and formal compliance packaging
Consider: Piwik PRO or Matomo Cloud
Heavier stacks with more modules and B2B assurance artifacts.
When: You are comparing global privacy-analytics brands rather than Swiss residency
Consider: Fathom Analytics
Different ownership and data-path story—verify residency independently.
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.