Compare Insights and Pulse by Ciphera on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics
Austria· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist when you need cookie-free hosted analytics with first-class custom events for SPAs from an Austrian operator. Skip when you need self-host, public ISO/SOC packs, or infrastructure without Google Firebase—consider Plausible Analytics, Simple Analytics, or Pirsch Analytics instead (or self-hosted Matomo).
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 | Insights | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Country of origin | Austria | Belgium |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | No | No |
| Headquarters | Austria | Belgium |
| Legal entity | Unsourced Digital OG | Ciphera BV |
| Governing law | Not listed | 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 | Operator: Unsourced Digital OG (Austria). Vendor-documented infrastructure includes Google Firebase—Cloud Functions, Firebase Authentication (customer accounts), and Firebase Hosting—with temporary IP handling described for those Google services. Visitor analytics designed without cookies and without IP storage in DB/logs; still a US-group cloud path for processing/hosting/auth. | 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 | Austrian privacy-first hosted web analytics: page views and custom events without cookies or stored visitor IPs, with an MIT open-source JS client (backend uses Google Firebase). | Cookie-free web analytics with traffic, funnels, uptime and Lighthouse checks in one Belgian-operated, Swiss-hosted dashboard. |
| Tags |
| At a glance | Insights | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| HQ / law | Austria (Unsourced Digital OG; Austrian governing law) | Not listed |
| Product type | Hosted privacy web analytics + custom events | Not listed |
| Client license | MIT (insights-js); backend proprietary | Not listed |
| Self-host | No public self-host option | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Free low-volume tier; paid by monthly event/pageview volume | Free Hobby tier; paid plans by traffic scale |
| Known infra | Google Firebase (Functions, Auth, Hosting) per vendor docs | Not listed |
| HQ | Not listed | Diegem, Belgium (Ciphera BV) |
| Legal entity | Not listed | Ciphera BV (KBO/BCE 1013.721.660) |
| 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 | Insights | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie-free tracking | Yes | Not listed |
| Custom events | Yes | Not listed |
| MIT client (insights-js) | Yes | Not listed |
| Austrian entity | Yes | Not listed |
| Hosted SaaS | Yes | Not listed |
| Firebase data path | Yes | Not listed |
| EU-operated | Not listed | Yes |
| Cookieless | Not listed | Yes |
| Open-source client | Not listed | Yes |
| Swiss-hosted data | Not listed | Yes |
| No analytics cookies | Not listed | Yes |
Cookie-free page views and user flows
Tracks bounce rate, referrers, visits, and user-flow style page statistics without setting analytics cookies, so sites can avoid cookie banners driven solely by analytics. Script init plus trackPages() is the usual path for SPAs.
Custom and cancelable event tracking
insights-js supports named events with string parameters, unique-per-session flags, parameter-only updates, and remove/cancel for long-lived events (e.g. subscribe then unsubscribe). Built for product and funnel metrics, not pageviews only.
MIT open-source TypeScript client
The browser/npm client (insights-js) is MIT-licensed on GitHub with TypeScript types and helpers for locale, screen type, path, referrer, and duration buckets. Supports React, Angular, Vue, UMD script, and multi-project App instances. Backend remains proprietary SaaS.
Visitor anonymization pipeline (vendor-described)
Vendor docs: IPs hashed only in RAM for fraud checks (not stored in DB or logs); user agents reduced to browser/OS; optional screen sizes rounded to 50px; Do Not Track honoured. Confirm fit with your DPO—anonymous design is not a legal certification.
Developer-oriented integration
One-minute script install or npm package; docs cover multi-project tracking, ignoreErrors/disabled flags for production environments, and hash/search options on page paths. Lightweight client positioned against heavier GA-style tags.
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 | Insights | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found Vendor describes no IP storage in DB/logs and RAM-only hashing; no public third-party audit PDF found. | Not found Trust page states no independent audit yet; Tessera self-audit published; independent audit planned. |
| ISO 27001 | Not found No public certificate on getinsights.io at research time. | Not found Ciphera explicitly states it holds no ISO 27001 certification. |
| SOC 2 / SOC 3 | Not found No public SOC report found. | Not found Ciphera explicitly states it holds no SOC 2 certification. |
| GDPR / EU data protection | Vendor claimed Austrian entity; privacy policy and data-collection docs; cookie-free/no-stored-IP design for visitors. Firebase/Google processing still requires transfer/DPA diligence. | Vendor claimed Belgian controller; privacy policy describes GDPR/FADP bases and Pulse processor role. Not legal advice. |
| US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative) | Partial EU entity / no known US parent, but Google Firebase (US-group) used for Cloud Functions, Auth, and Hosting per vendor data page. Indicative medium exposure. 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 standalone public DPA page found; request from contact@getinsights.io for B2B 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 product, not an AI system product page. | Not applicable Web analytics product; not an AI system product page. |
| Considerations & known limitations | Insights | Pulse by Ciphera |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase on critical path | High Vendor documents Firebase Cloud Functions, Auth, and Hosting. Anonymous visitor design does not remove US-group cloud dependency for hosting/auth/processing—material for sovereignty-sensitive buyers. | Not listed |
| No public independent audit or certs | Medium No ISO 27001, SOC 2, or third-party no-logs audit found on the public site. Rely on vendor claims plus your own review of the open client. | Not listed |
| Client open source only; no self-host | Medium insights-js is MIT; dashboard/backend are closed SaaS. You cannot run the full product on your infrastructure. | Not listed |
| Small team / continuity | Medium Product presented as built by two freelance developers under Unsourced Digital OG. Assess vendor longevity and support SLAs for business-critical analytics. | Not listed |
| Bounce/unique metrics need SPA routing | Low Client docs: trackPages bounce and unique views expect a client-side router and do not use cookies/localStorage; multi-page full reloads can skew metrics. | 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 simple hosted EU privacy page analytics with a strong Plausible-style product footprint
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Compare event depth: Insights markets custom events as a core differentiator vs simpler page-focused tools.
When: You want cookie-free analytics with an explicit privacy brand and different commercial packaging
Consider: Simple Analytics
Verify each vendor's hosting and subprocessor pages side by side.
When: You prefer a German peer privacy analytics product
Consider: Pirsch Analytics
Compare event features, regions, and legal docs for your DPA process.
When: You need full control of the stack or on-prem processing
Consider: Self-hosted Matomo (or similar open analytics)
Higher ops cost; no dependency on Insights SaaS or Firebase.
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.