Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics

Compare Matomo by Stackhero and Simple Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics, Matomo

Logo: Matomo by Stackhero

Matomo by Stackhero

France· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you want full Matomo on a dedicated French-operated bare-metal instance with one-click updates and hourly billing—especially if you prefer unlimited site/seat product framing over hit-metered multi-tenant SaaS. Skip when you need EU-only with no US region option, root/SSH access, or a minimal cookieless counter—consider self-hosted Matomo, Friendly Analytics, or Plausible instead.

Managed MatomoDedicated instanceFrench PaaS operatorISO 27001 (claimed)Automatic DPAEU or US region
Logo: Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics

Netherlands· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you need EU-operated, cookieless web metrics without visitor IDs or stored IPs—especially as a visibility layer beside GA4. Skip when you need self-host/open-source control, session replay, or identity-rich marketing analytics; consider Plausible Analytics or Matomo/Piwik PRO instead.

Cookieless analyticsNo stored IPs / visitor IDsEU-hosted (NL focus)Dutch B.V.Works beside GA4API & BI export
Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics: Snapshot
FeatureLogo: Matomo by StackheroMatomo by StackheroLogo: Simple AnalyticsSimple Analytics
Country of originFranceNetherlands
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
Open sourceYesNo
Self-hostedNoNo
HeadquartersFranceNetherlands
Legal entityStackhero (RCS Paris 512 366 378, VAT FR92512366378), 1 rue de Stockholm, 75008 Paris, FranceSimple Analytics B.V., Amsterdam (KVK 88269922, VAT NL864560011B01)
Governing lawFrench law; courts at registered head office (per Terms of service)Netherlands / EU
US parent / controlNo known US parentNo known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)MediumLow
Hosting / residencyPrimary compute: Stackhero bare-metal cloud, customer-chosen region EU (France) or USA. Backups: stored in the EU per Matomo FAQ; encrypted atomic images retained up to ~3 months. Not built on AWS/GCP/Azure as the stated compute substrate. Payment processor (unnamed) handles card data; privacy policy mentions third-party messaging/stats tools without a full named subprocessor table.Analytics data claimed processed in the Netherlands/EU. Public subprocessors (May 2026): Worldstream + Leaseweb (NL hosting), Hetzner (DE hosting), Bunny (SI CDN/DNS), Hyperping (FR uptime), Intention (NL domains). Vendor states this list covers website visitor-data subprocessors only—not payments/internal ops.
Summary

French PaaS-managed Matomo on dedicated bare-metal instances: unlimited sites until capacity, one-click updates, EU or US region choice, with hourly billing and an automatic DPA.

Dutch privacy-first web analytics SaaS: cookieless pageviews and campaigns without visitor IDs or stored IPs, EU-hosted by Simple Analytics B.V. in Amsterdam.

Tags
At a glance: Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics
At a glanceLogo: Matomo by StackheroMatomo by StackheroLogo: Simple AnalyticsSimple Analytics
HQParis, France (1 rue de Stockholm, 75008)Amsterdam, Netherlands
Legal entityStackhero — RCS Paris 512 366 378Simple Analytics B.V. (KVK 88269922)
StackOpen-source Matomo on dedicated Stackhero VMNot listed
Hosting regionsEU (France) or USA; backups in EU (vendor FAQ)Not listed
Commercial modelHourly instance billing; free trial; no standard commitmentFree hobby tier + usage-based paid + enterprise
CertificationsISO 27001:2022 claimed (BAB #254338)Not listed
FoundedNot listed2018
Product typeNot listedHosted web analytics SaaS (not self-hosted)
Open sourceNot listedNo (proprietary)
Data focusNot listedCookieless, non-identifying aggregate metrics
Primary hostingNot listedNetherlands (EU); see subprocessors
Key capabilities: Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics
Key capabilitiesLogo: Matomo by StackheroMatomo by StackheroLogo: Simple AnalyticsSimple Analytics
Managed MatomoYesNot listed
Dedicated instanceYesNot listed
French PaaS operatorYesNot listed
ISO 27001 (claimed)YesNot listed
Automatic DPAYesNot listed
EU or US regionYesNot listed
Cookieless analyticsNot listedYes
No stored IPs / visitor IDsNot listedYes
EU-hosted (NL focus)Not listedYes
Dutch B.V.Not listedYes
Works beside GA4Not listedYes
API & BI exportNot listedYes

Matomo by Stackhero

  • Dedicated bare-metal Matomo instance

    Each customer gets an isolated VM on Stackhero’s own bare-metal cloud (Stackhero DC OS), not shared multi-tenant Matomo. Local disks and included Redis are positioned for high IOPS and heavy traffic—fit teams that outgrow noisy-neighbor shared analytics clouds.

  • Unlimited sites, members, segments, and goals until capacity

    Stackhero does not meter websites, team seats, segments, or goals as product SKUs; you scale by instance size (published up to 16 vCPUs / 64 GB RAM). Retention is limited by disk, not a fixed product TTL—plan storage for long history.

  • One-click Matomo updates and managed ops (no SSH)

    Stackhero delivers Matomo updates for dashboard application; firewall IP rules are customer-configurable. SSH is intentionally unavailable on the managed service—good for reduced surface area, poor fit if you need custom OS packages.

  • Custom domain, GeoIP2, and dedicated notification email

    Point matomo.yourdomain.com with TLS 1.3/ECDSA, ship visitor location via bundled GeoIP2, and send unlimited Matomo reports/alerts through a per-instance email path—reduces glue work after first deploy.

  • Atomic encrypted daily backups (EU vault)

    24-hour atomic image backups (plus event-driven backups on upgrades) are validated, then encrypted (OpenPGP ECDH/Curve25519) and retained up to three months. Vendor FAQ states backups are stored in the EU even when regions differ—confirm dual-region implications for US instances.

  • Hourly billing with EU or US region choice

    Spin services up/down with hourly charging and a single monthly invoice; free trial without payment method. Choose European (France) or USA placement at create time—region is a first-class control for residency, not a hidden default.

Simple Analytics

  • Cookieless metrics without visitor IDs or stored IPs

    Collects pageviews, referrers, UTMs, time-on-page, and scroll depth without cookies, localStorage, fingerprints, or stored IP addresses. Unique visits are inferred from referrer hostname matching, not device IDs. Built for sites that want analytics without a consent banner solely for this tool—and without building visitor profiles.

  • Country from time zone, not geo-IP

    Country-level location is derived from the visitor’s IANA time zone rather than IP lookup, so IPs can be dropped end-to-end. City/region is not available; some border and multi-country zones can mis-tag. Useful when legal teams reject IP-based geolocation even when hashed.

  • Cookieless layer beside GA4 and BI stacks

    Positioned to measure traffic lost when consent is denied in cookie-based tools. Import historical Google Analytics data; export via Stats/Export APIs and integrations toward Looker Studio, Power BI, and warehouse workflows so analysts can compare consented vs observed traffic without replacing every GA report.

  • Lightweight script, events, goals, and ad-blocker bypass

    Vendor claims a single script under 5 KB. Supports events, automated events (e.g. downloads, outbound links), goals, filters, email reports, and robot/referrer-spam controls. Ad-blocker resilience is via first-party proxy or custom subdomain CNAME—not automatic immunity for every blocklist.

  • Team access, SSO, and EU-operated SaaS

    Hosted product from Simple Analytics B.V. (Amsterdam) with role-oriented team features on higher tiers and documented SAML SSO for Okta and Microsoft Entra. No official self-host edition—operations and residency follow the vendor’s EU infrastructure and public subprocessor list.

Assurance & compliance: Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics
Assurance & complianceLogo: Matomo by StackheroMatomo by StackheroLogo: Simple AnalyticsSimple Analytics
Independent security / no-logs audit
Not found

ISO 27001 and bug-bounty openness claimed; no public independent no-logs audit report specific to analytics found.

Not found

Searched security/trust pages; no public independent audit PDF found.

ISO 27001
Vendor claimed

Vendor publishes ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate #254338 from the British Assessment Bureau (PDF). Not re-verified against the issuer’s public register in this draft.

Not found

No ISO 27001 certificate claimed on primary security pages.

SOC 2 / SOC 3
Not found

No SOC 2/3 claim found on certifications/privacy/GDPR pages reviewed.

Partial

Vendor states SOC 2 Type II is in progress / coming soon—not completed certification at research time.

GDPR / EU data protection
Vendor claimed

French entity; public GDPR & DPA page; customer controller / Stackhero processor model; EU region option for service data.

Vendor claimed

Dutch EU entity; vendor claims no personal data collection (no cookies/IPs/visitor IDs) and GDPR-friendly design. Not legal advice—confirm for your processing facts.

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)
Partial

French entity, no known US parent, non-hyperscaler bare-metal hosting claimed. Medium/partial because USA is a first-class hosting region; EU-only only when the customer creates the service in Europe. Backups stated as EU-stored. Not legal advice.

Partial

EU entity, no known US parent, public analytics subprocessors are EU-based (Worldstream, Leaseweb, Hetzner, Bunny, Hyperping). Residual risk remains; reconcile Cloudflare mention on GDPR page vs Bunny on subprocessors. Assessment by EuropeanStack—not a vendor 'safe' claim. Not legal advice.

Data processing agreement (B2B)
Vendor claimed

DPA applies automatically with Terms of service; PDF downloadable from the GDPR & DPA page.

Partial

Vendor says DPA usually not required (no personal data) but will review/sign customer-provided DPAs aligned with architecture.

EU AI Act
Not applicable

Web analytics hosting; not positioned as an AI system product.

Not applicable

Web analytics product; not marketed as an AI system subject to AI Act high-risk regimes.

Considerations & known limitations: Matomo by Stackhero vs Simple Analytics
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: Matomo by StackheroMatomo by StackheroLogo: Simple AnalyticsSimple Analytics
Optional US hosting region
Medium

Platform offers USA placement alongside France/EU. Mis-selected region or unclear contract language can put visitor analytics outside the EU. Procurements that require EU-only must pin region at create time and in the order form.

Not listed
EU backups when primary is US
Medium

FAQ states backups are stored in the EU. If an instance runs in the USA, confirm whether visitor data is dual-homed (US primary + EU backup) and how that affects DPIA and transfer tools.

Not listed
No SSH / managed-only host
Low

Cannot install arbitrary system software or agents; support hours stated as CET office hours for basic platform support—not full Matomo application consulting.

Not listed
Limited named subprocessor list
Medium

Privacy policy mentions third-party tools and a payment processor without a detailed public subprocessor register. Request the annex in diligence if procurement requires named processors.

Not listed
ISO certificate vendor-published
Low

ISO 27001:2022 is claimed with a public PDF and BAB certificate number; validate scope, sites, and validity dates with the certification body before treating it as verified.

Not listed
Matomo privacy configuration is yours
Low

Hosting in the EU does not auto-configure consent, IP anonymization, or cookieless modes. Controllers remain responsible for Matomo GDPR tooling and site policy.

Not listed
Hosted SaaS only—no self-hostNot listed
Medium

No official self-host edition. Orgs with air-gap or on-prem telemetry mandates need Plausible self-host, Matomo, or similar instead.

SOC 2 not yet completeNot listed
Medium

SOC 2 Type II is publicly 'in progress'. Enterprise security reviews may block until a report is available or accept compensating controls (minimal data + EU hosts).

Referrer-based uniques and timezone countryNot listed
Low

Uniques are not durable visitor IDs; country is timezone-based with known mis-tag edge cases. Totals will differ from GA client-ID models—set stakeholder expectations.

CDN/DDoS vendor documentation inconsistencyNot listed
Low

Subprocessors list Bunny (EU) for CDN/DNS; GDPR page still references Cloudflare for CDN/DDoS. Ask for current edge path before asserting zero US-group infrastructure touch.

Small independent operatorNot listed
Low

Public About page describes a three-person self-funded team. Fine for many sites; large enterprises should assess continuity, support SLAs, and roadmap capacity explicitly.

Fit

Matomo by Stackhero

Best fit when

  • Teams that want Matomo’s full analytics/admin surface without running OS or Matomo upgrades themselves
  • Buyers who prefer a dedicated VM and capacity-based limits over multi-tenant hit metering
  • Orgs consolidating Matomo with other Stackhero-managed open-source services under one French operator
  • Projects that need hourly elasticity and the ability to stop billing with one click
  • Controllers who will configure Matomo privacy features themselves and want a signed/automatic DPA plus ISO 27001 claims

Poor fit when

  • Requirements that forbid any US hosting option or dual-region backup stories—platform publicly offers USA regions
  • Teams that need SSH, custom kernels, or non-Matomo system agents on the host
  • Buyers seeking only a lightweight cookieless pageview product (Plausible-class tools are simpler)
  • Organizations that must self-host inside their own cloud account with no third-party PaaS operator
  • Use cases needing a named public subprocessor register beyond Stackhero’s high-level privacy/GDPR pages

Consider instead when

  • When: You want Swiss Matomo-as-a-Service with cookieless defaults and CH product hosts

    Consider: Friendly Analytics

    Different operator, residency story, and privacy defaults; still Matomo-based.

  • When: You need enterprise analytics packaging beyond plain managed Matomo

    Consider: Piwik PRO

    Compare modules, contracts, and hosting regions independently.

  • When: You only need a minimal open-source-friendly counter with simple SaaS UX

    Consider: Plausible Analytics

    Far less Matomo depth; different product surface.

  • When: You require full root control and in-house residency guarantees

    Consider: Self-hosted Matomo on your own EU IaaS

    Maximum control; you own updates, backups, and hardening.

Simple Analytics

Best fit when

  • Teams measuring traffic lost when consent is denied in cookie-based analytics (GA4/Adobe)
  • Public-sector and regulated sites that need no cookies/IPs/visitor profiles for web stats
  • EU procurement that requires Dutch legal entity + published EU subprocessors for visitor data
  • Agencies/multi-site operators wanting a simple hosted dashboard, reports, and API/BI egress
  • Sites that want essential pageview/referrer/UTM metrics without an analytics-only consent banner

Poor fit when

  • Product analytics needing session replay, heatmaps, or person-level funnels
  • Organizations that must self-host analytics or prefer open-source governance (see Plausible/Matomo)
  • Buyers requiring city/region geolocation accuracy (country is timezone-derived)
  • Teams whose primary need is identity-rich attribution, audiences, and marketing automation inside the analytics suite

Consider instead when

  • When: You need open-source and/or official self-hosting of privacy-first analytics

    Consider: Plausible Analytics (catalog: plausible_analytics) or Matomo

    Simple Analytics is hosted SaaS only; Plausible and Matomo cover self-host paths many security policies require.

  • When: You need a deeper EU enterprise analytics platform with configurable processing and on-prem options

    Consider: Piwik PRO (catalog: piwik_pro)

    Heavier suite and procurement surface than Simple Analytics’ minimal cookieless product.

  • When: You need identity graphs, remarketing audiences, and full marketing analytics depth

    Consider: Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics

    Keep those for consented deep analysis; Simple Analytics is the opposite design tradeoff.

  • When: You want another lightweight EU cookieless tracker and are comparing peers

    Consider: Pirsch Analytics (pirsch_analytics) or Friendly Analytics (friendly_analytics)

    Compare retention, multi-site, SSO, and API maturity rather than GDPR slogans alone.

Open questions for due diligence

Matomo by Stackhero

  • Will the order form and DPA annex permanently pin the Matomo instance to the EU (France) region with no US failover?
  • For US-region instances, what exact data is copied to EU backup vaults and under which transfer mechanism?
  • Who is the unnamed parent company referenced on the About page, and is there any US ownership or PE?
  • Can ISO 27001 certificate 254338 be validated on the British Assessment Bureau (or successor) public register for current scope/dates?
  • Which payment, support, and website analytics providers process Stackhero account data (named subprocessor list)?

Simple Analytics

  • Is Cloudflare still used for any CDN/DDoS path, or has Bunny fully replaced it for edge services?
  • When will SOC 2 Type II complete, and will the report be available under NDA?
  • What exact data-retention windows apply per plan for your expected traffic volume?
  • Will the vendor sign your standard DPA/SCC pack as-is for public-sector procurement?
  • Are any non-EU subprocessors used for account email, payments, or support that could affect broader vendor risk (visitor analytics list excludes these)?