Compare nilly and Plausible Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.
Both listed as alternatives to: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics
Switzerland· Web Analytics
Needs review
Shortlist nilly when you want Swiss-entity, cookieless, ultra-light site analytics with realtime dashboards, city geo, custom events, unlimited sites, and an API—without GA4 consent weight. Skip when you need self-host/open source, enterprise audit packs, or deep marketing-suite analytics; consider Plausible Analytics, Simple Analytics, or etracker 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 | nilly | 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 | Lyo GmbH, Europaallee 41, 8004 Zürich (CHE-417.675.763) | Plausible Insights OÜ, Västriku tn 2, 50403 Tartu, Estonia |
| Governing law | Switzerland (terms) | 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 | Vendor FAQ: analytics servers in Switzerland (multiple locations). Public site reverse-DNS: KreativMedia/METANET Zürich. Customer-account subprocessors named in privacy policy: Stripe (US payments), Mailerlite (email). Avatars via Gravatar. No full public subprocessor list for backups/monitoring/CDN. | 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 privacy-first web analytics (Lyo GmbH): cookieless, sub-1kB tracking with realtime dashboards, city-level geo, custom events, unlimited sites, and a REST API as a lightweight Google Analytics alternative. | 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 | nilly | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Zürich, Switzerland (Lyo GmbH) | Tartu, Estonia |
| Legal entity | Lyo GmbH (CHE-417.675.763) | Plausible Insights OÜ (reg. 14709274) |
| Product model | SaaS web analytics (not self-hosted) | Not listed |
| Tracking | Cookieless; no IP/fingerprint claims | Not listed |
| Hosting (claimed) | Switzerland (multi-site) | Not listed |
| Commercial model | Traffic-based plans; trial; no permanent free tier | Pageview-based Cloud SaaS; free CE self-host |
| Live site note | kandur.one (nilly branding; nilly.io DNS failed at research) | Not listed |
| 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 | nilly | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Swiss-hosted (claimed) | Yes | Not listed |
| Swiss entity | Yes | Not listed |
| Sub-1 kB script | Yes | Yes |
| REST API | Yes | Not listed |
| SaaS only | 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 |
Sub-1 kB cookieless tracking script
Vendor documents a client script under 1 kB with no cookies, no IP tracking, and no fingerprinting for site visitors. Suited to teams that want aggregate traffic metrics without analytics cookie banners; still get counsel for your jurisdiction and CMP setup.
Realtime dashboard with geo, tech, and campaigns
Dashboards cover live visitors, overview metrics, top pages, referrers, UTM campaigns, geography from continent to city, and device/browser/OS breakdowns—enough for content and acquisition decisions without a full product-analytics suite.
Custom events, CSV export, and email reports
Define custom events for conversion-style actions, export statistics as CSV, and receive email reports. Fits operators who need lightweight conversion signals and offline analysis rather than session replay or multi-step funnels.
REST API for stats, websites, and account
Documented API endpoints (Bearer API key) manage stats queries (pageviews, visitors, referrers, events, geo, devices, and more), websites, and account objects—useful for internal dashboards or automations on traffic-based plans that include API access.
Unlimited websites on traffic-based plans
Public pricing model is pageview-tier SaaS with unlimited websites per account and a short free trial—not a permanent free tier. Good for agencies or multi-brand operators who outgrow per-site free plans elsewhere; confirm current tiers on the vendor site.
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 | nilly | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Independent security / no-logs audit | Not found No public third-party audit report found for tracking claims. | 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 No vendor ISO 27001 certificate published on product site (underlying Swiss host DCs may be certified separately). | 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 includes GDPR rights language; cookieless visitor tracking claimed. Confirm DPA for B2B. | 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 operator, no known US parent, Swiss-claimed analytics hosting; US SaaS subprocessors Stripe (payments) and Gravatar (avatars) on customer path. 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) | Not found No public DPA download found; request from vendor. | 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 marketed as an AI system. | Not applicable Website analytics product; not marketed as an AI system under the AI Act. |
| Swiss Made Software / Swiss Web labels | Vendor claimed Cited on About and Swiss Union member page as recognition/labels—not a security audit. | Not listed |
| Considerations & known limitations | nilly | Plausible Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Brand/domain transition (nilly.io vs kandur.one) | Medium Product still branded nilly, but the live marketing/API host is kandur.one; nilly.io did not resolve in DNS during research. Verify tracking domains, docs, and status before production cutover. | Not listed |
| US SaaS on customer account path | Medium Stripe (payments) and Gravatar (avatars) are US-group services. Visitor metrics are claimed Swiss-hosted and non-personal, but account/billing data is not Switzerland-only end-to-end. | Not listed |
| Thin public assurance pack | Medium No public ISO 27001/SOC 2, independent security audit, or DPA page found. Fine for many SMB shortlists; friction for regulated enterprise questionnaires. | Not listed |
| No self-host or open-source edition | Low Cannot run on your own infra or audit server code from a public repo. Hard limit for sovereignty programs that require self-host. | Not listed |
| Small independent operator | Low Founder-owned Swiss GmbH without VC narrative—positive for independence, but buyers should assess support SLAs, roadmap continuity, and single-vendor concentration. | 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 want open-source and/or self-host privacy analytics with a larger community
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Pirsch Analytics
nilly is proprietary SaaS only.
When: You want another European cookieless SaaS with a simple product story
Consider: Simple Analytics
Dutch peer; compare geo depth, API, and residency claims side by side.
When: You need deeper marketing, shop, and tag/consent analytics for EU enterprises
Consider: etracker
German suite-oriented alternative; heavier than nilly's lightweight dashboard.
When: You depend on free unlimited scale and Google ads/ecosystem integration
Consider: Google Analytics (GA4)
Different privacy and residency tradeoffs; not a sovereignty shortlist.
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.