Plausible Analytics vs Stormly

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).

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.