Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix

Compare Plausible Analytics and Swetrix on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

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

Plausible Analytics

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.

Cookieless by designEU-owned visitor hostsAGPLv3 open sourceSelf-host CEDPA automaticLightweight script

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Swetrix

United Kingdom· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist Swetrix when you want cookieless traffic plus product-oriented tools (funnels, RUM, errors, optional Cloud replays) under a UK company with Hetzner DE hosting and AGPLv3 self-host CE. Skip when you need public ISO/SOC packs, zero US-group subprocessors, multi-year cookie retention cohorts, or free forever hosted analytics—consider Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics for minimal traffic-only privacy analytics, or Matomo for heavyweight self-host control.

Cookieless trackingHetzner DE hostingOpen source (AGPLv3)Self-host CEFunnels + errors + RUMPublic DPA

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix: Snapshot
Feature	Plausible Analytics	Swetrix
Country of origin	Estonia	United Kingdom
Category	Web Analytics	Web Analytics
Open source	Yes	Yes
Self-hosted	Yes	Yes
Headquarters	Estonia	United Kingdom
Legal entity	Plausible Insights OÜ, Västriku tn 2, 50403 Tartu, Estonia	Swetrix Ltd (SC797389), Edinburgh, Scotland
Governing law	Estonian / EU law context for the OÜ; confirm contract terms for governing law clauses	Not listed
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Medium	Medium
Hosting / residency	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.	Cloud analytics data: Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) per DPA/Data Policy. End User error monitoring sub-processor: Sentry / Functional Software Inc. (United States). Customer-side Privacy Policy list also includes Paddle (UK payments), Fastmail (Australia business email), AWS (US transactional/marketing email), OpenRouter (US optional AI chat). No known US parent.
Summary	Estonian open-source, cookieless web analytics (AGPLv3): lightweight script, EU-owned hosting on Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny, managed Cloud plus self-hosted Community Edition.	Cookieless, privacy-first web analytics from a UK company: traffic, funnels, errors, and performance on Hetzner in Germany, with AGPLv3 self-host Community Edition and optional Cloud session replays.
Tags	analytics privacy open-source cookieless gdpr web-analytics saas self-hosted estonia google-analytics-alternative	analytics privacy open-source cookieless gdpr self-host product-analytics

At a glance: Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix
At a glance	Plausible Analytics	Swetrix
HQ	Tartu, Estonia	Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Legal entity	Plausible Insights OÜ (reg. 14709274)	Swetrix Ltd (SC797389)
Visitor hosts	Hetzner DE; UpCloud FI; Bunny SI	Not listed
License	AGPLv3; Cloud + Community Edition	AGPLv3 (Community Edition)
Commercial model	Pageview-based Cloud SaaS; free CE self-host	Event-volume Cloud subscription; free self-host CE; timed trial
Tracking model	Cookieless; daily rotating hash; no PII stored	Not listed
Governing law	Not listed	Scotland (Terms)
Primary hosting	Not listed	Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany
Open source	Not listed	Yes — github.com/Swetrix/swetrix

Key capabilities: Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix
Key capabilities	Plausible Analytics	Swetrix
Cookieless by design	Yes	Yes
EU-owned visitor hosts	Yes	Not listed
AGPLv3 open source	Yes	Not listed
Self-host CE	Yes	Yes
DPA automatic	Yes	Not listed
Lightweight script	Yes	Not listed
Hetzner DE hosting	Not listed	Yes
Open source (AGPLv3)	Not listed	Yes
Funnels + errors + RUM	Not listed	Yes
Public DPA	Not listed	Yes

Plausible Analytics

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).

Swetrix

Cookieless traffic analytics with hashed sessions
Lightweight script captures pageviews, referrers/UTMs, devices, and city-level geo without cookies or client-side storage. Per the Data Policy, IP and User-Agent are hashed in memory with a daily rotating salt; only a random session id is stored—so you get sessions without long-term cross-day visitor retention.
Funnels, custom events, and goals
Instrument signups, purchases, and other conversions as custom events; build multi-step funnels and goals in the dashboard. Useful for product and growth teams who need drop-off analysis without bolting on a second product-analytics SaaS.
Real-user performance and client error tracking
Records Web Performance API timings (TTFB, DNS, TLS, render, full page load) and optional JavaScript errors with stack/context by page and browser. Bridges marketing traffic views with engineering signals that pure pageview tools omit.
Opt-in Cloud session replays with privacy modes
Cloud projects can call startSessionReplay() to record DOM and interactions; default modes mask text/inputs. Replays are not created by ordinary pageviews—customers must enable them and own consent, masking, and page exclusions. Cloud-only versus Community Edition.
AGPLv3 open source with Docker self-host CE
Core platform is public on GitHub under GNU AGPLv3; Community Edition deploys via official Docker docs with MySQL, ClickHouse, and Redis. CE includes core analytics, events, sessions, funnels, performance, and errors—but not all Cloud extras (replays, some alerts/org/AI features).
Alerts, API, GA import, and team access
Configure alerts to email, Slack, Telegram, Discord, webhooks, or push; pull or push data via the API; import GA4 history; invite organisations with roles or share password-protected/public dashboards. Fits agencies and multi-site operators who outgrow single-user tools.

Assurance & compliance: Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix
Assurance & compliance	Plausible Analytics	Swetrix
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found Open-source code and security overview published; no public independent pen-test or no-logs audit PDF found on compliance/security pages.	Not found Searched marketing, DPA, privacy, and data policy; no public independent audit PDF located. Open-source code is available for review.
ISO 27001	Not found No ISO 27001 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed.	Not found No public ISO 27001 certification claim found on primary pages.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 claim located on security or compliance hub pages reviewed.	Not found No public SOC 2/3 report found.
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed EU entity; cookieless non-PII design; public data policy, DPA, and vendor-published legal assessment on GDPR/ePrivacy positioning.	Vendor claimed UK company; public GDPR/PECR discussion in Data Policy; cookieless design with non-stored IPs for standard analytics; Hetzner DE hosting; public DPA. Optional replays may be personal data depending on configuration—customer assesses legal basis.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	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.	Partial No known US parent; primary analytics on Hetzner DE. Material exception: Sentry (US) processes End User error data per DPA; Privacy Policy also lists AWS and OpenRouter (US) for customer email/AI. Indicative medium exposure—not a clean bill. Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Vendor claimed Public DPA applies automatically to Cloud customers by use of the service; lists processor duties and 48-hour breach notification target.	Vendor claimed Public DPA at swetrix.com/dpa incorporated by Terms; acceptance by use of Service; signed copy on request.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Website analytics product; not marketed as an AI system under the AI Act.	Not applicable Core product is web analytics, not an AI system. Optional Ask AI / OpenRouter is ancillary; confirm if your deployment enables it.

Considerations & known limitations: Plausible Analytics vs Swetrix
Considerations & known limitations	Plausible Analytics	Swetrix
US-linked customer-account subprocessors	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.	Not listed
No public ISO 27001 / SOC 2	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.	Not listed
Self-host CE feature and release lag	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.	Not listed
No multi-day user identity or replay	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.	Not listed
Misconfiguration can reintroduce personal data	Medium Passing emails, patient IDs, or other identifiers in URLs or custom properties undermines the non-PII model; vendor also states no HIPAA/BAA.	Not listed
US-group subprocessors (Sentry, AWS, OpenRouter)	Not listed	Medium Primary analytics hosting is Hetzner DE, but Sentry (US) is an End User error-tracking sub-processor on the DPA, and AWS/OpenRouter appear for customer email/AI. Orgs with strict no-US-cloud rules need explicit acceptance or self-host CE to avoid those paths.
Session replay is opt-in and controller-owned	Not listed	Medium Cloud replays can capture DOM and inputs unless masked. Customers must enable startSessionReplay(), configure privacy modes/exclusions, and provide notices/consent where required—misconfiguration can reintroduce personal data risk that standard cookieless pageviews avoid.
No public ISO/SOC or third-party audit	Not listed	Medium Assurance relies on first-party policies, Hetzner infrastructure claims, and open source. Enterprise questionnaires that hard-gate on certs will stall until materials are provided under NDA or produced.
Cloud vs Community Edition feature gap	Not listed	Low Self-host CE is free and covers core analytics, but replays and several Cloud growth/ops features are limited or Cloud-only. Budget and feature planning must not assume feature parity.
Daily salt rotation limits retention metrics	Not listed	Low Cookieless design deliberately prevents classic multi-day visitor retention. Teams that need that metric class need another product or consented identity.

Fit

Plausible Analytics

Best fit when

Teams replacing GA4 who want aggregate marketing metrics without cookies or user profiles
EU orgs that require visitor analytics on European-owned infrastructure (Hetzner/UpCloud/Bunny)
Sites that prioritize script weight, Core Web Vitals, and a one-page dashboard
Buyers who want AGPL auditability and optional Community Edition self-host exit
Agencies and multi-site operators needing shared links, team seats, and pageview-tiered Cloud plans
Procurement paths that value a public DPA, data policy, and subprocessor list over ISO/SOC certificates

Poor fit when

Product analytics needs: multi-day user identity, cohorts, retention, feature experiments
UX research that requires heatmaps, session replay, or rage-click recording
Healthcare or other programs that require HIPAA and a BAA (explicitly not offered)
Buyers who need free forever hosted analytics with no subscription
Orgs that forbid any US-linked SaaS in vendor account tooling (Postmark, Help Scout, etc. are listed)

Consider instead when

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.

Swetrix

Best fit when

SMEs, agencies, and product teams replacing GA4 who need cookieless traffic stats without a cookie banner driven only by analytics
Engineering-minded buyers who want error tracking and real-user performance in the same privacy-first dashboard as pageviews
Teams that may enable Cloud session replays later but can treat them as explicit opt-in with their own legal basis
Operators willing to run Docker Community Edition (MySQL/ClickHouse/Redis) when Cloud commercial terms or feature limits do not fit
Buyers who need a public B2B DPA, API access, GA4 import, and multi-channel alerts under a UK legal entity

Poor fit when

Enterprises that require published ISO 27001 / SOC 2 certificates or independent audit PDFs before shortlist
Policies that forbid any US-group subprocessors (Sentry is listed for End User error data; AWS/OpenRouter appear for customer services)
Use cases that depend on long-term cookie-based retention or cross-device identity graphs
Buyers who only want free hosted analytics with no paid Cloud tier and no self-host operations burden
Sites that will run session replays on sensitive flows without capacity to configure masking, exclusions, and consent

Consider instead when

When: You only need minimal cookieless pageviews/referrers with the smallest possible product surface
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics
Swetrix adds funnels, errors, RUM, and Cloud replays; peers stay closer to pure traffic analytics.
When: You need deep on-prem control, plugins, and mature enterprise self-host packaging
Consider: Matomo (self-host or managed EU hosts such as Matomo by Stackhero)
Heavier ops and optional cookies; stronger fit for large controlled deployments.
When: You must stay inside Google advertising measurement and free GA4 ecosystem tooling
Consider: Google Analytics
Trade privacy, consent, and transfer complexity for ads integration and zero software fee.

Open questions for due diligence

Plausible Analytics

Which exact customer personal data categories does each account subprocessor (Postmark, Paddle, Help Scout, etc.) receive in production?
Can Enterprise contracts exclude optional integrations (Google, Help Scout) or pin subprocessor lists for regulated buyers?
Are independent pen-test reports or ISO/SOC roadmaps available under NDA?
What are contracted RPO/RTO and backup locations beyond the high-level Hetzner/UpCloud description?
For CE self-host: which Cloud-only features remain permanently out of CE versus merely delayed on the long-term release train?

Swetrix

Can Enterprise contracts exclude or replace Sentry (and other US-group subprocessors) for End User data paths?
Are ISO 27001, SOC 2, or pen-test summaries available under NDA?
What is the exact backup/DR location topology beyond “secure backups” wording on the DPA?
Which Cloud-only features remain permanently out of CE versus delayed open-source release?
For session replay at your traffic volumes, what retention defaults and export/delete SLAs apply on your plan?