Publytics vs Simple Analytics

Compare Publytics and Simple Analytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

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

Publytics

Italy· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you need cookieless, unsampled publisher analytics with multi-site Network views and a public EU DPA from an Italian SaaS operator. Skip when you need self-hosting, product analytics at GA4/Adobe depth, or product-level ISO/SOC—consider Plausible (simpler privacy analytics / self-host options) or Matomo (self-host ownership) instead.

Cookieless trackingNo default samplingMulti-site NetworkEU-hosted (EuroVPS/Hetzner)Public B2B DPAPublisher-focused UX

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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

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

Publytics vs Simple Analytics: Snapshot
Feature	Publytics	Simple Analytics
Country of origin	Italy	Netherlands
Category	Web Analytics	Web Analytics
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	No	No
Headquarters	Italy	Netherlands
Legal entity	Publytics S.r.l. / Publytics SRL, Via Val Leventina 3 INT 1, 20148 Milan (MI), Italy (VAT IT13079420967)	Simple Analytics B.V., Amsterdam (KVK 88269922, VAT NL864560011B01)
Governing law	Italy / EU GDPR (processor under published DPA)	Netherlands / EU
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Low	Low
Hosting / residency	Analytics infrastructure subprocessors in public DPA: EuroVPS (Euclid Services Ltd, Cyprus) and Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany). Data policy/DPA: EU storage (NL, DE, FI; DPA also IT); no transfer outside the EU for analytics processing. Account path: Stripe (payments), Brevo/Sendinblue (email).	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	Cookieless web analytics SaaS for digital publishers: unsampled real-time and historical metrics, multi-site Network views, GA import, and EU-hosted measurement from an Italian company.	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	web-analytics cookieless privacy gdpr publishers real-time	web-analytics cookieless privacy gdpr analytics saas api eu-hosted

At a glance: Publytics vs Simple Analytics
At a glance	Publytics	Simple Analytics
HQ	Milan, Italy	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Legal entity	Publytics S.r.l. (VAT IT13079420967)	Simple Analytics B.V. (KVK 88269922)
Hosting	EuroVPS + Hetzner (EU regions)	Not listed
Deployment	Managed SaaS (not self-hosted)	Not listed
Commercial model	Pageview tiers; free trial	Free hobby tier + usage-based paid + enterprise
Open source	No (tracker uses MIT library code)	No (proprietary)
Founded	Not listed	2018
Product type	Not listed	Hosted web analytics SaaS (not self-hosted)
Data focus	Not listed	Cookieless, non-identifying aggregate metrics
Primary hosting	Not listed	Netherlands (EU); see subprocessors

Key capabilities: Publytics vs Simple Analytics
Key capabilities	Publytics	Simple Analytics
Cookieless tracking	Yes	Yes
No default sampling	Yes	Not listed
Multi-site Network	Yes	Not listed
EU-hosted (EuroVPS/Hetzner)	Yes	Yes
Public B2B DPA	Yes	Not listed
Publisher-focused UX	Yes	Not listed
No stored IPs / visitor IDs	Not listed	Yes
Dutch B.V.	Not listed	Yes
Works beside GA4	Not listed	Yes
API & BI export	Not listed	Yes

Publytics

Unsampled real-time and daily publisher metrics
Dashboard and Real-time views show active users (including last-minute and 30-minute windows), top pages, sources, social referrals, and day trends—with minute-level trend comparison documented for real-time. Vendor states no default data sampling, so reports reflect full counted client-side traffic rather than GA-style estimates on large properties.
Multi-site Network mode for content portfolios
Business and Enterprise plans can group properties into Networks (plan caps apply: e.g. up to three Networks on Business, unlimited on Enterprise). Network views mirror site dashboards with split-by-site filters, combined real-time tables, and PDF/CSV export across the portfolio—built for multi-brand publishers rather than single blogs.
Cookieless measurement with daily-rotating visitor hash
Tracking avoids cookies and permanent device IDs. Per the DPA, IP and User-Agent are used only to derive a daily salted hash for unique visitors, then discarded; metrics stay aggregated (URL, referrer, browser/OS, device, country). Designed so many sites can skip consent banners for analytics alone—confirm with counsel for your jurisdictions and any custom IDs you add.
Historical import, custom events/dimensions, and API
Import paths cover GA4 and other tools (Plausible/Fathom mentioned) with support-assisted finalization. Custom events, dimensions, and metrics scale by plan; REST API uses Sanctum Bearer tokens scoped to subscribed sites. Fits teams rebuilding GA-era reporting without rebuilding infrastructure.
AI referral traffic reporting
Dedicated documentation for traffic referred from AI systems (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Mistral, Google AI Overviews, Deepseek, and others). Useful for publishers optimizing for answer-engine and AI-overview discovery alongside classic SEO sources.

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: Publytics vs Simple Analytics
Assurance & compliance	Publytics	Simple Analytics
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found Searched official site; no public third-party security or no-logs audit PDF found. DPA describes hashing and non-retention of raw IP/UA.	Not found Searched security/trust pages; no public independent audit PDF found.
ISO 27001	Not found No Publytics product certificate found. Host EuroVPS markets ISO certifications; that is infrastructure provider scope, not Publytics certification.	Not found No ISO 27001 certificate claimed on primary security pages.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No public SOC 2/3 report found on official Publytics pages.	Partial Vendor states SOC 2 Type II is in progress / coming soon—not completed certification at research time.
GDPR / EU data protection	Vendor claimed Italian controller/processor entity; cookieless design; public Art. 28 DPA; EU hosting named. Not legal advice.	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 EU entity, no known US parent; analytics hosts EuroVPS + Hetzner in EU with DPA no third-country transfer for service data. Account billing via Stripe (US company). Not a vendor 'safe' claim—EuropeanStack assessment only.	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 Full public DPA at https://publytics.net/dpa with Annex B subprocessors and Annex C security/transfer instructions.	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 product; AI-referral reporting is measurement of referrers, not 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: Publytics vs Simple Analytics
Considerations & known limitations	Publytics	Simple Analytics
SaaS-only (no self-host)	Medium All measurement depends on Publytics cloud availability and vendor roadmap. Teams with residency or air-gap requirements need Matomo/Plausible CE-style self-host alternatives.	Medium No official self-host edition. Orgs with air-gap or on-prem telemetry mandates need Plausible self-host, Matomo, or similar instead.
No public independent security audit	Medium Hashing and non-retention claims are first-party (DPA/docs). No public third-party audit was found—enterprise security reviews will need questionnaires, DPA audit rights, and possibly NDA materials.	Not listed
Feature depth tied to pageview tiers	Low Networks, API rate limits, custom dimensions/metrics, retention years, and time granularity differ by Lite/Business/Enterprise. Validate limits against portfolio size before migration.	Not listed
US payment processor on account path	Low Stripe processes payments (US company). Separate from DPA Annex B analytics hosts, but relevant if procurement treats all vendor SaaS touchpoints as in-scope for CLOUD Act diligence.	Not listed
Customer-injected identifiers can re-identify	Medium DPA warns controllers not to inject unique user IDs that re-identify visitors via the script. Misconfiguration can undermine the cookieless privacy model.	Not listed
SOC 2 not yet complete	Not 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 country	Not 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 inconsistency	Not 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 operator	Not 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

Publytics

Best fit when

Content publishers and media sites that want GA3-style reporting without cookies or default sampling
Multi-brand portfolios that need Network dashboards, split-by-site filters, and shared exports
Teams migrating historical series from GA4 (or Plausible/Fathom) into a privacy-oriented SaaS
EU-oriented controllers who want Italian legal entity, published DPA, and EU infrastructure subprocessors named in annexes
Editorial/SEO leads who need real-time active users, sources, and AI-referral reporting without operating self-hosted analytics

Poor fit when

Organizations that require self-hosted or open-source analytics only
Product/growth teams that need GA4/Adobe-class event modeling, experiment stacks, and ads ecosystem integrations
Buyers that need verified product ISO 27001/SOC 2 certificates before shortlist (none found for Publytics itself)
Very simple single-site blogs that only need minimal privacy metrics—lighter tools may be enough

Consider instead when

When: You want open-core privacy analytics with optional self-host
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Simpler surface; stronger self-host/open-core path than Publytics SaaS-only model
When: You must run analytics on your own infrastructure
Consider: Matomo (self-host) or Plausible Community Edition
Publytics is managed cloud only—no official on-prem product
When: You need deep product analytics and marketing stack integration
Consider: Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics
Trade privacy/EU-hosting priorities for ecosystem breadth

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

Publytics

Will Publytics provide completed security questionnaire, pen-test summary, or ISO evidence under NDA for enterprise procurement?
Exact current pageview tier limits, Network caps, and retention for the sites you will migrate?
Is GA4 historical import complete for your property structure (events, custom dimensions) or only core traffic series?
How are subprocessors for account services (Stripe, Brevo) contractually covered relative to the analytics DPA annex?
Any planned US or non-EU hosting options that would change the current EU-only transfer instruction?

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)?