StatCounter vs Tinylytics

Compare StatCounter and Tinylytics on capabilities, jurisdiction, assurance, and fit for European buyers.

Both listed as alternatives to: Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity

StatCounter

Ireland· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist when you want Irish-hosted, SMB-friendly analytics with real-time individual visitor feeds, optional session replay/heatmaps, and paid-traffic forensics. Skip when you need cookieless/minimal data collection, self-hosting, or published ISO/SOC and subprocessors—consider Plausible Analytics, Simple Analytics, or Piwik PRO instead.

Ireland-operated SaaSReal-time visitor feedsSession replay + heatmapsCookie + IP trackingFree Basic tierHosted only

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Tinylytics

United Kingdom· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist Tinylytics when you want cookieless page analytics plus bundled uptime/SSL/content checks for a handful of small sites, with primary data on Hetzner in Germany and founder support. Skip when you need self-host/open source, formal ISO/SOC packs, or enterprise multi-tenant governance—consider Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics instead.

Cookieless analyticsPrimary host: Hetzner DEUptime + SSL monitoringBroken-link crawlsSaaS only (no self-host)Solo-founder UK

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Highlighted rows differ between the two products.

StatCounter vs Tinylytics: Snapshot
Feature	StatCounter	Tinylytics
Country of origin	Ireland	United Kingdom
Category	Web Analytics	Web Analytics
Open source	No	No
Self-hosted	No	No
Headquarters	Ireland	United Kingdom
Legal entity	Statcounter Limited (Dublin; VAT IE 9582511F)	Vincent Ritter Consulting (service brand; terms state not separately incorporated yet)
Governing law	Republic of Ireland (venue Dublin)	Not clearly stated as a single governing-law clause on the public terms page; confirm contractually
US parent / control	No known US parent	No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Unknown	Medium
Hosting / residency	Vendor describes visitor data as stored on StatCounter servers; no public subprocessor list or named cloud regions (AWS/GCP/Azure etc.) found on primary pages at research time. Marketing site monetization references Snigel—not a documented analytics data-path subprocessor list.	Primary analytics storage: Hetzner Falkenstein (Germany). CDN/security: Cloudflare. Error monitoring: Sentry.io. Payments: Paddle and Lemon Squeezy (Stripe company). Optional: IPinfo geo fallback for API hits; opt-in AI Insights via xAI and Google Gemini. No public backup-provider detail beyond that stack.
Summary	Irish-hosted web analytics with real-time individual visitor feeds, session replay, heatmaps, and paid-traffic tools—cookie and IP based, not cookieless privacy analytics.	Privacy-first cookieless web analytics for small sites, with bundled uptime/SSL checks, content monitoring, events, and founder support—hosted primarily on Hetzner in Germany.
Tags	analytics gdpr web-analytics session-replay heatmaps ireland cookies real-time	analytics gdpr privacy cookie-free uptime-monitoring indie api

At a glance: StatCounter vs Tinylytics
At a glance	StatCounter	Tinylytics
HQ	Dublin, Ireland	Not listed
Legal entity	Statcounter Limited (CRO 431839)	Not listed
Product since	1999 (company 2006)	Not listed
Deployment	Hosted SaaS only	Managed SaaS only (not open source, not self-hosted)
Tracking model	Cookies + IP + optional session replay	Not listed
Commercial model	Free Basic + session-volume paid tiers	Paid site-count plans; short trial; no permanent free tier
Open source	No	Not listed
HQ / operator	Not listed	Vincent Ritter Consulting, United Kingdom
Launched	Not listed	12 June 2023 (live counters on homepage)
Primary hosting	Not listed	Hetzner, Falkenstein, Germany
Differentiators	Not listed	Analytics + uptime/SSL/content monitoring + widgets

Key capabilities: StatCounter vs Tinylytics
Key capabilities	StatCounter	Tinylytics
Ireland-operated SaaS	Yes	Not listed
Real-time visitor feeds	Yes	Not listed
Session replay + heatmaps	Yes	Not listed
Cookie + IP tracking	Yes	Not listed
Free Basic tier	Yes	Not listed
Hosted only	Yes	Not listed
Cookieless analytics	Not listed	Yes
Primary host: Hetzner DE	Not listed	Yes
Uptime + SSL monitoring	Not listed	Yes
Broken-link crawls	Not listed	Yes
SaaS only (no self-host)	Not listed	Yes
Solo-founder UK	Not listed	Yes

StatCounter

Real-time individual visitor feeds
Live and recent-activity views show sessions as they happen with location, system stats, referrers, and navigation paths—not only aggregate totals. Magnify drills into a single visit for ops-style investigation. Best for SMBs and agencies that react to traffic in the moment; free Basic caps monthly sessions and short retention.
Session replay and heatmaps
Optional session replay plays back clicks, taps, scrolling, mouse movement, and form interactions so teams see friction visually. Heatmaps (higher paid tier) show attention and ignored elements. Recording volume is sold as an add-on pack; treat replay as high-sensitivity processing that usually needs clear notice and lawful basis.
Paid traffic, UTM, and Google Ads session detail
Conversion tracking, UTM campaign trends, paid-traffic analysis for repeat IPs, and Google Ads integration that attaches campaign/keyword context to individual sessions. Aimed at marketers defending ad spend and spotting click fraud—not a full marketing automation suite.
Cookie-based unique-visitor tracking with optional IP mask
Official docs describe an is_unique cookie for first-time vs returning visitors plus collection of IP, browser, OS, device, and page metadata. Project settings can mask the last IP octet when you treat addresses as personal data. This is classic analytics tracking—not a cookieless, consent-light design.
Broad CMS installs, API, apps, and Global Stats
Install guides cover 70+ platforms; paid tiers add CSV export and API access; mobile apps cover on-the-go stats and visitor alerts. Separately, Statcounter Global Stats publishes public browser/OS market-share charts from the tracking network—useful industry context, not a substitute for your site's private reports.

Tinylytics

Cookie-free unique hits with rotating salts
Page views and unique hits without tracking cookies or fingerprinting. Uniques combine truncated request signals with a 12-hour rotating salt and one-way hash, reset daily at midnight UTC; visitor IPs are not stored in hits. Suited to indie sites that want trendable uniques without consent banners for analytics cookies.
Thunder Clap uptime, SSL, and domain alerts
In-house multi-region health checks (default every 10 minutes) confirm downtime before emailing, plus SSL expiry notices and domain monitoring. Ultra can shorten intervals. Replaces a separate uptime tool for small fleets—but false downs can occur if WAFs block the Tinylytics monitor user-agent.
Daily content crawl for broken links and mixed content
Subscribed sites can crawl up to 50 pages (two levels deep) on a daily cadence, flagging broken links and mixed HTTP assets on HTTPS pages, with ignore lists and re-check. Ultra adds optional AI spell-check on visible copy—keep it off if AI subprocessors are out of policy.
Attribute-based event tracking (beta)
Enable events on the embed script and mark elements with data-tinylytics-event using category.action names (optional values for downloads). No GTM required; beacon mode helps navigations. Still beta—expect API/schema changes and incomplete capture under aggressive blockers.
Public stats, kudos, hit counters, API, and webhooks
Share passcode-protected public stats, embed hit counters and kudos buttons, export CSV, call the documented API, and push signed webhooks for visits, events, and monitoring. Built for transparent blogs and light automation rather than enterprise BI warehouses.

Assurance & compliance: StatCounter vs Tinylytics
Assurance & compliance	StatCounter	Tinylytics
Independent security / no-logs audit	Not found No public independent security or no-logs audit PDF found on primary site.	Not found No public third-party security or no-logs audit report found on official docs.
ISO 27001	Not found No ISO 27001 claim or certificate located on official pages.	Not found No ISO 27001 claim found on privacy, compliance, or hosting pages.
SOC 2 / SOC 3	Not found No SOC 2/3 report referenced on official marketing/legal pages.	Not found No SOC 2/3 report or claim found on public site.
GDPR / EU data protection	Partial Irish controller/processor entity and GDPR FAQ materials exist, but tracking uses cookies + IPs + optional session replay; vendor IP-not-personal-data stance is contested. Confirm DPA, consent, and retention for your use case.	Vendor claimed Vendor documents GDPR-oriented design (cookieless, data minimisation, EU primary host, deletion). Not independent certification.
US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)	Unknown No known US parent, but subprocessors and hosting regions are not published—cannot truthfully score low/medium without that list. EuropeanStack assessment, not a vendor claim. Not legal advice.	Partial UK operator, no known US parent, primary host Hetzner DE; partial exposure via Cloudflare, Sentry, Lemon Squeezy/Paddle, optional IPinfo and opt-in US AI APIs. Not legal advice.
Data processing agreement (B2B)	Not found No clearly published self-serve DPA found; request under contract before regulated use.	Not found No public DPA/downloadable processor agreement found; ask the vendor before B2B rollout.
EU AI Act	Not applicable Classic web analytics / session recording product, not an AI-system offering.	Not applicable Core product is analytics/monitoring; optional AI insights are secondary and opt-in.

Considerations & known limitations: StatCounter vs Tinylytics
Considerations & known limitations	StatCounter	Tinylytics
Classic cookies + IP + visitor-level detail	High Not cookieless privacy analytics. is_unique cookies, IPs, and per-visitor forensics increase ePrivacy/GDPR programme burden versus aggregate-only EU tools.	Not listed
Session replay captures rich interactions	High Official replay guide includes clicks, scrolling, and form interactions. Usually needs explicit notice/consent and careful redaction policies for sensitive fields.	Not listed
Terms claim joint ownership of visitor data	Medium Legal terms state both the site owner and StatCounter own collected visitor data—review implications for controller/processor roles and secondary use.	Not listed
No public subprocessor / region list	Medium Hosting described only as vendor servers. Without named providers/regions, transfer and CLOUD Act diligence stays incomplete.	Not listed
No public ISO/SOC/independent audit	Medium Enterprise security questionnaires will lack downloadable certs/audit reports from the public site.	Medium Enterprise security questionnaires will hit gaps until the vendor supplies audits and a B2B DPA under NDA or email.
Vendor IP personal-data interpretation is contested	Medium GDPR FAQ leans on older Irish case law; many EU programmes still treat IPs/cookie IDs as personal data. Use IP masking and counsel review where needed.	Not listed
US-group subprocessors on the data path	Not listed	Medium Cloudflare, Sentry, payment processors (incl. Lemon Squeezy/Stripe group), optional IPinfo and opt-in xAI/Gemini mean the stack is not EU-only end-to-end despite Hetzner primary storage.
Solo-founder operational concentration	Not listed	Medium Service is provided by Vincent Ritter Consulting / a solo developer. Support is personal and fast for indies, but bus-factor and formal SLA expectations differ from larger vendors.
Scale and feature boundaries	Not listed	Low Content crawls are depth/page limited; event tracking is beta; fair-usage applies to extreme hit volumes; no self-host escape hatch.
Optional AI shares aggregated analytics	Not listed	Low AI Insights and related AI spell-check are opt-in and send aggregated (not visitor PII per vendor) data to third-party AI providers—leave disabled under strict AI policies.

Fit

StatCounter

Best fit when

SMBs, freelancers, and agencies that want simple dashboards plus per-visitor detail without GA complexity
Marketers who need session-level paid-traffic and Google Ads context to investigate click patterns
Teams that value live visitor feeds, alerts, mobile apps, and human support on paid plans
Buyers preferring an independent Irish commercial analytics vendor over US ad-tech defaults
Sites already prepared to run classic analytics cookies and document processing in privacy notices

Poor fit when

Cookieless or consent-light privacy programmes (CNIL-style minimal analytics)
Organisations that require self-hosting or full infrastructure control
Procurement that mandates public ISO 27001/SOC 2 and a published subprocessor list before shortlist
Use cases that must avoid session recording or individual IP-level visitor inspection
Enterprise product analytics needing deep funnel/experimentation stacks beyond SMB web stats

Consider instead when

When: You need cookieless, aggregate-only metrics with a lighter ePrivacy consent story
Consider: Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics
Both are EU-hosted privacy-oriented analytics; far less per-visitor forensics than StatCounter.
When: You need enterprise privacy packaging, stronger controller tooling, or optional self-host paths
Consider: Piwik PRO (or self-hosted Matomo-class stacks)
Heavier setup and product surface; better when DPA/hosting artefacts are mandatory.
When: You are deep in Google's marketing stack and need free default reporting at huge scale
Consider: Google Analytics (with full transfer/risk review)
US-group processing and steeper UX; stronger ecosystem integrations.

Tinylytics

Best fit when

Indie blogs, portfolios, and side projects that want simple cookieless stats without Google Analytics
Small sites that also want uptime, SSL expiry, and broken-link checks in the same tool
Operators who prefer founder-answered support and lightweight embeds over enterprise marketing stacks
Teams OK with managed EU primary hosting and willing to review named US-group subprocessors (CDN, payments, optional AI)
Agencies managing a modest number of client sites with public stats or kudos-style engagement widgets

Poor fit when

Orgs that require self-hosted collectors or open-source audit of the full analytics stack
Procurement needing published ISO 27001, SOC 2, independent audits, or a downloadable DPA out of the box
Very high-traffic properties needing contractual capacity/SLA commitments beyond fair-usage conversation
Policies that ban Cloudflare/Sentry/US payment or optional US AI APIs on any data path
Teams that need session replay, heatmaps, or deep advertising attribution (Clarity/GA territory)

Consider instead when

When: You need open-source and optional self-hosting of the analytics stack
Consider: Plausible Analytics
Estonian product with Cloud plus Community Edition self-host; less bundling of uptime/content monitors.
When: You want European cookieless analytics with a simpler analytics-only scope
Consider: Simple Analytics
Strong privacy positioning; compare feature depth and monitoring separately.
When: You need free-at-scale marketing analytics, ads integrations, or attribution depth
Consider: Google Analytics (incumbent) — or stay on a privacy tool if GA is disallowed
Different privacy and sovereignty profile entirely.
When: You need session replay or heatmaps and accept that privacy model
Consider: Microsoft Clarity or specialised replay tools
Tinylytics deliberately avoids fingerprinting-style session products.

Open questions for due diligence

StatCounter

Will StatCounter sign a GDPR DPA and name all subprocessors and hosting regions in writing?
Where exactly is customer analytics data stored and backed up (country and provider)?
What field-redaction / exclusion controls exist for session replay on password and payment forms?
Is there any ISO 27001, SOC 2, or independent penetration-test summary available under NDA?
How should controllers interpret joint ownership wording in the terms relative to controller/processor roles?

Tinylytics

Will Vincent Ritter Consulting sign a GDPR Article 28 DPA and provide a current subprocessor list under contract?
Are backups/DR and email delivery fully covered by the named providers, or are there additional hosts?
Is there any roadmap for independent security review, SOC 2, or ISO 27001?
What contractual terms apply for accounts consistently above the fair-usage hit threshold?
For AI Insights: exact retention, regions, and processor terms at xAI and Google for the paid API plans used?