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Publytics

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.

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Publytics is a cookieless web analytics SaaS built for digital publishers: newsrooms, multi-site content networks, and editorial teams. Operators add a lightweight JavaScript snippet and get unsampled real-time and historical metrics.

It exists as an Italian alternative to sampled Google Analytics dashboards for people who live in content and acquisition reports. Publytics S.r.l. is registered in Milan.

The concrete differentiator is that publisher-oriented interface (inspired by classic Universal Analytics) plus multi-site Network views, GA import, and EU-hosted measurement.

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

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.

Key capabilities

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At a glance

HQ
Milan, Italy
Legal entity
Publytics S.r.l. (VAT IT13079420967)
Hosting
EuroVPS + Hetzner (EU regions)
Deployment
Managed SaaS (not self-hosted)
Commercial model
Pageview tiers; free trial
Open source
No (tracker uses MIT library code)

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

Jurisdiction & ownership

Legal entity
Publytics S.r.l. / Publytics SRL, Via Val Leventina 3 INT 1, 20148 Milan (MI), Italy (VAT IT13079420967)
Governing law
Italy / EU GDPR (processor under published DPA)
US parent / control
No known US parent
CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)
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).

No known US parent. Visitor analytics path is EU-entity + EU hosts per DPA. Stripe (US) processes billing for customers; marketing/ADV landing pages list additional US ad/analytics tools that are not the product measurement path. Indicative only—not legal advice.

  • Independent security / no-logs auditNot found
  • ISO 27001Not found
  • SOC 2 / SOC 3Not found
  • GDPR / EU data protectionVendor claimed
  • +3

Considerations & known limitations

  • MediumSaaS-only (no self-host)

    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.

  • MediumNo public independent security audit

    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.

  • LowFeature depth tied to pageview tiers

    Networks, API rate limits, custom dimensions/metrics, retention years, and time granularity differ by Lite/Business/Enterprise. Validate limits against portfolio size before migration.

  • LowUS payment processor on account path

    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.

  • MediumCustomer-injected identifiers can re-identify

    DPA warns controllers not to inject unique user IDs that re-identify visitors via the script. Misconfiguration can undermine the cookieless privacy model.

Open questions for due diligence

  • 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?
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Frequently Asked Questions

No. Publytics is a managed SaaS operated by Publytics S.r.l. There is no official self-host product. The client tracking script acknowledges MIT-licensed code from the Plausible tracker library, but the service itself is proprietary. If you need self-host, evaluate Matomo, Plausible CE, or Umami instead.

The public DPA lists EuroVPS (Euclid Services Ltd, Cyprus) and Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany) as pre-approved infrastructure subprocessors. Data policy/DPA state EU storage (Netherlands, Germany, Finland; DPA also Italy) and no transfer outside the EU for the analytics service. Account billing uses Stripe; transactional email uses Brevo—review those separately for customer-account data.

Vendor documentation states no data sampling by default and no cookies for site measurement. Unique visitors use a daily-rotating hash; raw IP and User-Agent are not stored after hashing (per DPA). Client-side collection only counts browsers that run JavaScript, which also filters many bots.

Yes for both, with plan limits. Historical import from GA4 (and other providers) is supported via an import flow plus vendor assistance. Network mode aggregates multiple sites for Business/Enterprise tiers, with caps on how many Networks and sites each tier allows. Confirm current limits on the pricing and docs pages before procurement.

Yes. Publytics publishes a full GDPR Art. 28-style DPA at publytics.net/dpa, including annexes on processing details, authorized subprocessors, security measures (HTTPS, firewalls, restore objectives), and EU-only transfer instructions. Controllers should still execute/accept it in their commercial process and verify it matches their DPIA needs.