Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera

Compare Friendly Analytics y Pulse by Ciphera en capacidades, jurisdicción, garantías y encaje para compradores europeos.

Ambos figuran como alternativas a: Fathom Analytics, Google Analytics

Logo: Pulse by Ciphera

Pulse by Ciphera

Belgium· Web Analytics

Needs review

Shortlist Pulse when you want cookieless traffic analytics plus uptime and Lighthouse in one Belgian-operated, Swiss-hosted SaaS and can accept a closed managed backend. Skip when you need full self-hosting or GA-style user-level history; consider Plausible Analytics or Simple Analytics instead.

EU-operatedCookielessOpen-source clientSwiss-hosted dataNo analytics cookies
Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera: Resumen
CaracterísticaLogo: Friendly AnalyticsFriendly AnalyticsLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
País de origenSwitzerlandBelgium
CategoríaWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
Código abierto
AutoalojadoNo
SedeNo indicadoBelgium
Entidad legalNo indicadoCiphera BV
Ley aplicableNo indicadoBelgian law (GDPR); Swiss FADP for infrastructure location
Matriz / control EE.UU.No indicadoSin matriz estadounidense conocida
Exposición CLOUD Act (indicativa)No indicadoBajo
Estado de alojamiento en la UENo indicadoParcial
Alojamiento / residenciaNo indicadoPrimary compute and object storage on Exoscale in Switzerland (Zurich). Encrypted backups and domain registration via Infomaniak (Switzerland). CDN/DNS/DDoS via Bunny (Slovenia HQ, global edge for transient IPs). Payments via Mollie (Netherlands). GitHub (US) for public source code only, per Trust page.
Resumen

Swiss Matomo-as-a-Service: cookieless-by-default web analytics with heatmaps, funnels, and ecommerce, product data hosted in Switzerland, plus enterprise DPA and on-prem options.

Cookie-free web analytics with traffic, funnels, uptime and Lighthouse checks in one Belgian-operated, Swiss-hosted dashboard.

Etiquetas
De un vistazo: Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera
De un vistazoLogo: Friendly AnalyticsFriendly AnalyticsLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
HQNo indicadoDiegem, Belgium (Ciphera BV)
Legal entityNo indicadoCiphera BV (KBO/BCE 1013.721.660)
FoundedNo indicado18 September 2024 (CBE)
Primary data regionNo indicadoSwitzerland (Exoscale Zurich)
LicenseNo indicadoAGPL-3.0 client; managed backend closed
Commercial modelNo indicadoFree Hobby tier; paid plans by traffic scale
CookielessNo indicadoYes (vendor claim: no cookies, no fingerprinting)
Data residency regionsNo indicadoSwitzerland (Exoscale primary; Infomaniak backups)
Key capabilities: Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera
Key capabilitiesLogo: Friendly AnalyticsFriendly AnalyticsLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
EU-operatedNo indicado
CookielessNo indicado
Open-source clientNo indicado
Swiss-hosted dataNo indicado
No analytics cookiesNo indicado

Friendly Analytics

  • Seguimiento sin cookies y sin banner

    Friendly Analytics opera sin cookies por defecto, eliminando la necesidad de banners emergentes. Esta configuración cumple RGPD y nFADP suizo, evitando caídas de conversión vinculadas a avisos intrusivos — estudios muestran que los banners pueden reducir tasas hasta un 10 %. Las direcciones IP se anonimizan automáticamente, y los períodos de retención de datos se ajustan para cumplimiento.

  • Mapas de calor, grabaciones de sesión y embudos

    Las herramientas visuales revelan interacciones de usuarios: los mapas de calor muestran clics y desplazamientos, las repeticiones de sesión seguras para privacidad demuestran recorridos, y el análisis de embudos identifica abandonos en conversiones o formularios. Proporcionan mejoras concretas de UX sin recopilación de datos personales, ayudando en decisiones de diseño y contenido.

  • Tag Manager, pruebas A/B y seguimiento ecommerce

    Un tag manager integrado despliega códigos con flexibilidad. Las pruebas A/B comparan variantes de página, los informes de ecommerce detallan ventas y carritos, y las exportaciones de anuncios alimentan conversiones a APIs de Google o Bing de forma privada. Informes personalizados, vistas en tiempo real y segmentación completan el conjunto de herramientas para medición precisa del rendimiento.

Pulse by Ciphera

  • Cookieless traffic dashboard

    Pageviews, unique-visitor estimates, referrers, UTM campaigns, device or browser splits, and country-level geo from a single script tag, without cookies or fingerprinting according to Ciphera's privacy docs.

  • Journeys and conversion funnels

    Step-by-step path columns and multi-step funnels with drop-off analysis, filterable by page, country, device, or referrer for privacy-preserving conversion debugging.

  • Uptime monitors with alert routes

    Built-in uptime checks with downtime and recovery alerts to email, Slack, Discord, or a webhook, so availability sits beside traffic in one console.

  • Daily Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals

    Scheduled mobile and desktop Lighthouse runs with performance, accessibility, best-practices, SEO scores, and Core Web Vitals trends without a separate RUM product.

  • Inspectable AGPL client and read API

    Dashboard and tracking script are AGPL-3.0 on GitHub; Ciphera also documents a public read API, CLI, and export paths while keeping the managed backend closed.

Assurance & compliance: Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera
Assurance & complianceLogo: Friendly AnalyticsFriendly AnalyticsLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
Independent security / no-logs auditNo indicado
Not found

Trust page states no independent audit yet; Tessera self-audit published; independent audit planned.

ISO 27001No indicado
Not found

Ciphera explicitly states it holds no ISO 27001 certification.

SOC 2 / SOC 3No indicado
Not found

Ciphera explicitly states it holds no SOC 2 certification.

GDPR / EU data protectionNo indicado
Vendor claimed

Belgian controller; privacy policy describes GDPR/FADP bases and Pulse processor role. Not legal advice.

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)No indicado
Partial

EU (Belgian) entity with no known US parent; primary hosts are European (Exoscale, Infomaniak, Bunny, Mollie). Residual paths: GitHub (US) for source code only; Bunny global edge for transient IPs. Indicative only, not legal advice.

Data processing agreement (B2B)No indicado
On request / NDA

Privacy policy: DPA available on request at privacy@ciphera.net for Pulse processor relationships.

EU AI ActNo indicado
Not applicable

Web analytics product; not an AI system product page.

Considerations & known limitations: Friendly Analytics vs Pulse by Ciphera
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: Friendly AnalyticsFriendly AnalyticsLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
Managed backend is not open sourceNo indicado
Medium

You can audit the browser script and dashboard code, but not the operated ingestion and storage service. Procurement that requires full-stack self-host or full server auditability should look elsewhere.

No ISO/SOC or independent audit yetNo indicado
Medium

Ciphera publishes threat models, a warrant canary, and a subprocessor list, but explicitly has no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 and no completed independent audit. Enterprise security reviews will need questionnaires and a signed DPA.

Primary data residency is Switzerland, not EU/EEANo indicado
Low

Swiss adequacy covers many GDPR transfer questions, but policies that hard-require EU/EEA datacenter soil will classify this as partial rather than EU-hosted.

Marketing vs privacy wording conflictsNo indicado
Low

Product FAQ pages disagree on whether custom events ship today and whether a DPA is needed. Prefer privacy@ and the privacy policy for legal commitments until Ciphera aligns the FAQs.

Encaje

Friendly Analytics

Best fit when

No indicado

Poor fit when

No indicado

Pulse by Ciphera

Best fit when

  • EU or Swiss organisations replacing GA4 primarily to remove analytics cookies and consent-banner friction
  • Teams that want traffic, funnels, uptime, and Lighthouse scores in one vendor console
  • Buyers who need a Belgian legal entity and named European subprocessors rather than a US cookieless SaaS
  • Sites that can work with aggregate and month-scoped visitor estimates instead of persistent user IDs
  • Engineering leads who want the browser script and dashboard code on GitHub under AGPL-3.0 for inspection

Poor fit when

  • Organisations that must self-host the full analytics backend (Pulse's managed core is closed)
  • Product analytics use cases that need durable cross-visit identity, cohorting, or GA4 BigQuery-style user exports
  • Buyers requiring completed ISO 27001, SOC 2, or a published independent security audit today
  • Teams that need EU/EEA soil specifically rather than Swiss residency (primary data is in Switzerland)

Consider instead when

  • When: You need a mature EU cookieless analytics product with an official full-stack self-host option

    Consider: Plausible Analytics

    Plausible (Estonia) is the common self-host plus SaaS peer; Pulse keeps the backend managed-only.

  • When: You want a minimal Dutch cookieless counter without uptime or Lighthouse bundles

    Consider: Simple Analytics

    Closer peer for strictly analytics SaaS; Pulse differentiates with ops-style panels.

  • When: You need enterprise analytics with strong EU residency controls and heavier compliance packaging

    Consider: Piwik PRO or Friendly Analytics

    Heavier Matomo-class or Swiss-hosted peers when Pulse's startup assurance set is too thin.

Open questions for due diligence

Friendly Analytics

No indicado

Pulse by Ciphera

  • Will Ciphera sign your standard DPA and return the full registered-address subprocessor appendix on request?
  • What is the retention and deletion SLA for a single customer's Pulse project data after contract end?
  • When is the planned independent security audit scheduled, and will the report be public?
  • Are Google Search Console, Bing, or CDN analytics panels generally available, or only mentioned in some marketing copy?