Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera

Comparez Piwik PRO et Pulse by Ciphera sur les capacités, la juridiction, les garanties et l'adéquation pour les acheteurs européens.

Tous deux listés comme alternatives à: 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
Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera: Aperçu
CaractéristiqueLogo: Piwik PROPiwik PROLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
Pays d'originePolandBelgium
CatégorieWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
Open sourceNonOui
Auto-hébergéNonNon
SiègeNon indiquéBelgium
Entité légaleNon indiquéCiphera BV
Droit applicableNon indiquéBelgian law (GDPR); Swiss FADP for infrastructure location
Maison mère / contrôle USNon indiquéAucune maison mère US connue
Exposition CLOUD Act (indicative)Non indiquéFaible
Statut d'hébergement dans l'UENon indiquéPartiel
Hébergement / résidenceNon indiquéPrimary 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.
Résumé

Polish privacy-first analytics suite combining web and mobile analytics, tag management, consent management, and real-time data activation for regulated teams.

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

Tags
En un coup d'œil: Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera
En un coup d'œilLogo: Piwik PROPiwik PROLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
HQNon indiquéDiegem, Belgium (Ciphera BV)
Legal entityNon indiquéCiphera BV (KBO/BCE 1013.721.660)
FoundedNon indiqué18 September 2024 (CBE)
Primary data regionNon indiquéSwitzerland (Exoscale Zurich)
LicenseNon indiquéAGPL-3.0 client; managed backend closed
Commercial modelNon indiquéFree Hobby tier; paid plans by traffic scale
CookielessNon indiquéYes (vendor claim: no cookies, no fingerprinting)
Data residency regionsNon indiquéSwitzerland (Exoscale primary; Infomaniak backups)
Key capabilities: Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera
Key capabilitiesLogo: Piwik PROPiwik PROLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
EU-operatedNon indiquéOui
CookielessNon indiquéOui
Open-source clientNon indiquéOui
Swiss-hosted dataNon indiquéOui
No analytics cookiesNon indiquéOui

Piwik PRO

  • Analytics Module

    Tracks web, mobile, product, and e-commerce interactions with 100% data fidelity—no sampling or caps. Real-time dashboards show live visitor behavior up to 24 hours back in top plans. Custom funnels, segmentation, and reports reveal drop-offs and paths. E-commerce specifics include revenue attribution and cart abandonment. Integrates with Shopify, BI tools, and Google Ads/Search Console for unified views. A neurorehabilitation hospital reported 40% more patient referrals after optimizing with these insights.

  • Tag Manager

    Deploys and manages tracking tags server-side or client-side, reducing load times and blocking risks. Debug tools verify setups instantly. Supports custom variables, triggers, and consent-linked firing. Streamlines migrations from Google Tag Manager, with templates for popular tools. Finance teams use it for compliant campaign tracking without third-party cookies.

  • Consent Manager

    Built-in CMP (powered by Cookie Information) scans sites, generates banners, and enforces preferences across 140+ regulations. Cookieless tracking continues for opted-out users via first-party methods. Handles data subject requests without code. Public sector users like the Dutch government deploy it for Digital Omnibus alignment, ensuring legitimate interest for analytics without blanket consent.

  • Data Activation

    Acts as a lightweight CDP, building profiles from behavioral events for real-time personalization. Sends segments to ad platforms, triggers emails, or shows on-site messages—like nudges for pricing page abandoners. Limits scale with plans (300 to unlimited profiles monthly). An energy provider cut customer journey steps using these activations.

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: Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera
Assurance & complianceLogo: Piwik PROPiwik PROLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
Independent security / no-logs auditNon indiqué
Not found

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

ISO 27001Non indiqué
Not found

Ciphera explicitly states it holds no ISO 27001 certification.

SOC 2 / SOC 3Non indiqué
Not found

Ciphera explicitly states it holds no SOC 2 certification.

GDPR / EU data protectionNon indiqué
Vendor claimed

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

US CLOUD Act exposure (indicative)Non indiqué
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)Non indiqué
On request / NDA

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

EU AI ActNon indiqué
Not applicable

Web analytics product; not an AI system product page.

Considerations & known limitations: Piwik PRO vs Pulse by Ciphera
Considerations & known limitationsLogo: Piwik PROPiwik PROLogo: Pulse by CipheraPulse by Ciphera
Managed backend is not open sourceNon indiqué
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 yetNon indiqué
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/EEANon indiqué
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 conflictsNon indiqué
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.

Adéquation

Piwik PRO

Best fit when

Non indiqué

Poor fit when

Non indiqué

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

Piwik PRO

Non indiqué

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?