Digital Compliance | GDPR | Web Analytics

4 Privacy-Compliant Alternatives to Google Analytics

We have already reported that in recent weeks several countries in the EU have deemed Google Analytics to be not privacy compliant.

Since Google Analytics is used on over 50% of websites worldwide, this action by data protection authorities in the EU has caused a great deal of uncertainty among many website owners.

We have already thought about what alternatives there are to Google Analytics that comply with the data protection requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The following overview shows four possible alternatives: AT Internet (new: Piano Analytics), Matomo and etracker are classic web analytics tools. Since European companies are behind these tools, they are all DSGVO-compliant and comply with European data protection rules.

Server-side tracking is an alternative that changes the whole tracking concept: Instead of tracking on the user’s device, tracking is done via a secure server. We have already explained the concept of server-side tracking in another blog post. Since the tracking here is done via server, server-side tracking is also privacy compliant.

Infographic showing Google Analytics alternatives

In summary, we recommend the four alternatives in the following scenarios:

ATInternet (Piano Analytics)

We recommend Piano Analytics for medium to large websites that want a high level of support and are looking for extensive web analytics features, similar to what they are used to from Google.

Matomo

Matomo is recommended for website owners for whom flexibility is important (open source and the choice between cloud and self-hosted system), as well as the ability to determine exactly how website data is stored.

etracker

etracker is a good web analytics tool for smaller websites looking for relatively basic functionality that is quick to set up. Etracker offers a similar interface to Google Analytics.

Server-Side Tracking

In addition to the privacy issue, server-side tracking solves another problem, the third-party cookie issue.

As explained earlier, some browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Edge (Chrome as of mid-2023) have moved to block third-party cookies directly in the browser. Very unsightly for your marketing campaigns, which you can no longer measure or target.

Server-side tracking can be set up so that only first party cookies are set on the website, as there is only one container on the website that sets cookies from the same domain.

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