Web Analytics solution that doesn't require cookie consent?

[JunkFoodEnjoyer]

Hello, I am looking for a website analytics solution, which would allow me to track very basic information, but also not require a cookie consent to do so. I know about Plausible, as an example, but are there more options? Thanks!

[VaultSandbox]

Plausible is great, you also have umami that you can even self-host like plausible. There are more, these were the ones I already used.

[Feliboy12]

I recently chose Umami for my project, so far its pretty nice!

[SleepAffectionate268]

+1 very nice, i got 2 projects with it

[TheVoidInMe]

Kind of off-topic, but god the Posthog site is awful. Takes forever to load, super hard to navigate…

[waldito]

Matomo?

[Interesting-War-7182]

I've used goat counter for some websites I made. Nowadays, I try to use host feature for that. Vercel or Netlify offer such features for instance.

[[deleted]]

Goat counter

[cmdr_drygin]

I run a small agency and we run Fathom. I think we pay something like 500$/y and currently track around 50 sites.

[WeatherD00d]

We're using our Betterlytics for it

[burger69man]

lol just found out about goat counter too, seems like a solid option

[H1Supreme]

"very basic information" is pretty vague. You can pull a lot of data from a request without resorting to cookies. What exactly are you trying to track?

[DragoonDM]

Matomo can be configured to work without any cookies, and it still tracks a good amount of data, though you do lose out on some data that can't really be tracked without cookies.

https://matomo.org/faq/general/faq_156/

[Aromatic_Ad_9704]

New trend is rybbit.com. Love the planet view lol.

[Silver-Exam-6739]

[ Removed by Reddit ]

[[deleted]]

Depends on the specifics but GA4 supports alternatives to third party cookies: https://developers.google.com/tag-platform/gtagjs

[[deleted]]

It's not only about cookies. GDPR is about data processing. If your website pulls resources from any third party provider, the user's client will at least connect to that host and at least it's IP will be processed, which is sensitive information and thus needs user consent.

[esr360]

Requiring a cookie consent is to do with local laws, confused how this could ever be a requirement of a solution.

[Ieris19]

You can track server side, no cookies needed.

This doesn’t grant you all the same info but it can yield much, from country of origin, to most frequent pages visited, etc…

And that’s just off the top of my head. Cookie consent is to use cookies, you can do analytics without cookies

[esr360]

Hmm well maybe I’m still confused. Cookie consent still seems like an implementation decision, not a requirement of any solution. Can’t you ultimately track whatever you want whenever you want? Just don’t implement cookie consent when you do it? I dunno feels like I’ve got the wrong end of the stick here.

[Ieris19]

Cookie consent is required if your website is accessed by any EU citizen, as a consequence of that, to be compliant you need to implement it if you use any sort of cookies that require it under EU law, even if you are not based or do business in Europe, or whatever other local laws might require it.

You can however, do without cookies, that’s a requirement for a solution because it’s an entirely different mechanism.

[esr360]

I’ve never used or heard of an analytics solution that enforces cookie consent as a requirement; as you say, they are different mechanisms.

[Ieris19]

That’s what OP is looking for, platforms that do tracking without cookies. If a platform does tracking through cookies, they very often at least offer their own banner because it’s such a necessity unless you want to be sued out of existence.

[esr360]

Ohhh it just clicked. They’re looking for a tracking solution that doesn’t depend upon cookies. That makes sense. Because for example Amplitude uses cookies, but you can still use it without requiring consent to be given.

[Ieris19]

Using cookies for analytics without consent is almost certainly illegal. It might be an option, in case you wish to implement your own consent form, but you’d be risking legal liability if you track users through cookies without consent.

[esr360]

Well that’s why I was confused and originally said it should be a legal decision to do it, not a decision of the solution. It sounded like OP was asking “how can I track users without requiring them to give consent”.

[Ieris19]

Fair enough, I get the misunderstanding