The Consent Analytics Gap
You're likely missing 20-60% of your website data. Most analytics tools only track users who accept cookies, so a large share of your traffic never appears in your reports.
Where the data disappears
Most analytics tools rely on scripts that only load after a visitor gives consent. If consent is not given, tracking never starts.
The visit still happens. The page still loads. The user still interacts.
But none of it is recorded.
When 100 visitors arrive on your site, here's what happens:
100
visitors arrive
Google Analytics
Waits for consent...
Tracked
60
Rejected & Blocked
40
GA4 reports
60
Simple Analytics
No consent needed
All visitors tracked
100
Simple Analytics reports
100
Why this happens
This is a structural limitation of consent-based analytics, not a configuration issue.
Why it matters
- Traffic looks lower than it actually is
- Conversion rates inflated by smaller denominator
- Attribution unreliable: you can't credit what you can't see
- Growth decisions based on incomplete data
You can't optimise what you can't see.
Case study
Hebban.nl: 400,000+ missing pageviews
GA4
1.6M
Actual
2.03M
Missing
400K+
(+20%)
Over 400,000 visits never appeared in GA4. Consent banners and ad blockers prevented tracking, so this traffic was never collected.
Read the full case study →How Simple Analytics closes the gap
Simple Analytics doesn't use cookies or collect personal data. It works without consent under GDPR and ePrivacy and measures every visit.
GA4 (or similar)
Measures behaviour after consent: conversions, funnels, events.
- Partial visibility into real traffic
- Blind spots in attribution
- Requires consent to track
Simple Analytics
Measures total traffic as a cookieless baseline, no consent needed.
- No cookies, works without consent banners
- Counts all pageviews, including blocked visitors
- EU-hosted, GDPR compliant by design
Complement, don't replace
You don't need to migrate away from GA4. Run both tools together. Use GA4 for behavioral insights on consented users and Simple Analytics for complete traffic visibility. Together, they give you a full picture.
Try it on one domain
No migration. No CMP change. Just add and compare.
Install Simple Analytics
Add one script tag alongside your existing analytics.
Run for 30 days
Both tools collect data in parallel.
Compare the totals
See the gap between GA4 and actual traffic.