9 Best Pirsch Analytics Alternatives

Website analytics enables website owners to improve their websites and make them more attractive to visitors. Pirsch Analytics is a web analytics tool that provides metrics such as page views, visitors (and their characteristics), real-time visitors, and time on page, etc., to help website owners improve their website experience.

Pirsch Analytics is a popular web analytics tool, but it has its drawbacks. In this article, we'll dive into Pirsch Analytics and showcase a few alternatives that might suit you better.

Let’s dive in!

1. What is Pirsch used for?
2. Pirsch Pricing
3. Pirsch Review
4. Pirsch Alternatives
   1. Simple Analytics (easy to use and predictable pricing)
   2. Umami
   3. Statcounter
   4. Visitor Analytics
   5. Piwik PRO
   6. GoSquared
   7. Fathom Analytics
   8. Matomo
   9. Plausible
   10. Adobe Analytics
5. What to look for in an analytics tool
6. Final Thoughts

What is Pirsch used for?

Pirsch is a privacy-friendly web analytics tool based out of Germany with one of the most affordable plans among other analytics providers.

Even though Pirsch is both GDPR-compliant and affordable, it still may not be the right choice for many as it comes with a few caveats. The first one is that its event tracking and goal analytics features are very limited and you may find it too basic. The next downside is setting up proxying is very tricky and needs some technical knowledge (used to bypass adblockers).

Pirsch Pricing

Pirsch Analytics is a pretty affordable tool, especially for low-traffic websites. The pricing for Pirsch Analytics starts at $5/month when paid annually for 10,000 pageviews. The next pricing tier supports websites for up to 100,000 pageviews and costs $10/month.

All plans include real-time analytics, visitor information, and tool integrations.

Pirsch Review

Pirsch Alternatives

Pirsch is an analytics tool with a privacy-focused focus that provides several capabilities, such as event tracking and email reports. However, there may be better options for some.

Simple Analytics (easy to use and predictable pricing)

As the name goes, Simple Analytics is a simple and easy-to-use analytics tool. It's also one of the few analytics tools completely GDPR-compliant with EU-hosted servers. It is cost-effective, privacy first, easy to use, and real-time data collection oriented. What more do you need?

PS: If you are looking for a Google Analytics replacement, you might want to check out a direct comparison with Google Analytics

Now let's review a few benefits of using Simple Analytics over Pirsch Analytics.

Pros of using Simple Analytics

1. Simplified UI - Simple Analytics offers a straightforward user interface that makes analysis easier. It's 10x easier to work with than GA4. Checkout the public dashboard to see what that looks like.
2. Affordable Pricing - Simple Analytics starts at a reasonable price.
3. No cookie banner - Simple Analytics gives you the insights you need without using cookies or trackers. Hence, no need for an annoying cookiebanner on your website.
4. Chat with your analytics - Simple Analytics AI is the latest features that lets you chat with your analytics and get insights directly.

Cons of using Simple Analytics

The user interface of Simple Analytics is made to look simple and easy to understand so everyone, be it the founder or marketing teams, can use it easily. The Product Manager may need a few more screens, but that is something that can be quickly built with goals.

Pricing of Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is one of the most cost-efficient tools available in its segment. The product is perfect for businesses. It caters to companies and has plans for individuals and businesses of all sizes. Therefore it ensures that the best features are available at a very reasonable price.

The pricing of Simple Analytics starts at a low $9/month, making it a pocket-friendly tool for businesses of all sizes.

Umami

Umami is an open-source web analytics tool that provides website owners insights into visitor behavior. It was created by three brothers Mike, Brian, and Francis Cao.

Many devs love it as it’s easy to install and get started, but remember that this can be challenging for non-developers. Umami also has event tracking, but users have reported it to be very limited.

Pros

• Open-source, which means it's free to use if self-hosted.
• Simple and easy dashboard.
• Lightweight web analytics and doesn’t slow the website.

Cons

• Limited support options
• Limited data retention options.
• Limited features compared to other paid options.

Pricing

Umami Analytics was initially only open-source but recently launched a hosted cloud version. The pricing starts at $9/month for 100,000 pageviews. One major issue with all the plans is their limited data retention policy unless you switch to a custom plan.

Statcounter

Statcounter is a web analytics tool that helps website owners monitor their traffic, analyze visitor behavior and track online campaigns. It was founded in 1999 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

It has other helpful features besides general analytics data, such as session replay and live visitor feed.

Pros

• Provides real-time analytics and session replay.
• Easy to install and use.

Cons

• The pricing plans can be expensive for small businesses.
• The free version has many limitations.
• Dated and poor UI.

Pricing

Statcounter has three pricing tiers for website analytics: Basic, Premium, and Premium Plus. Also, the pricing is based on the number of page views and session replays you choose.

The Premium plan starts at €7/month for up to 100,000 pageviews, and if you add session replay too, the price goes up to €16/month, which adds 1,000 session replays to the plan.

One good part about their pricing is that every plan is customizable based on your needs.

Visitor Analytics

Visitor Analytics is a website analytics tool that calls itself a website intelligence platform as it comes with several other features, such as session recording, polls, surveys, and much more.

It’s a comprehensive solution for anyone who needs more than just web analytics, but at times, this can get overwhelming, too; with more features, the dashboards keep getting cluttered.

Pros

• Offers wide range of features.
• Simple and easy to install.

Cons

• Slightly expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.
• You may have to pay for features you won’t use in a higher plan.
• Uses fingerprinting and is not GDPR-compliant

Pricing

Visitor Analytics multiple pricing plans. The Basic package is priced at $10.39 monthly and includes heatmaps and website analytics for up to 10,000 page views. The Advanced plan, available for $19.99 per month, offers everything the Basic plan features but with higher limits.

Similarly, they have Pro, Pro Plus, and Pro ++ plans which are over the same as the other plans do with even higher limits. They also give access to “Company Reveal,” which lets you know if you are getting traffic for any organizations.

Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO and Matomo (formerly known as Piwik) evolved out of an open-source project known as Piwik.

Piwik PRO is now an enterprise-focused analytics tool built on the open-source project. It offers web and product analytics and a few other helpful additions, such as tag manager and consent manager.

Pros

• Provides detailed reports on visitor behavior, including location, device, and more.
• Open-source, which means it's free to use.
• Offers customizable dashboards and reports.
• Provides privacy-focused options.
• Offers a cloud-hosted solution.

Cons

• Complex analytics tool that requires training
• Piwik has problems with loading, data retention, and an exponential increase in disk consumption.
• Primarily meant from enterprise, hence an expensive solution.

Pricing

Piwik PRO is an enterprise solution and is expected to be expensive. If you try looking up the pricing on their site, you won’t be able to, as it requires contacting the sales team.

Though the pricing isn’t public, but according to Optimize Smart, the pricing plans start at $419/month for 1,000,000+ actions. Note that this info was shared in 2022, so the pricing is highly likely to be updated.

GoSquared

GoSquared Analytics is a simple privacy-friendly analytics that was started in 2010 and was called “Live Stats” back then. The current version is an output of iteration.

The key benefit of using GoSquared is its easy-to-understand dashboard and simple setup. It’s also GDPR compliant and was confirmed by a 3rd party accreditation body.

Pros

• Simple and easy-to-understand dashboard.
• Hassle-free setup.
• Affordable pricing.
• Has multiple helpful integrations.

Cons

• Though the dashboard in easy-to-understand but the UI is a bit dated.
• Limited capabilities in event tracking.

Pricing

The pricing of GoSquared Analytics starts at $9/month for three projects (websites) and up to 100,000 pageviews. Their plans have standard features such as unlimited team sharing, email reports, event tracking, etc.

Fathom Analytics

Fathom Analytics, Plausible and Simple Analytics started at nearly the same time when there was a need for a Google Analytics alternative that is not only privacy-friendly but also easy to understand.

Fathom Analytics is built by Jack & Paul, who have been running it successfully since 2018. It’s been marketed as a simple and privacy-friendly analytics tool, but some reports suggest it may not be as privacy-friendly as it claims. In addition, their event-setting and goal-tracking capabilities are limited.

Apart from providing web analytics data, it also doubles as an uptime monitoring tool, an added feature by Fathom Analytics.

Pros

• Simple and easy-to-use dashboard
• Provides uptime monitoring as an added feature
• Supports event tracking (e.g., tracking the number of PDF downloads, Newsletter signups, etc.)

Cons

• Some users have said that the UI requires improvements.
• Other options are more privacy-friendly
• It’s event-setting, and goal-tracking features are limited

Pricing

Fathom Analytics has multiple pricing plans (10+), but the good thing is that all plans have the same feature set, with the only capping on monthly pageviews.

The pricing starts at $14/month for up to 100,000 pageviews and goes to $274/month for up to 25,000,000 monthly pageviews.

Matomo

Matomo, formerly Piwik (not to be confused with Piwik PRO), is a Google Analytics alternative that provides both cloud and on-premise versions. The cloud version is recommended for those who don’t want to go through the hassle of setting and managing the server, whereas the self-hosted version is for those with deep technical knowledge.

Apart from web analytics, Matomo can also provide services such as collecting form inputs, SEO vitals checker, A/B testing tool, etc.

Pros

• The self-hosted version is free to use.
• Feature-rich.

Cons

• Payment is required to unlock additional features in the self-hosted version, and the cloud version lacks certain features.
• The UI might feel complex to some.
• Cloud plans are expensive compared to other tools.

Pricing

The pricing of Matomo depends on whether you are on the self-hosted or cloud plan. Also, based on add-one, the price might change. Currently, the self-hosted plan with no add-ons is free, and the cloud version costs ~$35/month (changes based on your local currency).

Plausible

Plausible is a lightweight and privacy-focused web analytics tool that provides website owners insights into visitor behavior. It was founded in 2019 and is based in Estonia.

Plausible offers a clean and straightforward user interface that makes it easy to use.

They do have a focus on privacy, but according to many independent researchers and thought leaders, it may not be as privacy-friendly as they state. More can be read in this article, which was popular on HackerNews.

Pros

• Provides detailed reports on visitor behavior.
• Privacy-focused, which means it doesn't use cookies or collect personal data.
• Offers a clean and straightforward user interface.
• Provides customizable dashboards and reports.
• Offers a free trial.

Cons

• Limited features compared to other paid options.
• A lower degree of in-depth reporting.
• Other solutions are more privacy-friendly.

Pricing

Plausible’s pricing starts at $9/month when paid monthly or $7.5/month when paid annually. Though this is indeed affordable, you’ll have to keep in mind that this is the pricing for websites with less than 10,000 page views.

The next tier starts at $19/month when paid monthly or ~$15.9/month when paid annually for websites with less than 100,000 pageviews.

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics is a small part of Adobe’s giant Marketing Cloud. It’s a tool meant to be a complex web analytics tool that also comes with Business Intelligence (BI). Also, Adobe Analytics works best when you have the other Marketing Cloud tools.

If you are just looking for a simple yet powerful analytics tool, Adobe Analytics may not be the right choice as it’s complex, needs other tools to function properly, and is expensive too.

You should only consider it only if you have specific feature requirements such as predictive analytics but be ready to shed a ton of money.

Pros

• Adobe Analytics has been in business for many years, making it a mature tool with many features.
• Apart from just web analytics, it also doubles up as a marketing analytics tool with features like ad hoc analysis and multichannel data collection.

Cons

• Adobe Analytics is a sales-led product, and you would often need an implementation partner. It’s a very complex analytics tool.
• The cost of Adobe Analytics, along with the fees/charges of the implementation partner, makes it an expensive affair.
• It needs to work with many other Adobe products to give businesses all the data it can, but then it makes it very complex.

Pricing

Adobe Analytics provides three different plans along with many add-ons. The plans “Select,” “Prime,” and “Ultimate.” The pricing of all the plans is hidden behind a “Get Pricing” button, which makes you contact the sales team to get pricing info.

Though the pricing info isn’t public, however according to Nabler, the pricing is somewhere between $48,000 on the lower side and $350,000 on the high side.

Paying and justifying this much for an analytics tool is only justifiable when the revenue is in multi-millions, and even then, you can find better options.

What to look for in an analytics tool

Selecting a tool for your analytics is a crucial decision. Be sure to go through this checklist before making a choice. You're good to go if the tool provides these:

Ease of Use: You shouldn’t spend your time on a complex web analytics tool that takes time and experience to get familiar with.

Accuracy: Getting an accurate picture of what’s happening on your website is important.

Straightforward UI: Most of the time, you don’t need 75 custom dashboards (looking at you, Google).

Lightweight: Installing an analytics script has an impact on your page speed. Choose an analytics tool that doesn’t slow your website down.

Privacy: The world is moving in a direction where privacy is becoming increasingly important.

Integration: Your analytics should be able to integrate with other tools.

Pricing: Consider the tool's pricing and ensure it aligns with your budget.

Although this checklist can assist you in getting started, there may be other factors for your organization that you need to consider.

Final Thoughts

If you want a tool that checks these boxes, then check out Simple Analytics. It provides the insights you need in a straightforward dashboard while being 100% GDPR compliant.

Want to see what that looks like? Check our public dashboard here

We believe the internet should be an independent place that is friendly to website visitors. By opting for Simple Analytics, you’ll be supporting us in our mission and protecting the privacy of your website visitors. If this resonates with you, feel free to give us a try.