Simple Analytics Review: The Easiest Google Analytics Alternative?

Most web analytics tools market themselves as “simple.” Simple Analytics actually means it. Built by a small team based in the Netherlands, Simple Analytics is designed to give you the minimum viable information about your website traffic — and nothing more. No user-level data, no cookie tracking, no data layer, and a script so small it barely registers on your page load budget.

But is stripping analytics down to its essentials a genuine advantage, or does it leave you flying blind? This review looks at what Simple Analytics offers, how it compares to both Plausible and Google Analytics 4, and who should genuinely consider it.

What Is Simple Analytics?

Simple Analytics is a Dutch web analytics platform founded in 2018. It is privacy-first by architecture — not by configuration. The tool collects no personal data, uses no cookies, performs no fingerprinting, and processes no information that could identify an individual visitor. All data is stored on servers in the Netherlands, within the EU, and is never shared with third parties.

The company’s positioning is deliberately minimal: they want to be the analytics tool that you install, forget about, and glance at occasionally when you want to know if something is working. For bloggers, writers, personal sites, and small content-driven projects, this pitch lands well.

Simple Analytics is not open source, but the company publishes its data collection methodology and what it does and does not collect in clear documentation. The codebase is not auditable by the public, but the privacy architecture is transparent and has been independently reviewed.

Setting Up Simple Analytics

Like Fathom and Plausible, setup takes minutes. You add a single script tag to your site, verify ownership, and data starts flowing. Simple Analytics provides direct integration guides for WordPress, Ghost, Webflow, Gatsby, Next.js, and others. The setup documentation is clear and concise.

Where Simple Analytics differentiates is the script size. The tracking script is under 4KB — smaller than both Plausible (under 1KB, though Plausible’s edge CDN makes this largely moot) and significantly smaller than GA4’s 45KB+ payload. For performance-obsessed developers or sites targeting users on slow mobile connections, this matters. Core Web Vitals scores will not be impacted by Simple Analytics in any meaningful way.

Simple Analytics also offers a non-JavaScript tracking option using a tracking pixel, which is useful for email newsletters, AMP pages, and environments where script execution is restricted.

The Dashboard: Genuinely Simple

The Simple Analytics dashboard is possibly the most stripped-back in the category. You see:

Pageviews and unique visitor counts over a chosen time range
Top pages
Referrer sources
Countries
Device types and browsers
Time on page (estimated)

There are no bounce rate calculations, no session duration metrics in the traditional sense, and no goal funnel visualisations. Simple Analytics has made deliberate choices about what not to show, partly for privacy reasons (session-level data requires some form of tracking continuity) and partly by design philosophy.

Custom events are supported. You can track button clicks, form submissions, and other interactions by adding data attributes or calling the Simple Analytics JS API. These events appear in the dashboard alongside your traffic data. For a tool positioned as “the simplest option,” the events system is a meaningful addition that covers the most common conversion tracking needs.

One standout feature is tweet impressions tracking — Simple Analytics can pull in social referral context where other tools can’t, as it parses UTM parameters and referrer data more aggressively than some competitors. This is a minor but appreciated detail for content creators who drive traffic from social.

Simple Analytics vs Google Analytics 4

The comparison here is stark. GA4 is a comprehensive, enterprise-capable analytics platform with a learning curve, a compliance overhead, and a data richness that Simple Analytics does not attempt to match. Simple Analytics is not trying to compete with GA4 on features — it is competing on the premise that most GA4 features go unused by most site owners.

Setup time: Simple Analytics wins. Five minutes vs. potentially hours for a properly configured GA4 setup.
Compliance: Simple Analytics wins. No cookies, no consent banner, GDPR-compliant by design, data stored in the EU.
Data depth: GA4 wins comprehensively. Path exploration, cohort analysis, multi-touch attribution, advertising integrations — none of this exists in Simple Analytics.
Accuracy: Simple Analytics likely wins for most sites. GA4 data is impacted by consent rates and ad blockers. Simple Analytics’ script bypasses most blocklists.
Cost: GA4 is free. Simple Analytics is paid. The value exchange is: your visitors’ data (with GA4) vs. a monthly subscription (with Simple Analytics).

Simple Analytics vs Plausible: A Closer Fight

This is the more relevant comparison for people evaluating privacy-first analytics. Both are cookieless, GDPR-compliant, and focused on simple dashboards. Here is where they differ:

Features: Plausible has more. Funnels, custom properties, e-commerce revenue tracking, a Stats API, and a Looker Studio connector are all available on Plausible’s Business plan. Simple Analytics’ feature set is more limited.
Open source: Plausible is open source and self-hostable. Simple Analytics is not.
Free plan: Simple Analytics offers a free plan (with 30-day data history only). Plausible does not have a free tier — only a 30-day free trial. For permanently free usage on a very low-traffic site, Simple Analytics is the only option in this comparison.
Pricing model: Simple Analytics charges in EUR; Plausible in USD. Simple Analytics pricing is usage-based and adjusts monthly based on actual traffic — a sliding model rather than fixed tiers.
Email reports: Simple Analytics includes aggregated email reports; Plausible also includes these on paid plans.
Script size: Both are small enough that performance impact is negligible in practice.

The honest assessment: Plausible offers more for comparable pricing. Simple Analytics wins on raw simplicity, the existence of a free tier, and the sliding pricing model that automatically adjusts to your traffic.

Pricing

Simple Analytics uses a sliding scale based on monthly data points (pageviews + custom events), which automatically adjusts your bill to match your actual usage over a rolling three-month average. As of early 2026:

Free plan: Unlimited pageviews (fair use policy applies), 1 website, 30-day data history only.
Starter: €19/month — up to 100,000 monthly data points, 1 user seat, 10 websites, 3-year data retention.
Business: €59/month — up to 1,000,000 monthly data points, 10 user seats, 100 websites, raw data export.
Enterprise: Custom pricing for larger organisations with priority support.

Annual billing is available at a discount. A 14-day free trial with full features is offered with no credit card required. Non-profit organisations receive a 50% discount on all paid plans. Prices are charged in EUR, which may vary slightly in USD depending on exchange rates.

The free plan is genuinely free — not a trial — though the 30-day data history cap means it functions more as a lightweight awareness tool than a serious historical analytics solution. For personal projects, hobby sites, or experimentation, the free plan is functional.

Who It’s For

Simple Analytics is best suited for:

Bloggers and content creators who want a clean, honest traffic overview without complexity
Personal website owners who want any analytics at all without GA4’s overhead
Privacy advocates who want the strictest possible data minimisation (no fingerprinting, no sessions, no individual-level data of any kind)
Developers building lightweight projects who want the smallest possible analytics footprint
Non-profits who benefit from the 50% discount and want GDPR compliance by default

Simple Analytics is not a strong choice for:

Businesses running conversion-focused marketing campaigns (limited goal tracking depth)
Teams that need funnel analysis or product usage data
Anyone who needs API access or data export for BI tooling (available only on Business plan)
Those who want to self-host their analytics

Verdict

Simple Analytics delivers on its name. It is the most privacy-protective option in this comparison, the simplest to understand, and the only one offering a genuinely free tier for permanent use. For bloggers, personal site owners, and anyone who found even Plausible slightly more than they needed, Simple Analytics is worth serious consideration.

That said, if you are running a real product or content business with growth ambitions, Plausible offers meaningfully more — funnels, API access, open source transparency, and lower starting price in USD — for a similar monthly investment. Simple Analytics is not the wrong choice for those use cases, but it is not the optimal one either.

The right call: if you want the least friction, the smallest footprint, and the strictest privacy guarantees, Simple Analytics is your tool. If you want a bit more analytical horsepower while staying firmly in the privacy-first camp, go with Plausible.

Get started with Simple Analytics — free plan available, no credit card required. [AFFILIATE LINK: Simple Analytics]