Alternatives to Google Analytics that are legal to use in the EU

kasodk · September 2022

Google Analytics is illegal to use in the EU because data are stored outside the EU (GDPR).
It can be made legal with a proxy, but it is a complex setup.

What good alternatives are there?

https://www.cnil.fr/en/google-analytics-and-data-transfers-how-make-your-analytics-tool-compliant-gdpr

PHP_Backend · September 2022

https://usefathom.com/
https://usefathom.com/lite

note: I've never used them.

Ympker · September 2022

Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

sgheghele · September 2022

According to which level of details you need to measure, both free and paid ways that Cloudflare offers for analytics are (allegedly) GDPR compatible (no PIIs are collected but I am not a lawyer). Their Web analytics, the free way, do not require to host your DNS with them.

There is also goatcounter.com, which could be self-hosted or not, but also GDPR compatible.

dosai · September 2022

Umami.is looks beautiful.

bikegremlin · September 2022

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

MannDude · September 2022

I just use GoAccess as a bash based log reader that gives me some basic stats: https://goaccess.io/

kasodk · September 2022

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

chris · September 2022

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

And used to monitor your bowel movements along with how quickly you wipe

veren01 · September 2022

+1 for Umami. Self-hosted and easy to use

bikegremlin · September 2022

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

Is this your opinion, or confirmed by some "GDPR expert/lawyer?"

GA4 is allegedly anonymized, with no IPs and personally identifiable data:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362?hl=en

Ympker · September 2022

@bikegremlin said:

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

Is this your opinion, or confirmed by some "GDPR expert/lawyer?"

GA4 is allegedly anonymized, with no IPs and personally identifiable data:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362?hl=en

Since I use Iubenda for compliance, I also read their articles a lot and take part in (GDPR)seminars. This might be a good read: https://www.iubenda.com/en/help/72356-google-analytics-4-all-you-need-to-know

kasodk · September 2022

@bikegremlin said:

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

Is this your opinion, or confirmed by some "GDPR expert/lawyer?"

GA4 is allegedly anonymized, with no IPs and personally identifiable data:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362?hl=en

The Danish Data Protection Agency posted the following yesterday, but I don't know if it includes GA4.
https://www.datatilsynet.dk/english/google-analytics/use-of-google-analytics-for-web-analytics

It would be nice if the problem can be solved with GA4.

bikegremlin · September 2022

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@kasodk said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:
Matomo is probably one of the bigger ones.

You can also check out Plausible.

Matomo can be self-hosted for free.

BTW, isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

No, data is stored in US.

Is this your opinion, or confirmed by some "GDPR expert/lawyer?"

GA4 is allegedly anonymized, with no IPs and personally identifiable data:
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/12017362?hl=en

The Danish Data Protection Agency posted the following yesterday, but I don't know if it includes GA4.
https://www.datatilsynet.dk/english/google-analytics/use-of-google-analytics-for-web-analytics

It would be nice if the problem can be solved with GA4.

I think such "nuances" are beyond the level of an average bureaucrat's comprehension.
Also, I'm sure Google will find a way to pay fulfill all the needed criteria to stay in the game.
Google are rushing and pushing the GA4, as far as I can tell, way before it's really production-ready (no AMP support still, for example). It may be with a good reason.

Technically, Matomo self-hosted with Hetzner is probably the safe bet regarding GDPR.
However, many US-based companies requesting verifiable visitor stats (website/domain sales, adverts etc.) still insist on GA stats (GA3 for that matter, lol - jsut to make things more interesting on occasion).

A bit off topic: i'm not sure about Cloudflare, whether that pleases the gods still, or is it forbidden.

ahnlak · September 2022

Another +1 for Umami

m4nu · September 2022

Umami is the most popular one on PikaPods: https://www.pikapods.com/pods?run=umami

mfs · September 2022

@bikegremlin said: isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

We have been advised from legal department to ditch GA completely. There has been no evaluation from the competent local authority about GA4.
Sure, chances that you'll face any issue if you don't ditch GA are low. Google is obviously interested in making it compliant. OTOH, there are two local activist groups that try to nag PA sites and big corps sites with abstruse obnoxious requests if you use GA. So, legal departments suggest to sort-of "bail out" from Google to save up time. Mobbing has some effects

Plausible seems the best option for most people migrating from GA, since most stats can be easily imported. Matomo is fully fledged but has to be tuned in order to be compliant.
I didn't know about Umami, it seems sleek

bikegremlin · September 2022

@mfs said:

@bikegremlin said: isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

We have been advised from legal department to ditch GA completely. There has been no evaluation from the competent local authority about GA4.
Sure, chances that you'll face any issue if you don't ditch GA are low. Google is obviously interested in making it compliant. OTOH, there are two local activist groups that try to nag PA sites and big corps sites with abstruse obnoxious requests if you use GA. So, legal departments suggest to sort-of "bail out" from Google to save up time. Mobbing has some effects

Plausible seems the best option for most people migrating from GA, since most stats can be easily imported. Matomo is fully fledged but has to be tuned in order to be compliant.
I didn't know about Umami, it seems sleek

Nicely explained.
After reading your post, my first thought was: "Plausible must have no reasonable free plan." And yes, I was right.

note, I'm not implying that you are connected with Plausible. Just that the GDPR is nonsense and a ripoff.

Ympker · September 2022

@bikegremlin said:

@mfs said:

@bikegremlin said: isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

We have been advised from legal department to ditch GA completely. There has been no evaluation from the competent local authority about GA4.
Sure, chances that you'll face any issue if you don't ditch GA are low. Google is obviously interested in making it compliant. OTOH, there are two local activist groups that try to nag PA sites and big corps sites with abstruse obnoxious requests if you use GA. So, legal departments suggest to sort-of "bail out" from Google to save up time. Mobbing has some effects

Plausible seems the best option for most people migrating from GA, since most stats can be easily imported. Matomo is fully fledged but has to be tuned in order to be compliant.
I didn't know about Umami, it seems sleek

Nicely explained.
After reading your post, my first thought was: "Plausible must have no reasonable free plan." And yes, I was right.

note, I'm not implying that you are connected with Plausible. Just that the GDPR is nonsense and a ripoff.

But you can always self-host it for free iirc: https://plausible.io/docs/self-hosting
https://plausible.io/docs/plausible-analytics-self-hosted-guides#:~:text=Plausible Analytics Self-Hosted is,install, host and manage yourself.

Regarding Step 3: "Creates an admin account (which is just a normal account with a generous 100 years of free trial)."

Plausible Analytics Self-Hosted is our free as in beer and free as in speech version of Plausible Analytics. It’s exactly the same product as our Plausible Analytics Cloud solution, only the self-hosted version you have to install, host and manage yourself. To get started, follow our up-to-date self-hosting installation instructions.

bikegremlin · September 2022

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:

@mfs said:

@bikegremlin said: isn't GA4 GDPR compliant?

We have been advised from legal department to ditch GA completely. There has been no evaluation from the competent local authority about GA4.
Sure, chances that you'll face any issue if you don't ditch GA are low. Google is obviously interested in making it compliant. OTOH, there are two local activist groups that try to nag PA sites and big corps sites with abstruse obnoxious requests if you use GA. So, legal departments suggest to sort-of "bail out" from Google to save up time. Mobbing has some effects

Plausible seems the best option for most people migrating from GA, since most stats can be easily imported. Matomo is fully fledged but has to be tuned in order to be compliant.
I didn't know about Umami, it seems sleek

Nicely explained.
After reading your post, my first thought was: "Plausible must have no reasonable free plan." And yes, I was right.

note, I'm not implying that you are connected with Plausible. Just that the GDPR is nonsense and a ripoff.

But you can always self-host it for free iirc: https://plausible.io/docs/self-hosting
https://plausible.io/docs/plausible-analytics-self-hosted-guides#:~:text=Plausible Analytics Self-Hosted is,install, host and manage yourself.

Regarding Step 3: "Creates an admin account (which is just a normal account with a generous 100 years of free trial)."

Plausible Analytics Self-Hosted is our free as in beer and free as in speech version of Plausible Analytics. It’s exactly the same product as our Plausible Analytics Cloud solution, only the self-hosted version you have to install, host and manage yourself. To get started, follow our up-to-date self-hosting installation instructions.

My bad - didn't find that.
Not that it's the simplest thing to install and configure judging by that article, but one can make it work. Cool.

Ympker · September 2022

Damn, I should really start learning Docker. Any decent TL;DR guide, or should I just read the official docs and start hacking?

bikegremlin · September 2022

@Ympker said:
Damn, I should really start learning Docker. Any decent TL;DR guide, or should I just read the official docs and start hacking?

Sir,

All the info you need is freely available online.
It is not our problem that you have not prepared for GDPR in time.
Though, for a small, symbolic fee, you could easily start with our SaaS solution.

Plausibly denying any shilling,
Plausible team

AndrewL64 · September 2022

Umami

nfn · September 2022

Two more options.. CF Web Analytics or you can use CF Zaraz to proxy requests to GA server side

Alternatives to Google Analytics that are legal to use in the EU

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