Privacy-first website analytics

Matomo's privacy position, without running the infrastructure.

Matomo is the most feature-complete open-source analytics platform. That depth comes with a server, a database and an upgrade schedule to own.

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How the two compare

Nothing to host or patch

No server, database, cron jobs or version upgrades. The measurement keeps working while you do other things.

A smaller surface on purpose

The reports cover what most teams act on. Fewer plugins, fewer settings, fewer ways to configure yourself into wrong numbers.

Cookieless by default

No configuration pass is needed to reach a privacy-first setup; that is the starting state.

Predictable cost

A monthly plan instead of hosting, storage and the hours spent maintaining them.

Honest limits

Matomo offers heatmaps, session recording, A/B testing, log import and full data ownership on your own hardware. If you need those, Matomo is the stronger fit.

Common questions

Do I need a cookie banner with FollowStats?

By default FollowStats sets no cookies and stores no persistent cross-site identifier, so a consent banner is not required for the analytics itself in most setups. Your own obligations still depend on everything else your site loads and on your local regulator, so confirm the whole picture rather than this one component.

Is FollowStats GDPR compliant?

FollowStats is built to keep you inside GDPR: cookieless measurement, a short-lived salted visitor hash instead of a stable identifier, coarse location from IP rather than the IP itself in reports, and no advertising profiles. Compliance is a property of your whole deployment, not of one tool, so document your own lawful basis and retention.

What happens to my data?

Analytics data belongs to your workspace. It is encrypted in transit and at rest, retained for the period shown in your plan, never sold and never used to build advertising profiles. You can export or request deletion of account data at any time.

Can I self-host or use my own domain?

FollowStats can be deployed behind your own domains and infrastructure, which also makes measurement more resilient to blocking than a shared third-party endpoint. Contact us with your setup and we will confirm what is involved.

How is this different from Google Analytics?

FollowStats measures without cookies and without building advertising profiles, so there is no consent banner requirement for the analytics itself and no data sharing with an ad platform. The reports are deliberately smaller: traffic, sources, pages, geography, events and revenue, rather than a configuration surface most teams never finish.