Simple Analytics: An Honest Review
About this review
I’m on a quest to review all of the major analytics tools out there, and today I’m going to dive into Simple Analytics. This review is just my take on it, based on what I’ve seen and tried myself. I’m aiming to give you the real deal, no fluff. If you want to check out my other product reviews, you can find them all here.
Who is it for
Simple Analytics lives up to their brand promise: it’s a simple yet effective tracking solution, cookieless of course. It’s great if you:
- Want something pretty simple to track top level analytics on your website.
- Want to focus on privacy and support a bootstrapped team on their mission.
- You want one single dashboard with all of your data.
Why Simple Analytics Stands Out
In a world where digital privacy is increasingly valued, Simple Analytics emerges as a strong contender in the web analytics space. It’s a cookieless solution that challenges the dominance of platforms like Google Analytics. This review aims to dissect its features, usability, and why it might be the right choice for certain users.
Building in Public: A Novel Approach to Transparency
Simple Analytics is not just a tool; it’s a movement towards open business practices. By publicly sharing their roadmap and even revenue data, they set a new standard in the industry. This transparency is not just admirable but also helps users understand the company’s direction and ethics, fostering a deeper connection with the product.
User Interface: it’s a matter of preferenct
The dashboard of Simple Analytics is a testament to its name – simple yet effective. It covers essential metrics like location, browser data, device types, and more, making it ideal for basic analytics needs. While some may find the UI too simplistic or cramped, it’s designed for ease of use and quick understanding, even for analytics novices. I personally do not love it, but other people might!
Setting Up Goals and Tracking
One of the highlights of Simple Analytics is its goal-setting feature. It allows users to track specific objectives easily and provides retroactive data, which means you can see historical data from the moment you start collecting, not just after setting a goal. This functionality is particularly useful for websites focusing on specific targets or KPIs.
It’s Cookieless (of course!)
In an era where data privacy is paramount, Simple Analytics offers a cookieless solution. This is a massive advantage for websites that prioritize user privacy and want to stay compliant with data protection regulations like GDPR. The data hosting in the EU adds another layer of privacy assurance, making it a go-to choice for privacy-conscious website owners.
“It has a hassle free interface that any beginner can understand easily.”
Gopi K. – Senior SEO Analyst (from a G2 Review)
Pricing
What I like about their pricing model is that the lowest tier gives you 100,000 monthly page views, making it the most generous entry level tier of all analytics software listed below. Also, by switching to yearly billing you get more than 50% discount, so their entry level tier is actually just $10/month when billed yearly.
Pricing compared to other cookieless analytics solutions
| Page Views / Month | 10k | 50k | 100k | 1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Analytics | $21 | $21 | $21 | $65 |
| Matomo | $21 | $21 | $39 | $175 |
| Fathom | $14 | $14 | $14 | $54 |
| Seal Metrics | $10 | $10 | $21 | $76 |
| Twipla | $10 | $32 | $63 | custom |
| Plausible | $9 | $19 | $19 | $69 |
| Pirsch | $6 | $12 | $12 | $54 |
| Data Centurion | $6 | $10 | $13 | $18 |
| Swetrix | $5 | $16 | $16 | $59 |
Alternatives to Simple Analytics
Analytics
I covered the broader cookieless analytics landscape here and below as some of the solutions that I would see as the main alternatives to Simple Analytics.
- Fathom
- Pirsch
- Plausible
- Data Centurion
- Google Analytics 4*
* not cookieless by default
To sum it up, Simple Analytics is not a one-size-fits-all solution but a specialized tool for those who prioritize privacy, simplicity, and transparency. It might not replace more complex tools like Google Analytics for advanced users, but it certainly carves out its niche in the market.
