Understand your visitors without tracking them
Get useful website analytics while respecting visitor privacy. We collect the minimum data needed to understand how real visitors experience your website — nothing more. Here is exactly how it works.
No cookies — never
Our analytics script (Plausible Analytics) is completely cookieless. It does not set, read, or store any cookies on visitors' devices. It does not use browser fingerprinting, localStorage, sessionStorage, or any other client-side storage mechanism.
Because nothing is stored on the visitor's device, no cookie consent banner is required under UK PECR or EU ePrivacy Directive guidance. This is not a workaround — it is a genuine architectural choice.
Already using Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) sets cookies on your visitors’ devices. Under UK and EU rules, that means you generally need a cookie consent banner and must wait for consent before it runs. Our analytics need no banner.
You do not have to remove GA4 to use Web Vitals Collector. The service works with GA4 already installed. Your website then sends web analytics data to both GA4 and us. Our dashboard and weekly reports use our own data, and your GA4 setup, including its consent banner, stays as it is.
If you want to drop the banner, you can switch GA4 off later. Our reports keep working.
What we collect from your visitors
For every visitor to a monitored website, we collect:
- Page URL and path — which page was visited
- Referrer — where the visitor arrived from
- Browser User-Agent — browser type, operating system and device category
- Country — approximate geographic location (IP-based, not stored)
- Viewport size — screen dimensions
- Core Web Vitals — LCP, INP, CLS, FCP, TTFB performance metrics
We do not collect: names, email addresses, IP addresses (stored), precise location, browsing history across sites, or any personal identifiers.
How monitoring works on your site
One lightweight script is added to your website:
One script handles both page view tracking and real-user Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS, FCP, TTFB). Loaded from plausible.io.
The script is designed to be lightweight and minimise performance impact. No third-party scripts load additional resources.
Where data is stored and processed
Storage location: All monitoring data and analytics are processed and stored on servers within the European Union.
Data processors:
- Plausible Analytics — privacy-focused analytics (EU-hosted)
- Cloudflare — CDN and script hosting
- Formspree — contact form processing
- OpenAI — AI report generation (anonymised metrics only, not used for training)
- Google PageSpeed Insights — page speed analysis (receives the public page URLs of your site only, no visitor data)
Retention: Performance data is retained for the duration of your active account. Data is deleted on account cancellation or upon request.
No data sales: We do not sell, rent, or share visitor data with third parties for their marketing purposes.
GDPR compliance summary
- Lawful basis: Analytics data is collected on the basis of legitimate interest — the data is anonymised, non-personal, and essential for providing the monitoring service you have requested.
- Data minimisation: We collect only the minimum data needed for website performance monitoring and visitor analytics.
- No consent required: Because no cookies or similar technologies are used to store or access information on visitors' devices, no cookie consent banner is required under PECR / ePrivacy.
- Subject access requests: Contact us via our form or at [email protected] to access, correct, or delete your account data.
Common questions
Does Plausible Analytics use cookies?
No. Plausible is completely cookieless. It uses no cookies, no localStorage, no fingerprinting. It generates a daily-changing hash from the visitor's IP and User-Agent for uniqueness, but the raw IP is never stored.
Can I see what data is collected from my site?
Yes. Your Plausible dashboard shows all visitor analytics in real time. Your Web Vitals dashboard shows performance metrics. Both are included with every plan.
Do you share data with third parties?
Only the service providers needed to run the service: Plausible for analytics, Cloudflare for CDN, Formspree for contact forms, OpenAI for AI-generated report summaries (anonymised metrics only), and Google PageSpeed Insights for page speed analysis (public page URLs only, never visitor data). We share data with them solely to deliver the service, and we never sell visitor data.
Can I track Google Ads with privacy-friendly analytics?
Yes. Tag your ads (auto-tagging or UTM parameters) and our privacy-friendly analytics show paid visits and goal conversions by source and campaign. Google Ads doesn't need Google Analytics to measure results; they're separate tools. You also avoid the cookie consent banner that GA4 requires in the UK and EU. We can't send conversions back to Google Ads or build remarketing audiences, and Google's own conversion tag has its own consent requirements.
Want to learn more? Contact us or see our pricing.