Web Analytics · Comparison
Cloudflare Web Analytics vs. Simple Analytics
Cloudflare Web Analytics and Simple Analytics compared across Company facts, Pricing, Analytics capabilities, Privacy & compliance, Data ownership & deployment and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.
Cloudflare Web Analytics
Free, privacy-first web analytics that tracks page views without cookies or fingerprinting.
Simple Analytics
Privacy-friendly, cookieless web analytics that requires no consent banner.
Company facts
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA
Amsterdam, Netherlands Dutch company (Simple Analytics B.V.); founders and operations based in Amsterdam.
Employees
5.2k
3 Very small team — founder Adriaan van Rossum plus a couple of team members as of 2024/2025.
Pricing
Starting Monthly Price (USD)
—
$20 Self-Serve plan at $20/month (monthly billing); entry slider point is 100k pageviews. 2 months free with annual billing.
Offers Free Tier
Cloudflare Web Analytics is entirely free — there are no paid tiers for this product.
Perpetually free plan available; analytics history limited to 30 days on the free tier.
Free Trial Length (Days)
0 days
14 days 14-day free trial on paid plans; no credit card required.
Entry Plan Pageview Limit (Monthly)
—
100k Self-Serve plan starts at 100,000 pageviews/month (adjustable up to 2.5M via slider).
Entry Plan Website Limit
10 sites Soft limit of 10 sites per account (free product; raisable via Cloudflare support).
10 sites Starter plan covers up to 10 websites.
Analytics capabilities
Real-Time Dashboard
No live/current-visitors view; real-time dashboard updates are for paid zone analytics, not the free Web Analytics product.
Live visitor stats; embeddable live-stats widget for your own site.
Custom Event Tracking
Web Analytics tracks only pageviews/visits; custom event tracking requires the separate Zaraz product.
Custom events supported via sa_event() JS call, data attributes, and server-side API.
Goal / Conversion Tracking
No goal or conversion rate reporting in Cloudflare Web Analytics.
Goals feature reports conversion rates for defined events or pageview paths.
Funnels
No
Multi-step funnels supported via Goals; can chain events and pageviews with step-by-step drop-off.
Ecommerce / Revenue Tracking
Revenue tracking is a Zaraz product feature, not part of Cloudflare Web Analytics.
Revenue values can be attached to events via metadata (e.g. revenue, order value) and reported in Goals.
Heatmaps
No
No heatmap feature — Simple Analytics is a minimalist analytics tool focused on traffic stats.
Privacy & compliance
Cookieless Tracking
Cookieless by default — does not use cookies or localStorage to collect usage metrics.
Tracking is cookieless by design — no cookies or persistent identifiers are set.
Consent Banner Required
No cookie banner needed for Web Analytics alone; the tool sets no cookies and collects no personal identifiers.
Vendor explicitly states no cookie or consent banner is required when using Simple Analytics.
GDPR Compliant
Cloudflare maintains a GDPR trust page and uses EU Standard Contractual Clauses for data transfers.
Vendor states it fully adheres to GDPR and UK GDPR by not collecting personal data.
EU Data Residency
Free Web Analytics product does not offer EU data residency; Data Localization Suite is a separate enterprise add-on.
Data stored in the Netherlands on Dutch-hosted servers (Worldstream, Leaseweb); never leaves the EU.
Data ownership & deployment
Open Source
Proprietary cloud product. Counterscale is a separate MIT-licensed community project, not Cloudflare Web Analytics.
Core SaaS product is proprietary; only the public tracking scripts are MIT-licensed open source.
License
proprietary
proprietary Core analytics platform is proprietary SaaS; tracking scripts are MIT-licensed.
Self-Hostable
No
Cloud-only SaaS product; no documented self-hosting or on-premises option.
Data Retention (Months)
6 mo Free plan retains approximately 6 months of analytics history.
36 mo Simple plan: 3 years
Unlimited Data Retention
No
No
Google Analytics Import
No
Official Google Analytics 4 (GA4) import tool; heavily filtered for privacy.
Raw Data Export
Web Analytics (RUM) data is queryable and pageable via the GraphQL Analytics API; no in-dashboard CSV button.
Export API provides raw event-level data export; CSV export and data warehouse integrations also available.
Platform & integrations
Has API
GraphQL Analytics API provides programmatic access to Web Analytics data.
Stats API, Export API, and Admin API all documented.
Tracking Script Size (KB)
11.2 KB Measured compressed transfer size.
3.8 KB Measured compressed transfer size.
Official WordPress Plugin
No official Cloudflare-published WordPress plugin specifically for Web Analytics; community plugins exist.
Official WordPress plugin at wordpress.org/plugins/simpleanalytics/ maintained by Simple Analytics.
Email Reports
Weekly email digest reports available via Cloudflare's Notifications system.
Built-in weekly and monthly email reports; sent at 9AM in local timezone with top referrers summary.
Public Dashboard Sharing
No public or shareable-link dashboard; sharing requires granting Cloudflare account access.
Dashboards can be made fully public or shared via link; Simple Analytics publishes their own publicly.
The verdict
Cloudflare Web Analytics Best for free basic pageview stats at any scale
Entirely free with no paid tier, versus Simple Analytics at $20/mo for its paid plan. Covers core pageview and visit tracking, cookieless and without a consent banner, plus a GraphQL API and weekly email reports. The tradeoff: no custom events, goals, funnels, real-time view, public sharing, or EU data residency, and only 6 months of retention.
Full profile Simple Analytics Best for events, conversions, and EU data residency
Adds real-time stats, custom events, goals, funnels, and revenue tracking that Cloudflare lacks, plus GA4 import, public dashboard sharing, and an official WordPress plugin. Stores data in the EU with 36-month retention versus Cloudflare's 6, and ships a lighter 3.8 KB script. The cost: $20/mo for the paid plan, though a 30-day free tier exists.
Full profileSources · 37 verified references
sec.gov datarequests.org simpleanalytics.com cloudflare.com developers.cloudflare.com docs.simpleanalytics.com + 7 more
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