Pirsch Analytics vs Vemetric in 2026: Privacy-first web analytics vs combined web and product analytics
Both are cookieless, open-source, and priced for small teams. The real choice is whether you need agency-ready white labeling or a single tool that also tracks product usage.
Pirsch Analytics
Vemetric- Pirsch starts at $6/month for 10,000 page views across up to 50 sites. Vemetric has a genuine free tier (2,500 events, 2 projects) and a $5/month Professional plan with unlimited projects and seats.
- Vemetric auto-detects AI referral traffic from tools like ChatGPT with no configuration required. Pirsch does not track AI-sourced traffic as a distinct category.
- Pirsch offers white labeling, custom domains, and unique client-access links on its Plus plan. Vemetric has no white-label feature on either of its two plans.
- Vemetric merges anonymous and identified user activity into one timeline and builds funnels up to 10 steps, going further into product analytics than Pirsch's session analysis and funnel visualization.
- Pirsch is hosted on a server cluster in Germany with Schrems II compliance built in. Vemetric is open-source and self-hostable but does not publish a specific EU hosting claim of its own.
- Pirsch caps free evaluation at a 30-day trial. Vemetric's free tier has no time limit, just a hard 2,500 events and 1-month retention ceiling.
Pirsch Analytics and Vemetric both reject the cookie-and-consent-banner model of Google Analytics, and both publish their core code on GitHub for anyone to audit. Past that, they solve different problems. Pirsch is a German-hosted web analytics tool built around funnels, session analysis, and white-label delivery for agencies managing client sites. Vemetric folds web analytics and product analytics into one $5-a-month plan, tracking a visitor from an anonymous marketing-site pageview through to a logged-in product event. Pirsch is the more mature, agency-ready option; Vemetric is the cheaper, broader one still filling out its feature set.
The tools at a glance
Pirsch Analytics
Cookieless, GDPR-compliant web analytics made and hosted in Germany, with no consent banners required
Pirsch Analytics identifies visitors through a hashed combination of IP address and User-Agent rather than a cookie, which means sites running it can remove their consent banner entirely while still counting visitors who reject cookies elsewhere. Everything runs on Pirsch's own server cluster in Germany, and the open-source core lets technical teams verify exactly what gets collected before they commit.
The Standard plan starts at $6 per month for 10,000 page views across up to 50 websites with unlimited team members. Moving to Plus at $12 per month removes the site cap and unlocks funnels, A/B testing, tag-based segmentation, custom domains, and full white labeling, which is the feature set that makes Pirsch usable as an agency reporting layer rather than just a single-site GA replacement.
The tool is squarely a web analytics product. It has no product-analytics concept of merging an anonymous visitor into a logged-in user record, and self-hosting is locked behind an Enterprise quote rather than being a standard option.
| Feature | Standard From $6/mo | Plus From $12/mo | Enterprise Custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Websites | 50 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Team members | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Funnels and A/B testing | No | Yes | Yes |
| White labeling | No | Extensive | Extensive |
| On-premise installation | No | No | Yes |
Vemetric
Open-source, privacy-first analytics combining web traffic and product analytics in one cookieless platform.
Vemetric tracks a visitor's journey from the marketing site through to product usage in a single system, including the moment an anonymous session becomes an identified account. That merged timeline, plus funnels of up to 10 steps and custom event tracking, puts it closer to a lightweight product analytics tool than a pure traffic counter.
The free tier covers 2,500 events, 2 projects, and 2 team seats with 1 month of data retention and no credit card required. Professional at $5 per month removes the project and seat caps and extends retention to 5 years, a price the founders have stated will rise as the platform matures, so early adopters keep the current rate.
The codebase is public on GitHub, and self-hosting is a supported path for teams that need full data sovereignty. What Vemetric does not yet have is a white-label option for agencies or the integration breadth of longer-established competitors, and it is a single-founder product with thinner documentation than Pirsch or Plausible.
| Feature | Free $0/mo | Professional From $5/mo |
|---|---|---|
| Events per month | 2,500 | 10,000+ |
| Projects | 2 | Unlimited |
| Data retention | 1 month | 5 years |
| User journeys and funnels | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI referral detection | ✓ | ✓ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Pirsch Analytics | Vemetric |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $6/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | No (30-day trial only) | Yes |
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Data retention (entry plan) | Unlimited | 1 month |
| Funnels | Yes (Plus plan) | Yes (up to 10 steps) |
| User identity merging (anon to logged-in) | No | Yes |
| AI referral traffic detection | No | Yes, auto-detected |
| White labeling | Yes (Plus plan) | No |
| Self-hosting | Enterprise only | Yes |
| RESTful API | Yes | Not documented |
| GA / Plausible / Fathom data import | Yes | Not documented |
Neither tool monitors what AI models say about your brand
Vemetric auto-detects when a visitor arrived via ChatGPT, which tells you AI tools are sending traffic your way, and Pirsch does not track that signal at all. Neither goes further into whether AI models actually mention or recommend your brand in the answers they generate. AI Peekaboo tracks brand citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity directly, which is a different measurement layer than referral traffic and matters for teams trying to understand AI visibility rather than just AI-sourced clicks.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
Pirsch AnalyticsVemetricPirsch AnalyticsVemetricVemetricPirsch AnalyticsPirsch is the more finished product: it has a clearer agency story, a documented Enterprise self-hosting path, and features like A/B testing that have existed long enough to be reliable. Vemetric is cheaper and broader in scope, covering product analytics that Pirsch does not attempt, but it is a newer, single-founder product with thinner documentation and no white-label option. The decision comes down to whether you need to resell dashboards under your own brand today, which favors Pirsch, or whether you need one tool that follows a user from first pageview to product activation, which favors Vemetric.
Bottom line
Choose Pirsch Analytics if you run an agency or need white-label client reporting now. Choose Vemetric if you are an early-stage product team that wants web and product analytics combined and is comfortable with a less mature tool at a lower price. If your real goal is tracking whether AI models cite your brand rather than just counting AI-referred clicks, neither tool covers that and a dedicated AI visibility platform like AI Peekaboo fills that gap.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pirsch Analytics or Vemetric better for an agency managing client sites?
Pirsch Analytics is the better fit for agencies because its Plus plan at $12 per month includes white labeling, custom domains, and unique client-access links that Vemetric does not offer on either of its plans. Vemetric is cheaper but has no white-label option, so client-facing dashboards would show the Vemetric brand.
Does Vemetric really have a free plan with no time limit?
Yes. Vemetric's free tier has no expiration date and requires no credit card, but it caps out at 2,500 events per month, 2 projects, 2 team seats, and 1 month of data retention. Pirsch only offers a 30-day free trial rather than a permanent free tier.
Which tool tracks AI referral traffic from tools like ChatGPT?
Vemetric automatically detects and attributes AI referral traffic with no setup required, letting you see which pages attract AI-sourced visitors. Pirsch does not currently break out AI referrals as a distinct traffic category.
Can I self-host either Pirsch Analytics or Vemetric?
Vemetric is fully open-source and supports self-hosting as a standard option for teams that need data sovereignty. Pirsch's core is also open-source, but on-premise installation is restricted to the Enterprise plan and requires a custom quote rather than being available on Standard or Plus.
Is Vemetric a replacement for both Google Analytics and a product analytics tool?
For early-stage teams, largely yes. Vemetric tracks marketing-site traffic and in-product user behavior in one system, including funnels up to 10 steps and merged anonymous-to-identified user journeys, which normally requires two separate subscriptions. The tradeoff is a smaller integration ecosystem and less mature documentation than either Pirsch or established product analytics tools.