Simple Analytics vs Vemetric in 2026: Cookieless traffic counting vs open-source web and product analytics
Both are cookieless and GDPR-first, but Vemetric adds product analytics and AI referral detection at a fraction of the price.
Simple Analytics
Vemetric- Both tools are cookieless and require no consent banner, but Vemetric extends that privacy-first approach into product analytics, tracking user journeys and funnels alongside web traffic.
- Vemetric's Professional plan is $5/month for unlimited projects and unlimited seats. Simple Analytics is €20/month for unlimited pageviews on a single tier below Enterprise.
- Vemetric automatically detects and attributes traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT with no extra configuration. Simple Analytics has no equivalent AI referral detection feature.
- Vemetric is open-source and self-hostable, with the codebase public on GitHub. Simple Analytics is a closed, hosted-only product with no self-hosting option.
- Simple Analytics offers white-label delivery on its Enterprise plan for agencies. Vemetric does not list a white-label option in its current pricing tiers.
- Simple Analytics is a more established product with a broader integration ecosystem. Vemetric is single-founder and earlier-stage, with thinner documentation but a lower price and a genuinely usable free tier.
Simple Analytics and Vemetric share the same starting principle: cookieless, GDPR-compliant tracking that does not need a consent banner. From there they diverge. Simple Analytics stays deliberately narrow, a single-page dashboard of pageviews, referrers, and devices, priced at €20/month once you outgrow the free tier. Vemetric goes further, combining web traffic tracking with product analytics, including user journey tracking and funnel analysis, is open-source and self-hostable, and automatically detects traffic arriving from AI tools like ChatGPT. Vemetric's Professional plan is $5/month for unlimited projects and seats, undercutting Simple Analytics on price while covering more ground, though it is the newer and less established of the two products.
The tools at a glance
Simple Analytics
Privacy-first web analytics that captures 100% of visitors without cookies or consent banners
Simple Analytics tracks visitors without cookies or fingerprinting, recovering traffic that consent-banner rejections and ad-blockers hide from tools like Google Analytics, which the company estimates at 20 to 60 percent depending on the audience.
The dashboard is intentionally a single page: pageviews, referrers, top pages, devices, and geography. There is no product analytics, no user journey tracking, and no AI referral detection, staying scoped to aggregate site traffic only.
Pricing is a limited free tier, then €20/month for unlimited pageviews, with an API and white-label delivery available on paid plans. It is the more established of the two products, with a wider integration ecosystem than newer entrants.
| Feature | Free Free | Self-Serve €20/month | Enterprise Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pageviews included | Limited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cookieless tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API access | No | Yes | Yes |
| White-label | No | No | Yes |
Vemetric
Open-source, privacy-first analytics combining web traffic and product analytics in one cookieless platform.
Vemetric is an open-source, cookieless analytics platform that covers both web traffic and product analytics from a single tool, tracking how users arrive at a site and then following them through the product to identify conversion and drop-off points.
A standout feature is automatic AI referral detection: Vemetric identifies and attributes traffic arriving from AI tools like ChatGPT with no extra configuration, letting teams see which pages attract AI-sourced visitors and whether those visitors convert differently. The codebase is public on GitHub and self-hosting is a supported path for teams needing full data sovereignty.
Pricing starts with a genuinely usable free tier (2,500 events/month) and moves to a Professional plan at $5/month for unlimited projects and seats. The product is earlier-stage than established competitors, with thinner documentation and a smaller integration ecosystem, and the company has stated prices will rise as the platform matures.
| Feature | Free $0/month | Professional From $5/month |
|---|---|---|
| Events per month | 2,500 | 10,000+ |
| User journeys & funnels | Yes | Yes |
| AI referral detection | Yes | Yes |
| Open-source / self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | Simple Analytics | Vemetric |
|---|---|---|
| Core focus | Cookieless traffic analytics | Cookieless web and product analytics |
| Cookieless / no consent banner required | Yes | Yes |
| Product analytics (funnels, user journeys) | No | Yes |
| AI referral detection (e.g. ChatGPT traffic) | No | Yes |
| Open-source / self-hostable | No | Yes |
| API access | Yes (Self-Serve plan and up) | No dedicated API documented |
| White-label delivery | Yes (Enterprise plan only) | No |
| Starting paid price | €20/month | $5/month |
Considering AI Peekaboo alongside Simple Analytics and Vemetric?
Vemetric can tell you when a visitor arrives from ChatGPT, and Simple Analytics can tell you how many visitors arrive overall, but neither tool measures what happens upstream of that click: whether your brand is actually being mentioned or recommended inside ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, or Perplexity answers in the first place. AI Peekaboo tracks that AI visibility layer directly, so agencies and site owners already using either analytics tool can pair it with AI Peekaboo to see both the citation and the resulting traffic.
Read the AI Peekaboo review →Which should you choose?
Simple AnalyticsVemetricVemetricSimple AnalyticsVemetricSimple AnalyticsBoth tools share a cookieless, GDPR-first philosophy, so this comparison is less about privacy posture and more about scope, maturity, and price. Vemetric covers more ground for less money, adding product analytics and AI referral detection that Simple Analytics does not attempt. Simple Analytics is the more established, better-documented product with white-label delivery for agencies. Teams that only need traffic counting and value stability may still prefer Simple Analytics; teams wanting product analytics alongside traffic data at $5/month will find Vemetric the better value even accounting for its earlier-stage rough edges.
Bottom line
Choose Simple Analytics if you want a mature, well-documented, cookieless traffic counter with white-label options for client reporting. Choose Vemetric if you want web and product analytics combined, AI referral detection out of the box, and self-hosting flexibility, and you are comfortable with a newer product that has thinner documentation and a smaller integration ecosystem. For teams that also want to know whether their brand is actually cited inside AI answers rather than just measuring the traffic that follows, neither tool covers that layer, and a dedicated AI visibility platform like AI Peekaboo fills that gap.
Frequently asked questions
Is Vemetric cheaper than Simple Analytics?
Yes. Vemetric's Professional plan starts at $5/month for unlimited projects and seats, while Simple Analytics is €20/month for unlimited pageviews on its Self-Serve tier. Vemetric also includes product analytics at that price, which Simple Analytics does not offer at any tier.
Does Simple Analytics detect traffic from ChatGPT the way Vemetric does?
No. Simple Analytics has no AI referral detection feature. Vemetric automatically identifies and attributes traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT with no extra configuration required, letting teams compare AI-sourced traffic against organic and direct.
Can I self-host either of these tools?
Vemetric is open-source and supports self-hosting for teams that need full data sovereignty. Simple Analytics is a closed, hosted-only product with no self-hosting option available.
Which tool is more mature and better documented?
Simple Analytics is the more established product, with a wider integration ecosystem and more complete documentation. Vemetric is earlier-stage, built by a single founder, and its own materials note the product is still maturing, though the core feature set already works reliably.
Does either tool offer white-label reporting for agencies?
Simple Analytics does, on its Enterprise plan. Vemetric does not currently list a white-label option in its published pricing tiers, so agencies needing branded client reports should confirm directly with Vemetric or default to Simple Analytics for that use case.