Comparison · Privacy-first analytics
MetricRaven vs Simple Analytics: Simple Analytics alternative
Simple Analytics facts last checked · sources
Simple Analytics is a Dutch, privacy-first alternative to Google Analytics. It sets no cookies, stores no IP addresses and creates no persistent visitor identifiers, and it hosts all data in the EU on European-owned servers. It also has a free plan for hobby sites and a clear one-page dashboard.
MetricRaven asks a different question: which channels bring paying customers? It connects to your payment provider, credits each payment to the visit that first brought the customer, and builds funnels that end in a payment. To do that it uses a visitor ID: one that changes daily before consent, and a stored one after.
Quick comparison
| Feature | MetricRaven | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Founders who want revenue per channel and funnels | Teams who want the strictest privacy model and EU ownership |
| Free option | 14-day trial, no card | Free plan, plus a 14-day trial with no card |
| Entry price | $9/month for 10k events; $19 for 100k | $15/month for 20k; $20 for 100k |
| Sites included | 1 on Starter, up to 30 on Growth | 10 on the paid plan, 5 on Free |
| Revenue | Connect your payment provider | No revenue features in the docs |
| Visitor identifiers | Daily ID before consent; stored ID after | None; visitors are unique pageviews |
Pricing compared
Simple Analytics has a Free plan for 1 user and 5 websites that keeps the last 30 days and requires a badge on your site; events, goals and the APIs aren't included. The paid Simple plan is priced by pageviews plus events: $15 a month for 20k, $20 for 100k, $30 for 250k and $60 for 1M. It includes 10 websites, 1 user (extra users are $20 a month each) and 3 years of retention. Yearly costs 10 times the monthly price, and the trial is 14 days with no card. Enterprise is custom, with a free 30-day proof of concept.
MetricRaven counts events (pageviews, goals and payments): Starter is $9 a month for 10k and $19 for 100k, Growth $19 and $39. At 1M, Starter is $69. There's no free plan; the trial is 14 days with no card (pricing). Simple Analytics is cheaper at 1M and covers more sites on its paid plan.
Choose MetricRaven if
- You want revenue by channel, referrer and campaign from your payment provider, not just traffic (attribute Stripe revenue).
- You want funnels that follow one visitor from landing page to payment (funnels).
- You want Search Console keywords with estimated revenue in the same dashboard.
- You want to see which AI crawlers read your pages (AI crawlers).
Choose Simple Analytics if
- You want no visitor identifiers at all, which keeps privacy reviews short.
- You need an EU-owned company with EU-only hosting.
- You run a hobby site and want a free plan.
- You want to import your Google Analytics history or ask an AI chat about your stats inside the dashboard.
What Simple Analytics does well
- A strict privacy model. No cookies, no localStorage, no IP addresses stored and no visitor profiles. Simple Analytics counts unique pageviews as visitors.
- EU ownership. A Dutch company with all data stored on European-owned servers in the EU and no US cloud providers.
- A real free plan for hobby sites, and a paid plan with 10 websites and 3 years of history.
- Useful extras: annotations, trend lines, email reports, embeddable charts, a GA4 importer, an iOS and macOS app, and an AI chat that answers questions about your stats.
- Ad-blocker bypass through your own subdomain or a proxy on Caddy, NGINX, Netlify or Vercel.
What MetricRaven does well
- Payments connected, not typed in. Stripe, Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar, RevenueCat, Shopify, WooCommerce and Dodo Payments, with refunds and subscriptions.
- Revenue everywhere. Channels, referrers, campaigns, pages and countries can be sorted by revenue (measure SEO revenue).
- Funnels that end in a payment, built from pages, goals and payments in order (Goals & funnels).
- AI crawler reports by crawler and page, plus an MCP server and a CLI for asking questions from your AI assistant or terminal.
How to try MetricRaven next to Simple Analytics
- Start a 14-day trial; no card is needed.
- Add the MetricRaven script next to Simple Analytics (install) and connect your cookie banner if you use one (consent).
- Connect your payment provider, for example Stripe, and import your payment history.
- Recreate your Simple Analytics goals as MetricRaven goals, then build a funnel that ends in a payment.
- After a week, compare traffic and see which channels brought revenue.
Feature comparison
| Feature | MetricRaven | Simple Analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Payment provider connections | Yes. 8 providers plus an API | No. Not in the docs |
| Revenue by channel and campaign | Yes | No |
| Goals and custom events | Yes | Yes. Paid plan |
| Funnels | Yes. Per visitor | Partly. Goal steps, not tied to one visitor |
| Google Search Console | Yes. With estimated revenue | Not verified. Not found in the docs |
| AI assistant referrals | Partly. Listed as referrers | Not verified |
| AI crawler reports | Yes | No. Bots hidden; raw data downloadable |
| Chart annotations | Yes. Notes and GitHub commits | Yes |
| Ad-blocker bypass | Yes. Self-hosted proxy recipes | Yes. Custom subdomain or proxy |
| Cookies | Yes. None before consent | Yes. None at all |
| Google Analytics import | No | Yes. GA4 |
| Free plan | No. 14-day trial | Yes. 5 sites, 30 days, badge |
| EU hosting | Not verified | Yes. EU-owned servers |
| Open source / self-host | No | No |
| MCP server | Yes | Not verified. AI chat in the dashboard |
“Needs setup” means it can be done with extra work, such as custom code, a third-party tool or a self-built integration. “Not verified” means we couldn't confirm it from Simple Analytics's public pages.
Verdict
Simple Analytics is a strong choice if privacy is the priority: no cookies, no identifiers, EU ownership and a free plan to start. If you only need clean traffic numbers, it does that job well.
If you sell something online and want to know which channels pay, MetricRaven is the better fit: connect your payment provider and revenue appears next to every source, with funnels that end in a payment. Run both for a week and keep the one you open more.
Frequently asked questions
Is MetricRaven cheaper than Simple Analytics?
For small sites, yes: MetricRaven starts at $9 a month for 10k events, while Simple Analytics' paid plan starts at $15 for 20k. At 100k it's $19 on MetricRaven Starter and $20 on Simple Analytics. At 1M Simple Analytics is cheaper, at $60 versus $69. Simple Analytics also has a free plan.
Can Simple Analytics track revenue?
We didn't find revenue tracking or payment integrations in Simple Analytics' docs. You can track purchases as events and goals, but not their value by channel. MetricRaven connects Stripe and other providers and credits each payment to the visit that brought the customer.
Does MetricRaven use cookies like Simple Analytics doesn't?
MetricRaven sets no cookies before consent; it uses a server-derived ID that changes daily. With consent, it keeps a visitor ID in a first-party cookie so payments can be tied to the visit that brought the customer. Simple Analytics never uses cookies or visitor identifiers, which is stricter but means no per-visitor attribution.
Sources and method
Simple Analytics details come from its public website on Nov 2, 2026. Prices and features change, so check Simple Analytics's site before deciding. MetricRaven details come from our pricing and docs. Spotted something out of date? Email support@metricraven.com.
- Pricing (Markdown): www.simpleanalytics.com/pricing.md
- Pricing: www.simpleanalytics.com/pricing
- Features: www.simpleanalytics.com/features
- Site overview (llms.txt): www.simpleanalytics.com/llms.txt
- EU-hosted analytics: www.simpleanalytics.com/eu-hosted-analytics
- Simple Analytics vs Plausible (open source, storage): www.simpleanalytics.com/plausible-alternative
- Goals: docs.simpleanalytics.com/goals
- Unique visits explained: docs.simpleanalytics.com/explained/unique-visits
- Bots: docs.simpleanalytics.com/bots
- Bypass ad-blockers: docs.simpleanalytics.com/bypass-ad-blockers
- AI chat: docs.simpleanalytics.com/ai-chat
- Changelog: www.simpleanalytics.com/changelog
- Documentation index: docs.simpleanalytics.com/sitemap.xml