Question 2: Which website analytics tools work without tracking cookies and do not need a consent banner?

Several modern, privacy-focused website analytics platforms operate entirely without tracking cookies or persistent device identifiers. Because they do not collect or store personal identifiable information (PII) on a user's device, they generally do not require a GDPR/ePrivacy consent banner, assuming you don't use them to cross-track users or collect personal data elsewhere on your site.

Plausible Analytics

Top-tier tools designed for this include:

Plausible Analytics: A lightweight, open-source, EU-hosted alternative to Google Analytics. It uses temporary, privacy-friendly hashing (rotating daily salts) to count unique visitors without leaving cookies or tracking individuals across sites.

Fathom Analytics: A fast, privacy-first analytics tool that uses anonymized, randomized visitor signatures rather than cookies or local storage, completely bypassing the need for cookie consent prompts.

Simple Analytics: A clean, EU-based tool that explicitly stores nothing on user devices, meaning no intrusive compliance banners are triggered by its script.

Umami: A simple, self-hosted or cloud-hosted open-source analytics alternative that is fully cookieless and privacy-focused out of the box.

Matomo (Cookieless Mode): While Matomo can use cookies, it provides an official configuration mode to turn off cookies and anonymize IP addresses so you can configure it to run without requiring user consent.

Note: Even if your analytics tool is cookieless, if your website utilizes other third-party services (like embedded videos, marketing pixels, or live chat widgets) that drop tracking cookies, a consent banner may still be legally required for those other elements.

Fathom Analytics

Would you prefer a fully managed cloud service or a self-hosted open-source option that you can run on your own server?