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PulsevsGoogle Analytics

Pulse vs Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is the free, ubiquitous analytics product from Google — powerful, cookie-based, and wired into the wider Google advertising ecosystem.

PulsevsGoogle Analytics
Starting price
Pulse
Free Personal tier; paid plans — see pricing
Google Analytics
Free (GA4)
Cookies
Pulse
None
Google Analytics
Yes, by default
Consent banner (EU)
Pulse
Not needed
Google Analytics
Required in the EU
Open source
Pulse
Frontend + client open (AGPL)
Google Analytics
No — closed source
Data residency
Pulse
Switzerland / EU
Google Analytics
Google infrastructure (global / US)
Company jurisdiction
Pulse
Belgium (EU)
Google Analytics
United States (Google LLC)

Google Analytics 4 is free and deeply integrated with Google Ads. Pulse trades that ecosystem for cookieless tracking, no consent banner, an EU company and Swiss/EU data residency — the things that make GA hard to run cleanly in Europe. See Pulse pricing. Prices for Google Analytics were checked against their public pricing page on 2026-07-21 and can change — confirm the current figure with the vendor.

See the live demo

01 · Why teams pick Pulse

How Pulse compares to Google Analytics

The practical difference is the consent banner. Google Analytics sets cookies and, in the EU, needs opt-in consent before it can run — so it only ever sees the visitors who accept. It is also operated by a US company on Google infrastructure, and EU data-protection authorities have found Google Analytics unlawful in several rulings over EU-to-US data transfers. Pulse sets no cookies, so it needs no banner and counts everyone; it is run by an EU company (Ciphera BV, Belgium) with data hosted in Switzerland, and its dashboard and tracking client are open (AGPL) on GitHub.

An EU company, under EU law

Pulse is operated by Ciphera BV, a Belgian company. Your analytics provider — and your GDPR and NIS2 jurisdiction — sits inside the EU, not offshore.

About Ciphera

Swiss data residency

Every byte of visitor data lives on infrastructure hosted in Switzerland — no transfer to the US, and no dependence on US-jurisdiction cloud providers.

EU web analytics

No cookies, no consent banner

Pulse sets no cookies and does not fingerprint visitors, so it is exempt from ePrivacy consent — no banner, and it counts every visitor, not just the ones who opt in.

How cookieless works

Open client, verifiable code

The dashboard and tracking script are open (AGPL) on GitHub, so you can read exactly what runs instead of taking our word for it.

See what is open

02 · The honest case

When Google Analytics is the better choice

If your analytics exist to feed Google advertising, GA is hard to beat — and it is free.

  • You run Google Ads and want native audience, conversion and remarketing integration across the Google Marketing Platform.
  • You need GA4’s deep event model, funnels and free BigQuery export for large-scale custom analysis.
  • You are already invested in Google Tag Manager and the broader Google stack and consent management is handled for you.

If none of the above is a dealbreaker, Pulse gives you cookieless, banner-free analytics from an EU company with Swiss/EU data residency — and you can check it yourself on the live demo.

Keep reading

Related

Cookieless analyticsHow Pulse measures traffic accurately without setting a single cookie.GDPR-compliant analyticsThe legal basis: no personal data, no consent, compliant by architecture.EU web analyticsData sovereignty for European teams — EU company, Swiss/EU residency.All 75 integrationsOne script tag for Next.js, WordPress, Shopify and 70+ more stacks.

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Switch from Google Analytics without the banner

Start free on the Personal tier — one script tag, no cookies, no consent banner. Or open the live demo first and see Pulse running.

View live demo

Cookie-free · Open-source client · No personal data stored