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PulsevsMatomo

Pulse vs Matomo

Matomo is the heavyweight open-source analytics platform — self-hostable, feature-rich (heatmaps, session recording, A/B testing) — from InnoCraft in New Zealand.

PulsevsMatomo
Starting price
Pulse
Free Personal tier; paid plans — see pricing
Matomo
Self-hosted: free · Cloud from ~€19/mo
Cookies
Pulse
None
Matomo
Configurable; cookies by default
Consent banner (EU)
Pulse
Not needed
Matomo
Depends on configuration
Open source
Pulse
Frontend + client open (AGPL)
Matomo
Yes — self-hostable
Data residency
Pulse
Switzerland / EU
Matomo
Your servers, or EU Cloud
Company jurisdiction
Pulse
Belgium (EU)
Matomo
New Zealand (InnoCraft)

Matomo is the most feature-complete option and can run entirely on your own servers, but cookieless operation takes configuration and some setups still need a consent banner. Pulse is cookieless and banner-free out of the box, fully hosted, with EU jurisdiction and Swiss residency. See Pulse pricing. Prices for Matomo 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 Matomo

Matomo can do far more than Pulse — heatmaps, session recordings, A/B tests, form and e-commerce analytics — and you can host every byte yourself. The trade-off is weight and setup: Matomo uses cookies by default, so running it cookieless (and skipping the consent banner) requires deliberate configuration, and its Cloud company sits in New Zealand. Pulse does one thing — privacy-first web analytics — with no cookies and no banner from the first pageview, nothing to host or maintain, and an EU company with Swiss/EU data residency.

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 Matomo is the better choice

If you need depth or full self-hosting today, Matomo is the stronger tool.

  • You need to self-host and own 100% of the data on your own infrastructure right now.
  • You want heatmaps, session recordings, A/B testing, funnels, form and e-commerce analytics in one platform.
  • You have the resources to configure and maintain a heavier analytics stack, including its cookie/consent settings.

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.Google Analytics alternativeLeaving GA? What you keep, what you drop, and how to switch in minutes.All 75 integrationsOne script tag for Next.js, WordPress, Shopify and 70+ more stacks.

Get started

Switch from Matomo 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