Pendo

Active

Pendo is a hosted product analytics platform for web and mobile apps, priced by monthly active users; its web analytics section is not part of the free plan. Data is hosted in the US by default or in the EU, Japan or Australia, and the web SDK keeps visitor IDs in local storage unless client-side storage is turned off.

Product analytics
Cloud
Based in United States
Founded 2013
Checked 17 Sep 2026

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Tracking script

233.1 KB compressed

736.2 KB uncompressed · measured 17 Sep 2026

Heavier than 39 of the 39 other measured scripts. Each line is one tool; hover to see which.

Price

FromFree

At 100k monthly tracked usersOn request

Billed by monthly tracked users · checked 17 Sep 2026

Free · up to 500 monthly tracked usersFree
Higher volumesOn request

Privacy and data

Cookies: Optional
Data location: EU or US
Self-hosting: No
Source code: Closed

Plans

Free plan: Yes
Billing unit: Monthly tracked users
Sites on entry plan: Unlimited
Data retention: 7 years

Strengths

Pendo records interactions from installation, so pages and features you tag later show usage from the day the script went live, on the Free plan too.
Web SDK 2.28.0 and later keeps visitor data in local storage rather than cookies, and a setting turns off client-side storage entirely.
Customers choose where data is hosted: the US by default, or separate EU, Japan and Australia environments on Google Cloud that do not replicate data between each other.
With the Block data from known bots setting, Pendo drops traffic from a published list of crawlers, and you can block up to 20 more suspected bots.
Paid plans add web analytics with new and returning traffic, sessions, channels, referrers, UTM parameters and conversion rates for a page, feature or Track Event you choose.

Watch-outs

Pendo Free does not include web analytics, Data Explorer, session replay, CNAME, the API or third-party integrations, and it shows event data in the interface for 12 months.
Above 500 monthly active users, Free stops you from creating guides, NPS surveys and segments, and reports switch to trends based on a random sample of 500 visitors.
Most analytics data is aggregated once an hour and can appear up to 15 minutes after the hour, so a new installation can take up to an hour to show data.
The install script’s example asks for a human-readable visitor ID, such as an email address or username, because the ID appears in Pendo reports.
Dashboards can be shared only with users inside your Pendo subscription, and the Engage API has no endpoints for exporting funnel, path or retention reports.

Who it suits

Pendo combines product analytics with in-app guides for web and mobile applications and charges by monthly active users, meaning unique visitors active in the last 30 days. The number of applications and sessions does not affect pricing, and the paid plans have no published prices.

The Free plan covers up to 500 monthly active users with page and feature tagging, funnels, paths, retention, dashboards, in-app guides and Pendo-branded NPS surveys, and registration requires a business email address. The web analytics section, with traffic, sessions, UTM parameters and conversions, is only in paid plans, and Pendo suggests tracking a marketing site as a separate application.

Pendo stores data in the US by default and offers separate environments in the EU, Japan and Australia.

Setup

A developer adds the install script to the page header of every page. It loads the web SDK, carries the application’s public app ID from Settings > Subscription settings > Applications, and calls pendo.initialize with visitor and account IDs; anonymous visitors can be tracked as well. Mobile apps use Pendo’s mobile SDKs.

Storage options, including Turn off client-side storage, are on the App Details tab of each application, and bot blocking is a setting in Subscription settings. On paid plans, a CNAME serves guides and collects events through your own subdomain. You can also download pendo.js and host it yourself, although Pendo warns that you then miss its regular updates, including security fixes.

Single snippet
First-party proxy (partly)
Public API (partly)
Data export
Email reports
Slack or webhooks (partly)

Features

As documented on the vendor’s own pages. “Partly” means the feature has limits or is only on some plans.

Tracking & Reporting

Pageviews & visitors: yes
Live visitor count: no
Top pages report: yes
Top referrersPartly
UTM campaign trackingPartly
Country & city breakdownPartly
Device, browser, OS: yes
Bounce / engagement: yes
Time on site: yes
Custom events: yes
Goals / conversions: yes
Funnels: yes
Outbound link trackingPartly
File download trackingPartly
404 / error trackingPartly

Pricing & Plans

Unlimited sites on entry plan: yes

Privacy & Compliance

Cookieless by defaultPartly
No personal data collected (vendor’s position): no
No consent banner needed (vendor’s position): no
Data hosted in EU: yes
Data hosted in US: yes
Self-hostable: no
Open source: no
Data retention7 years
Bot & spam filtering: yes

Setup & Integrations

Single-snippet install: yes
WordPress plugin: no
Proxy / first-party domainPartly
Public APIPartly
Data export (CSV/JSON): yes
Google Search Console connector: no
Email digests: yes
Slack / webhook alertsPartly
Public shareable dashboard: no

Platforms & frameworks

What the vendor documents. A platform that is not listed has no guide, plugin or package from the vendor.

DrupalPartly
Google Tag Manager: yes
Server-side tracking: yes

Questions and answers

Does Pendo use cookies?

Not by default in current versions. Web SDK 2.28.0 and later stores visitor data in local storage, and the setting that stops a fallback to cookies is on by default. An identifier still stays in the browser unless you turn off client-side storage, and whether you need consent depends on the rules that apply to you.

Is there a free Pendo plan?

Yes. Pendo Free covers up to 500 monthly active users with analytics, guides, dashboards and Pendo-branded NPS surveys, and it requires a business email address. At registration you can start a 30-day trial of paid features; if you skip it, a 14-day trial becomes available only after installation.

What happens if I go over the monthly active user limit?

On paid plans, Pendo keeps working without interruption, and your account representative gets in touch about the contract. On Pendo Free, you can no longer create guides, NPS surveys or segments, and reports show trends based on a random sample of 500 visitors until you upgrade.

Where does Pendo store data?

In the US by default. Pendo runs on Google Cloud and also offers separate environments in the EU, Japan and Australia, and the customer decides which one to use. The environments do not replicate data between each other, and Pendo says the EU environment stores no personal data outside the EU.

Sources and checks

Status: Active, checked 17 Sep 2026
Prices: Checked 17 Sep 2026 on the vendor’s pricing page ↗
Tracking script: Measured 17 Sep 2026: downloaded and compressed the same way for every tool
Features: From the vendor’s pages, checked 18 Sep 2026
This page: Text updated 17 Sep 2026

How each value is collected: methodology. Why tools get no overall score: our reasoning.