Alternatives to Simple Analytics

What changes when you move off Simple Analytics

Simple Analytics is sold in one form, a hosted service that keeps website data in the Netherlands, the vendor says, so leaving is a date rather than a server to switch off. How much there is to take depends on the plan: the free plan holds 30 days of history and deletes what is older, the paid Simple plan three years. Cancelling keeps the account reachable to the end of the period you paid for; deleting it removes the data, permanently after 90 days.

The counting changes as well. What this dashboard calls visitors is unique pageviews: one counts when there is no referrer or the referrer belongs to another site, while internal links, reloads and the back button add pageviews alone. The country comes from the browser time zone rather than the IP address, so there are no regions or cities to carry over. A tool that hashes IP address and user agent daily, or keeps an identifier in the browser, draws that line elsewhere.

What to check before you switch

1. What you can take out. The export screen writes raw data points to CSV, one row per page view or event, with timestamps, path and query, referrer and UTM values, scroll percentage, time on the page, user agent, device type and country code. Row-level files travel further than daily totals: the next tool rebuilds its own reports from them.
2. Which route out your plan has. The plan comparison lists the Export API in the highest tier only, so on the Simple plan the dashboard download is the route out, and the Stats API answers with aggregates.
3. The unit on the bill. Usage is counted in data points, page views and events together. A plan sold by pageviews alone counts something narrower, one that counts stored event properties something wider, so the same site lands on a different rung of each ladder.
4. How far back the history reaches. Three years on the paid plan is the period this directory records; the free plan leaves 30 days to export.
5. Who holds the data. The Data in EU column describes a vendor’s hosted service; Simple Analytics names Dutch hosting companies and a Slovenian delivery network, and the next vendor names its own.

Which of these can import your data

Three tools here read a Simple Analytics export directly. Swetrix asks for the CSV: choose All in the export screen so page views and events come together, select every field, then upload under Settings, Import data. Rybbit takes the same file under Site Settings, Import; on its cloud plans an import reaches back 36 months on Standard and 60 on Pro, imported events count against the monthly allowance, and a self-hosted instance has neither limit. TinyAnalytics parses the file in the browser tab and keeps event-level timing, deriving browser, operating system and device from each row’s user agent.

The others document different sources. Plausible’s CSV import accepts outside files only in its own format, ten named tables with fixed file names. Pirsch documents imports from Google Analytics, Plausible and Fathom Analytics; PostHog lists Google Analytics, Matomo, Mixpanel, Amplitude and Plausible.

Questions and answers

Can I take my Simple Analytics history with me?

Yes, as CSV. The export screen writes raw data points for the period you select, and three tools here read that file as it is. How far back it goes is a plan question: 30 days free, three years paid.

Will the new tool show the same numbers?

No. A visitor here is a unique pageview decided by the referrer, and the country comes from the time zone, so a tool that recognises visitors by a daily hash or a stored identifier counts a different thing, and bot filtering differs by vendor as well. The cookieless page covers the methods.

What happens to my data if I cancel?

Access runs to the end of the period you paid for, and deleting the account removes the data. Export before either date: the file you keep is the copy that travels. The pricing page shows which plan holds how much history.