Pirsch is a cookieless analytics tool from Germany. Datasense is also simple, and adds a free plan, JavaScript error tracking and AI crawler stats. It uses cookies by default, but can run cookieless too.
Free up to 10k pageviews a month. No card.
Both tools respect privacy and are cheap. Pirsch has extras like A/B testing, a URL shortener and importers from other tools. Datasense is free for small sites and puts traffic, errors, revenue and bots on one page.
Side by side, on the things people ask about most. Checked against Pirsch's own site in October 2026.
| Feature | Datasense | Pirsch |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 10k pageviews a month, 1 site | 30-day free trial |
| Paid plans from | $9/month for 100k pageviews | $6/month for 10k pageviews |
| No cookie banner needed | Cookies by default; switch any site to cookieless | No cookies |
| Realtime visitors | Updates every second | Not clearly documented |
| JavaScript error tracking | Last 100 errors per site, with stack and browser | Not offered |
| Revenue by traffic source | Stripe, Dodo Payments or any provider | E-commerce revenue on the Plus plan |
| Goals and custom events | One line of code or a data attribute | Goals and events |
| Proxy to get past ad blockers | Recipes for Next.js, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Nginx | Open-source proxies |
| AI crawler and bot tracking | See which AI crawlers read your pages | Filtered, not reported |
| Visitor profiles and journeys | Each visitor's pages, visit by visit | Session analysis |
| Raw data export | CSV and JSON, any date range | CSV and REST API |
| Script size | Under 3 KB | About 4 KB |
| Open source / self-host | Proxies are open source; self-hosting needs Enterprise |
Pirsch starts at $6 a month after a 30-day trial. Datasense is free up to 10k pageviews a month, which is enough for many personal sites and new projects.
Datasense shows your last 100 JavaScript errors with the page and browser, and can report which AI crawlers read your pages. Pirsch filters bots out but doesn't report them, and has no error tracking.
Pirsch has more side features, like A/B testing, a URL shortener, webhooks and importers. If you need those, Pirsch is the better fit.
Pirsch starts at $6 a month for 10k pageviews, and $12 a month for its Plus plan. Datasense is free up to 10k pageviews, $9 a month for 100k pageviews and $29 a month for 1M.
It takes about five minutes, and you don't have to turn anything off on day one.
Create a free account and paste one script tag into your site's <head>. Leave Pirsch where it is for now.
Compare visitors, top pages and sources. Datasense often shows more visitors once the proxy is on, because ad blockers stop blocking it.
When you're happy, delete the Pirsch snippet. Export your old data from Pirsch first if you want to keep it.
Or see all web analytics tools on one page.
Add one script tag, compare the numbers, then keep the one you like. The free plan is enough to test it.
Add your sitePirsch is a trademark of its owner. Facts checked October 2026; if something changed, tell us at [email protected].