Should I use analytics without cookie consent or stick to privacy-friendly alternatives?

Other Questions Google Analytics
1

I want to keep my website completely privacy focused and avoid collecting any user data. I really don’t want to deal with cookie consent popups because of GDPR requirements and honestly I find them annoying as a user myself.

I found some cookieless analytics options like goatcounter that don’t require consent banners. The problem is their dashboards look pretty basic and outdated compared to what you get with mainstream solutions.

My main concern is whether I can grow my website effectively without detailed analytics data. Should I just accept the cookie banner situation and go with Google Analytics for better insights? Or can you actually scale a website successfully using these simpler privacy focused tracking tools?

2

I made the same switch and totally get your concerns. Yeah, the dashboard’s simpler, but that actually helped me focus on what matters. Turns out most Google Analytics metrics weren’t that useful anyway - just noise. I kept the important stuff like page views and user demos, and my growth didn’t suffer at all. The cookieless setup made my site faster too, which was a nice bonus. Plus there’s something refreshing about not tracking people everywhere they go. If you need more detailed insights later, throw in some user feedback tools alongside your analytics.