How to Track Users Without Cookies (Legally)

You must track users without cookies or face legal fines.

If you have a website and want to track its performance, you must get familiar with cookies. Cookies are tiny text files that a website saves in a visitor’s browser.

Using cookies, the website can remember metrics like login details, shopping cart items, or what pages someone viewed.

Cookies were the main method of tracking users’ behavior on websites for years. They were specifically useful for marketers and third-party companies that need people’s personal data for targeted ads.

This method helps these parties to track users across the web. That’s why when you search for scarves on Google, you immediately see scarf ads on other sites.

Cookies are highly intrusive and have raised concerns about the privacy of people around the world. As a result, website owners are gradually going for cookie-less user tracking methods. In this blog post, we’ll help you learn how to track users without cookies and what privacy-friendly analytics tools are best for you.

Why Use Cookieless User Tracking Methods?

The internet industry is shifting away from cookies as both users and governments have concerns about them. 

Data protection regulations such as GDPR and TCPA put strict rules on the way you collect data, the type of data, and the period you store it.

As a result, some browsers block cookies by default, and others are testing cookie blocking. Website owners are also shifting toward cookieless tracking methods to remain compliant.

If you still rely on cookies, you’ll risk:

• Compliance fines for illegal data collection.
• Loss of trust because visitors have become privacy-conscious
• Data inaccuracies as ad-blockers and browsers block tracking scripts

Cookieless user tracking focuses on anonymous, privacy-friendly analytics tools. This way, you’ll respect users’ privacy while still providing valuable insights.

Proven Methods to Track Users without Cookies

There are multiple legal, privacy-friendly ways to track visitors without relying on cookies. Each method has unique strengths, limitations, and best use cases.

1. First-Party Data Collection

As the name suggests, first-party data collection is when you collect information directly from your website or app interactions.

In this method, you don’t involve third-party analytics tools. Since the data is collected on your own domain, first-party data collection is one of the most reliable and compliant analytics methods.

It’s great for businesses that want to track repeat customers or companies that offer in-app usage insights to their users.

For example, as an ecommerce website owner, you want to track metrics like purchase history, click behavior, website activity, and CRM data. These data are stored and processed within your own system.

Pros of First-Party Data Collection:

• Data is fully under your control.
• GDPR/CCPA compliant. You just need to disclose your policy transparency.
• Highly accurate insights into user behavior.

Cons of First-Party Data Collection:

• Limited metrics.
• Requires built-in analytics and programming knowledge.

2. Zero-Party Data Collection

Zero-party data analytics means you ask people about their interactions, not tracking their behavior using cookies or any other methods.

In fact, zero-party data comes directly from what people tell you through channels like preference centers, onboarding questionnaires, polls, surveys, quizzes, or loyalty program signups.

So, the zero-party data collection method is the most transparent and compliant method of analyzing your users’ information.

Pros of Zero-party Data Collection:

• 100% user-consented.
• Highest level of compliance.
• Builds trust and loyalty.
• High user engagement.
• Valuable for segmentation and targeting.

Cons of Zero-party Data Collection:

• If people don’t want to share data, you don’t have analytics.
• It has smaller datasets compared to other methods.

3. Contextual & Aggregate Analytics

Contextual analytics focuses on your content’s performance, not the behavior of users. In other words, instead of profiling users using cookies or other methods, you analyze total trends on your website.

For example, you see which pages perform best, how long users stay on pages, and where traffic comes from.

After tracking this data, you must aggregate data into site-level insights. In this process, you don’t focus on specific users and just look for a big-picture view of your website performance. This is great for blogs and publishers who focus on content trends, not users.

Pros of Contextual & Aggregate Analytics:

• No personal data collection.
• No need for consent banners.
• Simple to implement.
• Fully compliant.
• Future-proof against privacy regulation changes.

Cons of Contextual & Aggregate Analytics:

• No detailed data.
• Not useful for advanced marketing.

4. Device Fingerprinting

This is a method you must be careful about. Device fingerprinting can identify users based on unique characteristics of their device, browser, and system settings.

In this method, the user’s browser sends system details like screen resolution, fonts, OS, IP address, etc. This process occurs each time the browser loads a page.

A “fingerprint” is a combination of these details that helps your system re-identify users without cookies.

Remember that this method is often used in fraud prevention, banking security, and ad tracking. Fingerprinting is not recommended for general website tracking because there are risks of violating compliance.

Pros of Device Fingerprinting:

• Identifying returning visitors without cookies.
• Useful in fraud detection and account protection.

Cons of Device Fingerprinting:

• Not GDPR-compliant.
• Consent required.
• Can harm user trust.
• Software updates can reduce accuracy.

5. Server-Side Tracking

In server-side tracking, a script often runs in the browser to collect data, but instead of sending it directly to third parties, it first sends the data to your own server.

Your server processes the data and decides whether to store it locally or forward selected parts to third-party tools. This gives you more control over what’s shared and reduces dependence on the browser.

Server-side tracking is not cookieless by default, but you can configure your server so that it doesn’t set or forward cookies to users’ browsers.

Pros of Server-Side Tracking:

• Lower chance of being blocked by ad blockers.
• More control over data handling.
• Reduced reliance on third-party scripts.

Cons of Server-Side Tracking:

• More technical setup and infrastructure.
• Difficult to capture attribution and some user-level details.
• Not cookieless by default.

Each of these cookieless tracking methods is useful for specific needs. The following table compares the applications of these methods to let you know when to use them:

What’s the Best Google Analytics Alternative without Cookies?

Although Google Analytics has solved many privacy problems in recent years, there are still some concerns about using cookies and storing highly personal data.

As a result, many websites try to go for cookieless alternatives to Google Analytics to respect user privacy and get rid of ad blockers.

Here are some of the most reliable privacy-friendly analytics tools that track user data without cookies.

1. WP Statistics

• Country of Origin: Estonia (VeronaLabs)
• Release: First launched in 2011
• Best For: All WordPress users, privacy-respecting companies

WP Statistics is a WordPress plugin, which means you can track users entirely within your WordPress database.

The main goal of WP Statistics is to offer an open-source, cookiesless analytics service to those who think Google Analytics is difficult and non-compliant.

This privacy-focused tool was initially launched as a server-side tracking tool, but as of version 15, it has deprecated this method. Now, it relies on anonymized JavaScript metrics, without cookies.

It’s fully compliant and includes advanced analytics features, some of which go beyond what GA4 offers.

For example, it offers:

• Author Analytics
• Page Insights, like Entry/Exit page analytics
• Google Search Console integration
• Real-time stats
• Content category tracking
• IP anonymization
• Marketing add-on
• UTM tracking

2. Plausible Analytics

• Country of Origin: Estonia (EU)
• Release: Launched 2019
• Best For: Bloggers, small businesses, startups 

Plausible is a lightweight, open-source analytics platform and is one of the best Google Analytics alternatives without cookies. It tracks visits, referrers, and basic engagement without cookies or persistent IDs. It’s GDPR and CCPA compliant and allows you to choose between hosted and self-hosted options.

Look at its features:

• Clean and intuitive dashboard
• Self-hosting option available
• Open-source under AGPLv3
• Tracks page views, referrers, UTM tags, downloads

3. Fathom Analytics

• Country of Origin: Canada
• Release: 2018
• Best For: Small to mid-size sites respecting privacy

This tool was created specifically for addressing the problem of invasive analytics tools. Fathom tracks visits and events without collecting personal data, and this is what makes this tool a reliable option for many businesses.

It offers useful data tracking features, like:

• Event tracking for clicks and form submissions
• Global CDN optimization
• No IP storage or third-party tracking
• Export and analytics customization options

4. Matomo

• Country of Origin: France
• Release: 2007 (rebranded from Piwik to Matomo in 2018)
• Best For: Enterprises and agencies that need advanced analytics with privacy control

Matomo is a comprehensive analytics platform and a strong competitor to GA4. It can be self-hosted or cloud-hosted and allows you to enable cookieless mode without sacrificing rich metrics.

It gives you complete control over data location and privacy, and that’s why many enterprises and large organizations trust it.

Here are some of its features:

• Real-time stats, heatmaps, funnels, A/B testing
• 70+ plugins for customization
• Detailed visitor segmentation
• GDPR compliant with EU hosting options

Conclusion

Internet users have become more privacy-conscious in recent years. Cookies, for example, are among their top worries as they allow third-party tools to track, store, and misuse highly personal data and monetize it. 

Major web analytics tools like Google Analytics have tried to reduce these concerns, but it’s not enough. Many website owners have decided to go for tracking without third-party cookies. 

Tools like WP Statistics offer accurate and compliant web analytics services without using cookies. 

They also provide customization options to control anonymization and other privacy-related features. 

So, if you want to have user behavior analytics without cookies, you can count on these tools. 

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