Cookieless Analytics: How to Get Started with Cookieless Tracking

Cookies have been around for a long time.

And for the most part, they’ve been incredibly useful. Website owners used them. Marketers depended on them. Sales teams tracked user behavior through them.

They helped you understand who visited your site, where they clicked, and how they moved from page to page. Sometimes even from one website to another. Cookies made tracking user behavior possible in a way that felt magical.

Until it didn’t.

The same technology that helped personalize the web also started to raise concerns. About privacy. About data misuse. About surveillance.

And truthfully, some people did abuse it. Tracking users without their knowledge. Selling data behind the scenes. Creating an internet that felt more invasive than intelligent.

Eventually, people started pushing back. So did governments with policies. And tech giants with cookie-unfriendly tech.

Apple introduced features that blocked cookies by default. Browsers like Firefox and Brave followed. Even Google, the company that benefited the most from cookies, announced plans to phase them out.

Today, cookies aren’t just outdated. They’re actively being phased out of the internet.

Which leaves us with a simple but serious question: How do we track user behavior without cookies?

That’s where cookieless analytics comes in. And in this post, we’re going to break it all down: What it means, how it works, and how to set it up.

What is Cookieless Analytics?

Cookieless analytics is a way to track and measure what happens on your website without using browser cookies.

It still gives you insight into your visitors: Who came to your site, what they did, and where they dropped off. But it does that without attaching tiny tracking files to their browsers.

How does Cookieless Analytics work?

Cookieless analytics does exactly what it says. It tracks website activity without storing cookies in a user’s browser. No IDs, no tags, nothing gets saved in the browser.

Traditional tools like Google Analytics still depend on third-party cookies. They assign users a unique ID and follow them around your site (and beyond it, because it's third-party cookies). This is what powers user-level reporting, but it comes at a cost: privacy and compliance issues.

Cookieless solutions rethink that model completely. While traditional tools like Google Analytics use third-party cookies by default, cookieless systems take a completely different route. They don’t need to plant any cookies for identification at all.

Instead, they rely on alternative tracking methods that don’t need persistent identifiers. Let’s break down the most promising ones:

1. Server-Side Tracking: Instead of embedding tracking code directly in the browser, server-side tracking shifts the work to your backend. When a user takes an action on your site, that data is first sent to your server. From there, it's processed and forwarded to your analytics platform.

2. Browser Fingerprinting: Browser fingerprinting gathers small technical details about a visitor’s browser: screen size, installed fonts, operating system, and even time zone. Individually, these details seem harmless. Together, they form a unique profile. This method can be used to track users across sessions, without cookies.

3. Device Fingerprinting: Similar to browser fingerprinting but deeper. Device fingerprinting builds a unique ID based on your hardware and software setup; CPU type, OS version, installed apps, and more. This can help track behavior across multiple devices.

4. Probabilistic Tracking: This method doesn’t try to track users directly. Instead, it uses machine learning and statistics to predict which touchpoints likely influenced conversions. It’s less about user identity, more about high-level attribution.

Can Cookieless Analytics be invasive?

Yes, they can be.

At times these methods are even more privacy-invasive than cookies:

Fingerprinting: This can track users across sessions without consent, potentially more invasively than cookies, as it's harder to detect or block.
Lack of Transparency: Unlike cookies, which often trigger consent banners, fingerprinting or server-side tracking can occur without user notification, raising privacy concerns.
Cross-Site Tracking: Techniques like IP tracking or browser fingerprinting can enable cross-site tracking without cookies, linking user activity across unrelated websites.

But invasiveness depends on the implementation. For example, analytics tools like Seline or Plausible prioritize privacy. Which means no identifiers. No device fingerprinting across websites. No storing of personal data behind the scenes.

These tools usually identify each visitor by a hash function like hash(domain, ipAddress, userAgent, dailySalt). Daily salts are unique to each website, and are renewed daily, with IP addresses and userAgents never getting stored on the server. This allows calculating daily unique visits count without storing cookies.

This approach makes it possible to measure what’s happening on your site without ever storing or accessing personal information.

Going cookieless with your analytics keeps you compliant with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, and future-proofs your tracking as browsers continue phasing out cookies.

Why Cookieless Analytics is so important

So, what’s all the buzz around cookieless analytics — and why does it matter for your site?

Here’s why it’s not just a passing trend, but something worth paying real attention to:

1. Third-party cookies are getting shut down

The thing is, third-party cookies are on their last legs. Browsers like Safari and Firefox have already dropped them.

And while first-party cookies still work for now, they’re not as reliable as they used to be. Apple has drastically shortened its lifespan on Safari. Some cookies now expire in just a day, so returning visitors might be treated like new ones.

2. First-party tracking is also being throttled

Even first-party cookies, the kind set directly by your own site, aren’t safe anymore. They’re now facing pushback from browsers, operating systems, and platforms.

Apple kicked things off with Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in Safari, which now limits the life of first-party cookies to as little as 24 hours. App Tracking Transparency (ATT) on iOS makes apps ask for explicit permission before tracking users across apps or websites, and most users say no.

Mozilla Firefox has rolled out Total Cookie Protection, a feature that isolates cookies per site so no data can be shared between websites. This kills off cross-site tracking, even for first-party cookies used in third-party contexts.

Brave blocks all kinds of trackers and cookies by default: first-party, third-party, and even fingerprinting scripts. DuckDuckGo’s browser and extension do the same, actively stripping trackers from requests before they even load.

And in the Android world, Google’s Privacy Sandbox introduces new privacy-focused tools that will limit how apps and sites track users, including serious constraints on cookies.

So even if you’re not doing anything shady, these platforms are tightening the rules anyway. The message is that user privacy comes first, and cookies, even the “safe” ones, are not guaranteed to last.

3. Global privacy laws are tightening

Privacy laws are pushing back on third-party cookies and rapidly evolving to cover all types of tracking, including first-party cookies in some cases.

Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA are just some of the more well-known laws. But they aren’t all there is. Countries like France, Denmark, and Germany have adopted stricter interpretations of these laws, requiring explicit consent before placing any cookie on a user’s browser.

Germany’s TTDSG (Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act), for instance, mandates clear user opt-ins not just for advertising cookies but also for analytics tools. Meanwhile, France’s CNIL has cracked down on websites that use cookies without a valid consent mechanism, issuing fines to major tech platforms.

In Italy, the Garante Privacy Authority has issued guidance that limits how long cookies can store personal data and how cookie banners should be presented.

Across Asia, India’s upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Act and South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) are raising the bar for how companies can collect and use cookie data.

This growing wave of legislation signals one thing: the world is moving toward a stricter, consent-first era. If your tracking still leans heavily on cookies, maybe it’s time to pivot?

4. Users are saying “no thanks” to being tracked

People aren’t waiting around for governments or browsers to protect them. They’re taking matters into their own hands.

Ad blockers are everywhere. Trackers are being blocked by default. And cookie pop-ups? ~69% of people ignore them at all, as per Advance Metrics. And it’s not just cookies they’re rejecting. They’re opting out of app tracking, disabling location permissions, and avoiding platforms that feel invasive.

So, bottom line? User behavior is changing too.

Getting started with Cookieless Tracking

Shifting to cookieless tracking doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. The key is to focus on solutions that collect meaningful data without compromising user privacy or relying on browser cookies.

Start by evaluating your current tracking stack. Tools like traditional Google Analytics may still lean heavily on cookies, so explore alternatives like:

The best Cookieless Tracking tools

As more browsers shut the door on cookies and privacy regulations get stricter, the need for a modern, cookie-free analytics setup is real. If you’re tired of bloated dashboards, patchy data, and privacy headaches, cookieless platforms offer a smarter path forward.

Here are some options we believe you would love:

1. Seline – lightweight, cookieless, and straight to the point

Seline is built from the ground up for simplicity and privacy-first tracking. It avoids cookies and skips all the extra baggage that makes most analytics tools slow, complex, or bloated. You get a fast, clean dashboard that shows you only what matters.

But it’s not just a cookieless tool, you get all the core functionalities you’ll need from your web analytics tools..

Lightweight and fast
Visitor’s profile to help you track what each visitor is doing on your site throughout their lifespan
Fully cookieless and GDPR/CCPA compliant
Clear pricing that grows with your traffic
Built for modern teams who just want good data, fast

Get started with web analytics for free.

Get startedA Seline Joy

2. Simple Analytics – privacy-first, cookieless, useful

Simple Analytics has built a reputation around being a more ethical, privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics. It’s fully cookieless and focuses on giving you clean traffic data without profiling users.

It’s great if you’re looking for something in between basic and advanced. But once you start layering events, goals, or custom tracking, it can feel a bit constrained or, ironically, not that simple.

Easy UI for basic web stats
Good if you want a plug-and-play setup
Limited customization for more complex workflows

3. Fathom Analytics – fast and privacy-respecting, but a bit opinionated

Fathom is another cookieless player that markets itself heavily on speed, compliance, and ease of use. It has a nice interface and doesn’t use cookies at all; instead, it hashes IP addresses to track visitors anonymously.

It works well out of the box and respects privacy, but it takes a more opinionated approach. Customization and granularity can be limited if you want to dig deeper into data layers.

Built-in bypass for ad blockers
Cookieless and GDPR-compliant
Best suited for publishers and simple sites

4. Jentis – enterprise-level, but heavy on complexity

Jentis focuses more on the enterprise side of cookieless tracking. It shines when you need data governance, compliance documentation, and advanced integration capabilities.

But that comes with added complexity. It’s not exactly plug-and-play, and unless you’re a large business with a dedicated analytics team, it can feel overwhelming.

Designed for enterprise setups
Strong privacy and consent infrastructure
It may be overkill for smaller teams or startups

5. Magic Pixel – event-level tracking

Magic Pixel is more focused on conversion tracking, attribution, and event data, especially for ad-heavy and e-commerce websites. It lets you track across multiple platforms without relying on cookies, and integrates well with ad networks.

That said, the dashboard isn’t always intuitive, and setup can be more involved than expected. It’s built more for technical users and growth marketers.

Server-side and client-side support
Attribution tracking without cookies
Better suited for advanced marketing teams

6. Google Meridian – Google’s attempt at a cookieless future

Meridian is Google’s latest push toward a cookieless analytics future. It leans on AI and modeled data to estimate user behavior without tracking individual users directly.

It’s ambitious, but still early. And let’s face it, Google’s ecosystem is still very ad-driven. While they talk privacy, you're still betting on the same old data machine.

Early-stage tech, not widely adopted yet
Relies on data modeling rather than real tracking
Not ideal if transparency and control are your priority

Set up Cookieless Analytics with Seline

If you need a simple cookieless web analytics tool that just works, Seline is the one we recommend.

What makes Seline stand out isn’t just that it avoids cookies; it’s how it avoids all the unnecessary clutter that comes with most analytics platforms.

You get real insights, fast load times, a lightweight script, and an interface that doesn’t make you feel like you need a PhD to understand what’s happening on your site.

It’s built for the privacy era, but it’s also built for speed, sanity, and growth..

If you’re ready to ditch cookies, then Switch to Seline.