Privacy-Friendly Analytics for Small Sites: A Practical Checklist
"Privacy-friendly analytics" is used loosely. This checklist is a practical way to decide what to measure on a small site and how to evaluate a tool, including Pulzivo. It is not legal advice: whether you need consent or a banner depends on your jurisdiction and everything else on your site, so check with someone qualified.
1. Decide what questions you need answered
Write down the three to five questions you actually look at. For most small sites they are: how many people visit, where they come from, which pages they read, and whether they complete the one or two actions that matter (signup, download, contact). Anything you will not look at is data you do not need to collect.
2. Prefer aggregate data over individual profiles
Counts per page, per referrer and per country answer the questions above without building a profile of any individual visitor. Pulzivo is designed around this: no cookies, no personal data collected by default.
3. Check how the tool identifies visits
Ask the vendor directly: does the script set cookies? Does it store anything on the device? Does it collect IP addresses, and if so, are they stored? For comparison, Google's documentation states that GA4's JavaScript tags use first-party cookies such as _ga (two-year default expiry) to distinguish users (as of Oct 2026). Pulzivo sets no cookies and collects no personal data by default.
4. Keep custom events free of personal data
The tool is only half the story. If you send an email address or a name as an event property, you have put personal data into your analytics regardless of which vendor you use. Use IDs that mean nothing outside your system, or none at all:
// Good
PulzivoAnalytics('event', 'signup_completed', { plan: 'starter' });
// Avoid
PulzivoAnalytics('event', 'signup_completed', { email: user.email });5. Look at data retention
Keep data only as long as you use it. On Pulzivo, retention depends on the plan: 30 days on Free, 6 months on Starter, 12 months on Pro and 24 months on Enterprise (see pricing).
6. Weigh script size, but do not obsess
A smaller analytics script is good for page speed, but most of your page weight is usually images, fonts and your own JavaScript. Pulzivo's tracker is about 9KB gzipped. Measure your own pages before and after adding any tool.
7. Update your privacy policy
Whatever tool you choose, describe what you collect and why in plain language on your privacy page.
Try it
Pulzivo has a free plan (10,000 events/month, 1 website, no credit card). Compare plans on the pricing page or create a free account and add the script tag to your site.