Real-Time Analytics Without Cookies
Updated
TL;DR
Yes, you can do real-time analytics without cookies: a live view needs only what the browser sends while the page is open, so nothing has to be stored on the visitor's device. But "cookieless" is not the same as "consent-free"; whoisbrowsing sets no cookies on visitors and stores nothing about them, and it never shows visitors from the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland or browsers with Global Privacy Control.
This page describes what tools do. It is not legal advice.
What cookies were doing in analytics
Traditional analytics sets a cookie so it can recognise the same browser later. That is how it counts "returning visitors", stitches visits into a journey and builds history. The cookie is the memory.
A live view does not need memory. It needs to know who is on the page now. So it can work without a stored identifier, at the price of not knowing that today's visitor is last Tuesday's.
| Cookie-based analytics | whoisbrowsing's live view | |
|---|---|---|
| Stores an identifier on the visitor's device | Usually | No cookies on your visitors |
| Remembers visitors across visits | Yes | No |
| Keeps history | Yes | Nothing about your visitors is stored on our servers |
| Answers "who is here now?" | Sometimes, as a count | Yes, per visitor, live |
| Answers "what happened last week?" | Yes | No |
Why cookieless does not mean consent-free
Three separate questions are often blurred together:
- Is something stored or read on the device? Cookie rules in Europe come from the ePrivacy Directive, whose Article 5(3) concerns storing information, or gaining access to information, already stored on a user's device. The text is on EUR-Lex. A tool can avoid cookies and still read other things from the device, so "no cookies" is not the whole test.
- Is personal data processed? Data protection rules, such as the GDPR, are about personal data, whether or not a cookie was used.
- Is there a legal basis and a notice? That is about how a site owner uses a tool, not only what the tool does.
So a cookieless tool can still involve questions about notices or lawful basis. Whether yours does is for a qualified adviser. We do not claim that any tool, including ours, removes the need for consent or guarantees compliance with the GDPR.
What whoisbrowsing does
We keep to what we can state exactly:
- No cookies on your visitors.
- What is sent: Your visitors' browsers send the page, pointer position, clicks, scroll, device type, source, browser and operating system, and time on site. Never keystrokes, form values or page text.
- Nothing about your visitors is stored on our servers. There are no recordings, no history and no heatmaps over time.
- Paths are cleaned first. Query strings never leave the browser, and URL tokens in a path (UUIDs, long hex strings and long random tokens) are sent as
:id. - Visitors from the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland, and browsers with Global Privacy Control, are never shown.
The last point is the practical answer to the consent question: instead of asking those visitors for permission, the live view simply does not show them. It is a product decision, and the cost is visible: you see fewer people than visit. See Global Privacy Control explained and Is live visitor tracking GDPR-safe?.
Real-time tools with and without cookies
| Tool | Real-time view | Cookies on visitors | Keeps history |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plausible | Current visitors from the last 5 minutes (docs) | "We don't use cookies" (data policy) | Yes, aggregate stats |
| Fathom | People viewing now, in 5-minute intervals (docs) | "Doesn't use cookies" (features) | Yes, aggregate dashboard |
| Microsoft Clarity | Live users and live recordings (docs) | First- and third-party cookies (cookies) | Yes, recordings and heatmaps |
| GA4 Realtime | Active users in the last 5 and 30 minutes (help) | First-party _ga cookies (cookie usage) |
Yes, reports |
| whoisbrowsing | Every current visitor, drawn on your real page | None | No |
The cookieless analytics tools keep aggregate history without a cookie. whoisbrowsing goes one step further and keeps nothing, which is why it can only show the present. More side by side on /compare and in Plausible or Fathom vs a live view.
The trade-offs of going cookieless
- No returning-visitor numbers. Without a stored identifier you cannot say "this person came back".
- No attribution over time. You see where a visitor came from for this visit only.
- No history. A live view is the present. If you need weekly trends, use a separate analytics tool.
For many small sites these are fair trades, because the question they have is "what is happening now?", not "what is the cohort retention?".
When whoisbrowsing is NOT the right tool
If you need reports, funnels or recordings, use an analytics or replay product. The cookieless analytics tools in the table above provide reports; check their own pages for what they store. Microsoft documents that Clarity sets cookies and requires a consent signal for visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland. And if much of your traffic is from those regions, remember that whoisbrowsing will not show it at all.
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Read the full privacy page, see the mechanism in How it works, or try it with no account. It is free, with no credit card.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you do real-time analytics without cookies?
- Yes. A live view can work from information the visitor's browser sends while the page is open, without storing anything on the device. whoisbrowsing sets no cookies on visitors and stores nothing about them on its servers.
- Does cookieless mean I do not need consent?
- Not automatically. Cookie rules are one part of privacy law, and what applies depends on what is stored or read on the device and what personal data is processed. Ask a qualified adviser. We do not give legal advice.
- What is the trade-off of going cookieless?
- Without a stored identifier you cannot recognise the same person across visits. That is why whoisbrowsing is a live view of the present, not a history.
- Does whoisbrowsing show EU visitors?
- No. Visitors from the EU/EEA, UK and Switzerland, and browsers with Global Privacy Control, are never shown.