Countly

What is Countly

Countly is an open source product analytics platform developed by Count Ly Ltd (UK) and Count Ly Inc. (USA). It collects sessions, views, custom events, crashes, performance metrics and user properties for web and mobile applications. Countly is available as an open source Community Edition (self hosted under AGPL) and as a paid Enterprise Edition (self hosted or managed SaaS). Compared to Google Analytics, Countly was designed with privacy controls in mind: consent gating, no cookie mode, automatic IP anonymisation, configurable retention and per user data deletion are all built in.

What data and cookies Countly collects

By default the web SDK collects session start and end, page views, screen size, locale, referrer, custom events and crashes. It generates a device identifier stored in localStorage (cly_id) or in a first party cookie if the developer enables it. Without explicit configuration Countly does not set third party cookies; localStorage values can be cleared by the visitor. Countly's no cookie mode disables persistent identifiers and uses a session only random ID. IP addresses can be truncated or removed on ingestion at the server level.

GDPR and ePrivacy implications

In default mode, Countly stores data on the visitor's device (localStorage), which triggers Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive: consent is required because the identifier is not strictly necessary for the requested service. In no cookie mode with anonymised IPs and short retention, several EU DPAs (CNIL French audience measurement exemption, BfDI guidance, Norwegian and Danish DPAs) recognise the lawful basis as legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Countly's Consent API can gate the entire SDK behind a consent decision and even remove specific feature streams (events, crashes, user properties).

Is consent required

In default mode with persistent identifiers, yes. In hardened mode (no cookie, no localStorage, IP anonymisation, no shared data with third parties, short retention, self hosted in the EU), Countly can be used without consent under the audience measurement exemption that several EU DPAs publish. The Countly documentation explicitly supports both flows and exposes a Consent API to switch between them.

Data transfers

In self hosted Community or Enterprise mode, no data leaves the customer's chosen infrastructure. With Countly SaaS, Count Ly Inc. (USA) and Count Ly Ltd (UK) act as processors. EU customers can ask for the EU region. Count Ly Inc. relies on the EU US Data Privacy Framework for transfers to certified entities and SCCs for any remaining flows. The DPA is publicly available.

Practical compliance steps

For maximum compliance, self host Countly Community in an EU region, enable no cookie mode and IP anonymisation, configure retention to a few weeks, and either rely on legitimate interest with a clear notice or wire Countly behind a consent banner using the Consent API. Update the privacy policy with the Countly deployment details and reference the AGPL license for transparency. Document the integration in the Article 30 record.