Requirements
You connect Pirsch per client via an OAuth client — no tracking code. You need the client ID and client secret of an OAuth client, plus the client’s hostname (e.g. example.com). Important: the “Access Keys” with the pa_ prefix are only meant for writing data and don’t work for statistics — for reporting you need an OAuth client with statistics access. On Pirsch’s side, API access via an OAuth client is included in every cloud plan.
Create the OAuth client and connect
- 1Create an OAuth client in Pirsch under Settings → Integrations.
- 2Note the client ID and client secret.
- 3In MetricDash, enter the client ID, client secret, and the client’s hostname (e.g. example.com) for the matching client.
- 4MetricDash maps the matching Pirsch domain automatically — then link the connection to the client account.
Cookieless, hosting in Germany
Pirsch is a German company and hosts the data with Hetzner in Germany. Measurement is cookieless and without personal profiles — a consent banner is usually not needed, and the data does not go to Google. The German hosting in particular is the deciding argument for many privacy-sensitive clients.
MetricDash only ever gets read access to the stats and changes nothing about your Pirsch configuration.
What lands in the website tab
Sessions, unique visitors, page views, the traffic channels with the dominant source highlighted, and the top pages appear automatically in the website tab of the client view, plus the device split. It is the same provider-agnostic website tab that Google Analytics, Plausible and Umami also feed — switch provider later and your view stays identical.
Your clients see the same numbers live through their own read-only portal login, without you having to give them access to your Pirsch account.
Common pitfalls
- Access Key instead of OAuth client: the “Access Keys” (pa_…) are write-only and return no statistics — create an OAuth client under Settings → Integrations instead.
- Hostname matches no domain: MetricDash maps the hostname automatically to one of your Pirsch domains — if none matches, check the spelling (e.g. example.com instead of www.example.com).
- Self-hosting: Pirsch only offers self-hosting on the Enterprise tier — for all other plans the connection runs against api.pirsch.io.
- Reports: Pirsch numbers live in the dashboard and portal; they do not yet flow into the automatic report emails.