# How collection differs across hosted and external sites | answer.cloud Docs

> Canonical source: [How collection differs across hosted and external sites | answer.cloud Docs](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/analytics/collection/)

Compare browser and edge analytics on hosted and external websites, avoid duplicate collection, and distinguish event controls from session tracking state.

guide

How collection differs across hosted and external sites

Compare browser and edge analytics on hosted and external websites, avoid duplicate collection, and distinguish event controls from session tracking state.

Reviewed November 1, 2026

Choose collection based on where the website is hosted and which activity you need to observe. Browser events and edge requests have different coverage; installing both without understanding their roles can distort totals.

## Browser collection

The current embed sends browser page-view and interaction events. It requires the script to load and execute, so browser settings, network failures, script blocking, and your consent integration can affect collection. Most simple crawlers do not execute the embed.

On an Answer Cloud hosted site, the platform generates the embed settings when publishing. Analytics availability is determined by the site's plan and configuration. Do not add another embed or analytics snippet to Astro source to “fix” a chart.

On an external website, use one [embed installation](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/chat/installation/) with the correct organization and site. Review the actual published page for duplicate scripts and conflicting settings.

## Edge collection

Edge collection records request metadata before a browser script is involved. An external website behind Cloudflare can use the [Worker integration](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/analytics/cloudflare-worker/). This observes matching routed requests, including clients that do not run JavaScript.

Answer Cloud companion pages already have platform edge collection. Their generated browser settings disable analytics events to avoid counting page views twice. Keep that generated behavior instead of adding a second browser page-view collector.

Browser and edge events are not interchangeable unique-visitor counters. Do not assume all overlapping events are automatically deduplicated into one person or session. Document which source is used when comparing periods.

## Event collection and tracking state are separate

For an external embed, these controls have different effects:

```js
window.aeoSettings = {
  organization_id: 123,
  site_id: 456,
  analytics: {
    enabled: false,
    tracking: false,
    track_forms: false
  }
};
```

`analytics.enabled: false` stops browser analytics events. On its own, it does not prevent initialization of session and first-touch tracking state. `analytics.tracking: false` controls that state. `analytics.track_forms: false` disables the generic form-event tracker; it is not an off switch for the separate contact-form submission service.

Set the intended settings before loading the bundle and test the actual browser behavior with your consent flow. These flags do not themselves establish compliance or prevent unrelated scripts from collecting data. Generated hosted settings do not currently pass arbitrary external analytics options through from widget configuration; use the supported platform path for hosted requirements.

## Verify the complete path

Check a real page load, the browser or Worker request, the correct organization/site destination, and later consolidated reporting. For edge collection, **Agent logs** provides recent raw-event verification. Common static assets, beacons, and configured exclusions can be absent from reporting rollups even when requests were observed.

See [metric definitions](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/analytics/overview/), [embed settings](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/reference/embed-settings/), and [troubleshooting](https://www.answer.cloud/docs/analytics/troubleshooting/).