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Ask HN: Any alternatives to Google Analytics that don't require cookies?

by labarilem on 3/14/23, 3:09 PM with 42 comments

I like having an idea of how many people visit my blog but I'm wondering if there's a better privacy conscious solution for simple analytics (don't need advanced features like sales conversions etc.) which would also be GDPR compliant without adding cookie banners.

Hackers with the same use case (simple blog pages visitors count) what are you using?

  • by adhesive_wombat on 3/14/23, 10:35 PM

    You only need cookie banners if your cookies represent data you need to get consent for. If you only have cookies you actually need for technical reasons, or cookies that don't represent any kind of personal information, then you don't need a banner. Wikipedia has plenty of cookies, for example, and yet has no banners.

    Also, if you collect data you need consent for, it didn't matter if they're cookies or something else. It's not the cookies that are being consented to, it's the data collection.

  • by alex_suzuki on 3/14/23, 6:56 PM

    I’m using Plausible (https://plausible.io) and it’s great, breath of fresh air compared to GA.

  • by duiker101 on 3/14/23, 3:12 PM

    Just today there was this thread which about one of the alternatives which looks nice https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35143052

    In there you can find also a link to a list of European alternatives https://european-alternatives.eu/category/web-analytics-serv...

  • by mattbgates on 3/14/23, 4:11 PM

    I developed this one a few years ago... it does have an advanced feature, though many websites are just using it for the simple fact that it's a counter. Doesn't use any cookies.

    https://justcounts.com

  • by unmole on 3/14/23, 4:38 PM

  • by goatmobile on 3/16/23, 6:13 AM

    I use "Google Analytics" [0], just a simple JavaScript snippet to fire off to a Google Form that sends responses to Google Sheets. It obviously has a ton of pitfalls but it works for me.

    [0] https://goatmobile.github.io/blog/posts/forms-analytics/

  • by fsflover on 3/14/23, 4:31 PM

  • by notmypenguin on 3/15/23, 7:50 AM

    Plausible is polished looking but it’s major flaw is trying to backup its clickhouse and Postgres from the containers they run in that had me rolling my eyes. Containerized apps have drawbacks…

    Goatcounter ends up being more flexible, once you realize that their “everything is just a path” approach actually DOES give you what you need, and backing it up is a matter of SQLite dumping to a file even mid-action and it’s done

  • by shll on 3/14/23, 6:46 PM

    Hi - co-founder of Beam Analytics here. We're cookie free & GDPR compliant. The product also comes with funnel analysis, cohort retention, custom events and has a 100k page view free tier. Check out beamanalytics.io. Thanks!

  • by gmsiperx on 3/15/23, 8:03 PM

    Try https://usermaven.com. It comes with events autocapturing saving you from the hassle of writing code to track simple events. It is privacy-friendly and hosted in EU.

    I am one of the co-founders.

  • by XCSme on 3/14/23, 10:37 PM

    I am building some:

    Self-Hosted GA and Hotjar alternative: https://uxwizz.com/

    WordPress self-hosted analytics plugin: https://wplytic.com/

  • by ksherlock on 3/14/23, 6:20 PM

    If it's your web server, you can analyze the apache/nginx/iix/etc logs.

  • by entrepy123 on 3/14/23, 7:22 PM

    Pirsch has been easy and great IME.

    [0] https://pirsch.io

    [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=pirsch.io

  • by encoderer on 3/14/23, 4:37 PM

    Our real user monitoring will give you sessions, pageviews, performance and errors - all without cookies!

    https://cronitor.io/real-user-monitoring

  • by herbst on 3/15/23, 8:35 AM

    I am using shynet for a while now. More than enough data for me, blazing fast, and simple.

    https://github.com/milesmcc/shynet

  • by jamietanna on 3/14/23, 8:55 PM

    I've not had a chance to use it yet but https://squeaky.ai appears to be pretty great for privacy, and mentions being cookieless

  • by 4ft4 on 3/15/23, 1:38 PM

    I can also throw in an open-source free alternative that we use and are very happy with: https://umami.is

  • by ezekg on 3/14/23, 4:53 PM

    Fathom analytics or Plausible analytics. I use Fathom.

  • by rpastuszak on 3/15/23, 4:31 PM

    umami.is (self hosted)

    - easy to set up (Vercel + Railway in my case, but there are even more simple approaches) - easy to add to new projects (takes 1 minute to embed) - does 99% of what I need (I'd like to see a nicer funnel UI, which I think it's coming in v2)

  • by JohnFen on 3/14/23, 6:37 PM

    My log files. There are numerous log file parsing utilities that make analyzing them very easy, too.

  • by hoofhearted on 3/14/23, 5:30 PM

    Plausible Analytics

  • by bartvk on 3/14/23, 5:19 PM

    Have you checked Simple Analytics?

    https://www.simpleanalytics.com/

    They have a great blog, very vocal about GDPR and related issues.

  • by openplatypus on 3/18/23, 8:19 PM

    Hey, definely check Wide Angle Analytics. Cookieless or with cookies. You decide :)

    https://wideangle.co

    If you need selfhosted solution got for Matomo.

    If you choose other solution, scrutinize their GDPR claims, you will be sruprised.

  • by tmaly on 3/15/23, 12:36 PM

    I installed Matomo analytics as a wordpress plugin.

    I generally use firefox focus to browse the web, so any site includes my own would block google analytics.

    My criteria was that I needed something that is a part of my blog and can also handle utm parameters so I can track where traffic is coming from.

    This plugin fit the criteria, so I use it in addition to GA.

    I believe it is GDPR compliant.

  • by notmypenguin on 3/15/23, 7:47 AM

    Plausible and Goatcounter

  • by quectophoton on 3/14/23, 5:15 PM

    > Data that has been encrypted de-identified or pseudonymized but can be used to re-identify a person is still personal data.

    https://www.gdpreu.org/the-regulation/key-concepts/personal-...