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

46 points by labarilem ↗ HN
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?

45 comments

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mattbgates
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

labarilem
Love the simple design. Is there a way to have private data though?
mattbgates
The data is only viewable by you. As for hiding the counter, there's an option to set the image to display: none. Then just grab the ID of the counter and navigate to the bottom of the page, where you can click on "count" and get your tracking data right there if the counter isn't visible on your website.
ezekg
Fathom analytics or Plausible analytics. I use Fathom.
ksherlock
If it's your web server, you can analyze the apache/nginx/iix/etc logs.
JohnFen
My log files. There are numerous log file parsing utilities that make analyzing them very easy, too.
JohnFen
I don't mind downvotes, but I'm extremely curious about why this particular comment got them. I was directly answering the OP's question with what I personally do. Is my practice something so absurd that it earned downvotes? If so, I need to know what's wrong with it so that I can consider alternatives.
codegeek
I didn't down vote you becauise it seems like you tried to answer genuinely but your comment is dismissive and doesn't add value to the actual question about Google analytics alternative. It sounds more like "just use logs"

Parsing logs is not as simple as adding an analytics script and will require a lot of technical work. Not everyone would want to do that and it doesn't directly answer the question apples to apples.

Hope this helps.

JohnFen
Ahh, I see. Thank you. I was certainly not trying to be dismissive at all, I was trying to provide a helpful answer. I just missed the target.
shll
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!
alex_suzuki
I’m using Plausible (https://plausible.io) and it’s great, breath of fresh air compared to GA.
h0l0cube
+1 on Plausible

> Even though the purpose of Plausible Analytics is to track the usage of a website, this can still be done without collecting any personal data or personally identifiable information (PII), without using cookies and while respecting the privacy of the website visitors.

https://plausible.io/data-policy

Cardinal7167
Another +1 for plausible. Super easy setup and hasn’t crashed in a year plus in production for me.
nicbou
+0.5 from me

It's good. It gives you all fh the information you need for a personal or small website.

If you want insights, then it gets harder. You can't see the navigation flow through the website, or meaningfully visualise events with multiple parameters. There are more such limitations.

But for counting visitors? It's awesome. The people behind it are great, they listen to user feedback, and they really seem to care about their product. I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

mekster
Who really cares about plain visitor counts? What matters are the user journey and segmented event analysis.

You'll soon not care to see counts because it's not actionable at all.

fmerian
+1 on Plausible

Clean, delightful UI. Digestible and actionable.

jamietanna
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
Chris86
hey Jamie, I just received a notification from F5Bot about you mentioning Squeaky on HN (I'm one of the cofounders) and thought I'm come and say hello ヽ(∀ )ﾉ

We are indeed cookieless, and don't use IP-based tracking either, though we do screen IPs if you're using our IP-screening functionality to keep your teams internal data out of your analytics (optional). We also suppress data capture of sensitive data client-side by default, particularly helpful to ensure session recordings don't accidentally scoop up personally identifiable text-based data, and there are lots of other ways to fine-tune which data you do and don't want to capture.

If you'd like a demo some time feel free to get in touch via hello@squeaky.ai :) Also happy to chat about alternatives and their pros and cons, the privacy-first analytics space is heating up nowadays!

adhesive_wombat
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.

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notmypenguin
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

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

https://github.com/milesmcc/shynet

labarilem
Cool although I'm trying to avoid self hosting for this task.
herbst
I get that, however consider to put one of those tiny trackers on a $5 VPS. And have a once and for all solution for all your projects.

Shynet really is super lightweight.

tmaly
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.

4ft4
I can also throw in an open-source free alternative that we use and are very happy with: https://umami.is
rpastuszak
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)

gmsiperx
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.