That's correct but there is also an alternative approach. You can track your user event data into your database using an open-source solution such as Rakam API

That's correct but there is also an alternative approach. You can track your user event data into your database using an open-source solution such as Rakam API (https://github.com/rakam-io/rakam https://github.com/rakam-io/rakam) or Snowplow (https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow https://github.com/snowplow/snowplow) and use a product analytics tool such as Rakam (https://rakam.io/product https://rakam.io/product) that provides a set of prebuilt reports & ad-hoc reporting interface for the data on top of your database. That way, you won't be sharing your data with a third-party company, have full control over your data, be able to access an interface similar to Google Analytics with prebuilt reports and also have the ability to model your data for your custom needs and do custom reporting. Shameless plug: I'm the maintainer of the Rakam API and working for the company behind that open-source product.