4 ms·

Building my own web analytics tool

60 points by mthwsjc_ 5y ago

bruce343434 5y ago
It's not loading... I can only assume your server is hardly keeping up with the influx of traffic :D
- thamer 5y ago
  Still not loading 4 hours later, the request to /get_analytics is not getting a response. I assume it would time out eventually but I left the page after 30+ seconds without it returning anything.
- mthwsjc_ 5y ago
  It should be loading just fine, though it is slow at the moment. The good news is that the HN wave didn't cause any errors or break anything, the bad news is that the response time quadrupled and I'm not sure why yet.
sparkling 5y ago
If you are looking for something that is a bit more privacy friendly and not a feature overkill, check out Plausible.io (not affiliated, just a happy customer). There is also a self-hosted option.
- cdstyh 5y ago
  How does this compare to Momato
  - mmerlin 5y ago
    I assume you are referring to Matomo the open source alternative to google analytics https://matomo.org/ https://matomo.org/
  - CallMeMarc 5y ago
    More of a marketing comparison than a technical one, but here you go: https://plausible.io/vs-matomo https://plausible.io/vs-matomo My main takeaways and why I personally use Plausible are their script is lightweight, it uses no cookies and therefore is by default GDPR compliant and it respects my visitor’s privacy by default. Also a big point, Matomo is way more complex than Plausible and personally overkill for all of my use cases.
    - johnchristopher 5y ago
      Matomo has a cookie-less mode.
- stoicjumbotron 5y ago
  I've self hosted their analytics and the setup could not be simple enough! Their docs are amazing, the community is active and helpful and the docker upgrade commands are just below their version releases which is super helpful. Really happy with their product.
- karmanyaahm 5y ago
  My site only has less than 100 views most months, so I use goatcounter the hosted version of which has a free tier (but can also self host)
iruoy 5y ago
So with his own analytics, Cloudflare's server-side analytics, Cloudflare's Analytics script and Google Analytics he's got 4 different measurements now. And according to his follow-up article they all return different results.
- beckingz 5y ago
  welcome to web analytics.
- mthwsjc_ 5y ago
  yes. server-side must be the most accurate, but I'd still want a good way to filter out bots. for a site with a technical audience any general client side solution is too prone to blocking.
productceo 5y ago
Have you tried Microsoft Clarity? https://clarity.microsoft.com/ https://clarity.microsoft.com/
- mthwsjc_ 5y ago
  I haven't. The main motivation was to see if I could build an analytics tool, it wasn't really about getting better analytics. Though it was interesting to compare the different tools.
haxername 5y ago
I literally just built my own analytics server too! It's got a different feature set, but still it was crazy to see this here today
- mthwsjc_ 5y ago
  cool! how did you do it? what was your approach?
- lmas 5y ago
  Yeah same here, literally started to run it localy this morning. What's that psychological effect called when you suddenly see a thing everywhere?
arpowers 5y ago
Check out Darwin if you want something free, simple, yet super useful to work with. https://darwin.so https://darwin.so
- lucas_codes 5y ago
  Free? It's says $79 per month

60 points by mthwsjc_ 5y ago

bruce343434 5y ago

It's not loading... I can only assume your server is hardly keeping up with the influx of traffic :D

thamer 5y ago
Still not loading 4 hours later, the request to /get_analytics is not getting a response. I assume it would time out eventually but I left the page after 30+ seconds without it returning anything.
mthwsjc_ 5y ago
It should be loading just fine, though it is slow at the moment. The good news is that the HN wave didn't cause any errors or break anything, the bad news is that the response time quadrupled and I'm not sure why yet.

sparkling 5y ago

If you are looking for something that is a bit more privacy friendly and not a feature overkill, check out Plausible.io (not affiliated, just a happy customer). There is also a self-hosted option.

cdstyh 5y ago
How does this compare to Momato
- mmerlin 5y ago
  I assume you are referring to Matomo the open source alternative to google analytics https://matomo.org/ https://matomo.org/
- CallMeMarc 5y ago
  More of a marketing comparison than a technical one, but here you go: https://plausible.io/vs-matomo https://plausible.io/vs-matomo My main takeaways and why I personally use Plausible are their script is lightweight, it uses no cookies and therefore is by default GDPR compliant and it respects my visitor’s privacy by default. Also a big point, Matomo is way more complex than Plausible and personally overkill for all of my use cases.
  - johnchristopher 5y ago
    Matomo has a cookie-less mode.
stoicjumbotron 5y ago
I've self hosted their analytics and the setup could not be simple enough! Their docs are amazing, the community is active and helpful and the docker upgrade commands are just below their version releases which is super helpful. Really happy with their product.
karmanyaahm 5y ago
My site only has less than 100 views most months, so I use goatcounter the hosted version of which has a free tier (but can also self host)

iruoy 5y ago

So with his own analytics, Cloudflare's server-side analytics, Cloudflare's Analytics script and Google Analytics he's got 4 different measurements now. And according to his follow-up article they all return different results.

beckingz 5y ago
welcome to web analytics.
mthwsjc_ 5y ago
yes. server-side must be the most accurate, but I'd still want a good way to filter out bots. for a site with a technical audience any general client side solution is too prone to blocking.

productceo 5y ago

Have you tried Microsoft Clarity? https://clarity.microsoft.com/ https://clarity.microsoft.com/

mthwsjc_ 5y ago
I haven't. The main motivation was to see if I could build an analytics tool, it wasn't really about getting better analytics. Though it was interesting to compare the different tools.

haxername 5y ago

I literally just built my own analytics server too! It's got a different feature set, but still it was crazy to see this here today

mthwsjc_ 5y ago
cool! how did you do it? what was your approach?
lmas 5y ago
Yeah same here, literally started to run it localy this morning. What's that psychological effect called when you suddenly see a thing everywhere?

arpowers 5y ago

Check out Darwin if you want something free, simple, yet super useful to work with. https://darwin.so https://darwin.so

lucas_codes 5y ago
Free? It's says $79 per month