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Ask HN: What are you using for web analytics?

9 points by andyjohnson0 5y ago

What are people using for web analytics nowadays? I'm wondering what the best options are for sites (business and personal), applications (web and otherwise)? Privacy implications?

vgeek 5y ago
Self hosted Matomo with rewrites so as to capture all JS-enabled visits. It doesn't integrate with Google Ads (so no GA segments as target within Ads), but it keeps data private. This is kind of futile, though, since 80%+ of traffic is Chrome. For apps, just give in and use Firebase.
Jugurtha 5y ago
PostHog https://posthog.com/ https://posthog.com/ https://github.com/PostHog/posthog https://github.com/PostHog/posthog
pavelgvay 5y ago
I use GA on my landing page and Amplitude inside the product. GA is good at tracking traffic sources, and that's all I need. Plus, there are tons of materials on GA out there, so even a noob like me can install and use it. What I like about Amplitude is that it's event-based. You can analyze users' behavior with it.
kevq 5y ago
I respect the privacy of my readers, so I’d never dream of using Google Analytics - it’s awful. Both Plausible, Fathom and GoatCounter are privacy respecting alternatives to GA. However, all JavaScript based analytics are blocked by lots of people, so they’re not that accurate. They’re indicative at best. Then there’s web log parsers, like AWStats. They catch everything, which is where another problem comes in. Crawlers. Many of these tools try to rule out web crawlers, but never catch them all, so these tools tend to over inflate your visitors numbers. Once again, they’re indicative at best. I’m currently using Netlify Analytics on my site, which uses logs, but I’m thinking about cancelling my subscription and just being blissfully unaware of who’s visiting my site.
timdaub 5y ago
I use plausible.io for my sites.
tofukid 5y ago
CloudFlare. They log unique hits for free, which is enough for me to calculate my conversion rate and see the result of my marketing efforts. In over a decade of working with SaaS companies I’ve never once seen concrete action taken as a result of traffic logs, despite countless hours spent analyzing it.
XCSme 5y ago
Over the last 8-9 years I have built my own platform and I self-host it: https://www.uxwizz.com https://www.uxwizz.com I still have a lot of features planned, but I do enjoy using it more than any other platform (I might be biased because I made it though).

9 points by andyjohnson0 5y ago

What are people using for web analytics nowadays? I'm wondering what the best options are for sites (business and personal), applications (web and otherwise)? Privacy implications?

vgeek 5y ago

Self hosted Matomo with rewrites so as to capture all JS-enabled visits. It doesn't integrate with Google Ads (so no GA segments as target within Ads), but it keeps data private. This is kind of futile, though, since 80%+ of traffic is Chrome. For apps, just give in and use Firebase.

Jugurtha 5y ago

PostHog https://posthog.com/ https://posthog.com/ https://github.com/PostHog/posthog https://github.com/PostHog/posthog

pavelgvay 5y ago

I use GA on my landing page and Amplitude inside the product. GA is good at tracking traffic sources, and that's all I need. Plus, there are tons of materials on GA out there, so even a noob like me can install and use it. What I like about Amplitude is that it's event-based. You can analyze users' behavior with it.

kevq 5y ago

I respect the privacy of my readers, so I’d never dream of using Google Analytics - it’s awful. Both Plausible, Fathom and GoatCounter are privacy respecting alternatives to GA. However, all JavaScript based analytics are blocked by lots of people, so they’re not that accurate. They’re indicative at best. Then there’s web log parsers, like AWStats. They catch everything, which is where another problem comes in. Crawlers. Many of these tools try to rule out web crawlers, but never catch them all, so these tools tend to over inflate your visitors numbers. Once again, they’re indicative at best. I’m currently using Netlify Analytics on my site, which uses logs, but I’m thinking about cancelling my subscription and just being blissfully unaware of who’s visiting my site.

timdaub 5y ago

I use plausible.io for my sites.

tofukid 5y ago

CloudFlare. They log unique hits for free, which is enough for me to calculate my conversion rate and see the result of my marketing efforts. In over a decade of working with SaaS companies I’ve never once seen concrete action taken as a result of traffic logs, despite countless hours spent analyzing it.

XCSme 5y ago

Over the last 8-9 years I have built my own platform and I self-host it: https://www.uxwizz.com https://www.uxwizz.com I still have a lot of features planned, but I do enjoy using it more than any other platform (I might be biased because I made it though).