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Show HN: Why Google Analytics May Not Be the Best Option for Your Website (2023)

19 points by falcon_ 3y ago

In 2023, website owners, bloggers, and web developers need to re-evaluate their use of Google Analytics. While it has been a go-to tool for tracking website stats, its privacy concerns and limitations are becoming increasingly apparent.

throwuxiytayq 3y ago
I tried using GA the other day. I was surprised how terrible the UI/UX was. I would literally rather have no idea how many visitors I have instead of using this tool. Google never fails to disappoint.
- IAmGraydon 3y ago
  It has always been terrible, but the new version 4 is an abomination. I have no clue how a company of their size and resources is releasing such garbage. It seems like they have too many teams working on each product and poor oversight/communication between teams.
CaveTech 3y ago
FYI your dashboard mispells “referrers” as “refferers”
- adzm 3y ago
  Clearly it should be "referers"
  - hashstring 3y ago
    Yes haha!
stephen123 3y ago
Good luck, the product looks slick. I see you have traffic coming from indiepa.ge, so I wonder which indie hacker are you and are you on twitter. I always wont to know who's behind something, particularly if im going to install their tracking tool. ;)
- falcon_ 3y ago
  You can find me at @victoor (spanish) or @falcon_maker (english)
skilled 3y ago
I'm going to give criticism because I think this deserves it. By the looks of it, this is being created by someone who doesn't inherently understand how Google tracks users for advertising purposes, but also doesn't understand how GDPR works. There is not a single outgoing link that backs up any of the claims in this article, and it's written entirely tone-deaf. I'd also add that there is fierce competition in this space now, but the article is written in a tone that assumes there isn't. It's very hard to trust projects like this that use 90% professional language peddling the product itself and nothing else. All in all, in its current state I would not choose this over alternatives like Plausible or any of the other projects that do the same exact things but actually have a track record.
thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago
I love using clicky.com, homepage looks old school but the app is modern. Has that simple, show-people-what-they-actually-care-about dashboard vibe, but has lots of hidden functionality around. It also let's you see the lifetime of a single visitor in an easy fashion -> https://i.imgur.com/xeOnn2V.png https://i.imgur.com/xeOnn2V.png I still install GA on my sites but I never look at it. I think metricwave.com and counter.dev style analytics are a bit too simplistic, would be nice to see just a few more features on top such as reports, alerts and integrations
onion2k 3y ago
Whenever anyone asks me about ways to improve the performance of their web frontend my first question is always "What do you actually use the data you get from Google Analytics for?" 9 times in 10 the answer is "To see how many people visit my website." My next remark is usually something about vanity metrics and how conversions are what actually count, but that's because I'm a mean person. The point is that adding in Google Tag Manager for the use case of 'counting' is absolutely killing your website's perf. You can, and should, collect that information from the server logs with no frontend JS at all. If you need more than just a counter then MetricsWave or Plausible or something is better than Google Analytics. The only reason to use Google Analytics is if you need to integrate it with other Google services like ad tracking.
- oneeyedpigeon 3y ago
  I think another potential, valid reason is if you don't have access to the server logs - e.g. you host on GitHub Pages. Now, I still choose not to use analytics in that scenario, but I can understand why some would.
- pointlessone 3y ago
  What is the current state of the art in server-side analytics?
  - 72deluxe 3y ago
    I run goaccess on a cron job and have paired it with a MaxMind GeoIP database so that you can see where people are coming from etc. https://goaccess.io/ https://goaccess.io/
    - IAmGraydon 3y ago
      This is pretty great. Thanks.
clementmas 3y ago
Do you support displaying comprehensive stats for wildcard subdomains? Do you have an API?
nicbou 3y ago
This account solely exists to promote products

19 points by falcon_ 3y ago

throwuxiytayq 3y ago

I tried using GA the other day. I was surprised how terrible the UI/UX was. I would literally rather have no idea how many visitors I have instead of using this tool. Google never fails to disappoint.

IAmGraydon 3y ago
It has always been terrible, but the new version 4 is an abomination. I have no clue how a company of their size and resources is releasing such garbage. It seems like they have too many teams working on each product and poor oversight/communication between teams.

CaveTech 3y ago

FYI your dashboard mispells “referrers” as “refferers”

adzm 3y ago
Clearly it should be "referers"
- hashstring 3y ago
  Yes haha!

stephen123 3y ago

Good luck, the product looks slick. I see you have traffic coming from indiepa.ge, so I wonder which indie hacker are you and are you on twitter. I always wont to know who's behind something, particularly if im going to install their tracking tool. ;)

falcon_ 3y ago
You can find me at @victoor (spanish) or @falcon_maker (english)

skilled 3y ago

I'm going to give criticism because I think this deserves it. By the looks of it, this is being created by someone who doesn't inherently understand how Google tracks users for advertising purposes, but also doesn't understand how GDPR works. There is not a single outgoing link that backs up any of the claims in this article, and it's written entirely tone-deaf. I'd also add that there is fierce competition in this space now, but the article is written in a tone that assumes there isn't. It's very hard to trust projects like this that use 90% professional language peddling the product itself and nothing else. All in all, in its current state I would not choose this over alternatives like Plausible or any of the other projects that do the same exact things but actually have a track record.

thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago

I love using clicky.com, homepage looks old school but the app is modern. Has that simple, show-people-what-they-actually-care-about dashboard vibe, but has lots of hidden functionality around. It also let's you see the lifetime of a single visitor in an easy fashion -> https://i.imgur.com/xeOnn2V.png https://i.imgur.com/xeOnn2V.png I still install GA on my sites but I never look at it. I think metricwave.com and counter.dev style analytics are a bit too simplistic, would be nice to see just a few more features on top such as reports, alerts and integrations

onion2k 3y ago

Whenever anyone asks me about ways to improve the performance of their web frontend my first question is always "What do you actually use the data you get from Google Analytics for?" 9 times in 10 the answer is "To see how many people visit my website." My next remark is usually something about vanity metrics and how conversions are what actually count, but that's because I'm a mean person. The point is that adding in Google Tag Manager for the use case of 'counting' is absolutely killing your website's perf. You can, and should, collect that information from the server logs with no frontend JS at all. If you need more than just a counter then MetricsWave or Plausible or something is better than Google Analytics. The only reason to use Google Analytics is if you need to integrate it with other Google services like ad tracking.

oneeyedpigeon 3y ago
I think another potential, valid reason is if you don't have access to the server logs - e.g. you host on GitHub Pages. Now, I still choose not to use analytics in that scenario, but I can understand why some would.
pointlessone 3y ago
What is the current state of the art in server-side analytics?
- 72deluxe 3y ago
  I run goaccess on a cron job and have paired it with a MaxMind GeoIP database so that you can see where people are coming from etc. https://goaccess.io/ https://goaccess.io/
  - IAmGraydon 3y ago
    This is pretty great. Thanks.

clementmas 3y ago

Do you support displaying comprehensive stats for wildcard subdomains? Do you have an API?

nicbou 3y ago

This account solely exists to promote products