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For me, the best Google analytics replacement has been nothing. Just don’t do analytics at all. Your web site will still work without it. In fact, it will work

For me, the best Google analytics replacement has been nothing. Just don’t do analytics at all. Your web site will still work without it. In fact, it will work better!

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
dylan604 1y ago
That's just not realistic though. People with marketing departments need analytics. Otherwise, they atrophy and reveal to everyone they are not as necessary as led to believe. People without marketing departments probably never look at the logs like you.
- jsheard 1y ago
  True, but for personal/hobby sites you probably are just better off just not knowing. Nothing good comes of tying your self-worth to how much attention you think you're getting.
  - sneak 1y ago
    There is nothing to suggest that people who want to measure (and perhaps increase) their publishing reach are “tying [their] self-worth to how much attention [they] think [they’re] getting”. This is sort of like assuming everyone who is taking photos at a tourist attraction is doing so to show off their holiday for social status. If your site or content is truly valuable, it is a public good to monitor, analyze, and improve upon its reach and usability.
  - cortesoft 1y ago
    I think most people are talking about for business websites
  - crazygringo 1y ago
    Why would you jump to the conclusion that any of it is about "self-worth"? Maybe you're writing for an audience and you want to see what resonates most with them. Sometimes popularity is a good thing to measure, not for your ego, but by how much you are helping others. It is sad when people assume metrics are about vanity, rather than about how much we're helping others.
- closewith 1y ago
  > Otherwise, they atrophy and reveal to everyone they are not as necessary as led to believe. In my experience, when analytics and the related ads tracking tools break, Marketing departments are revealed to be much more important than generally believed in the business.
- SchemaLoad 1y ago
  Product people need analytics too. You need to know how many people use each feature to make informed decisions on what needs to be invested in, what should be cut, etc.
mindcrash 1y ago
Once upon a time we did analytics and error analysis by running shell scripts executing awk, sed and grep over a apache or nginx access log or error log. What I am trying to say is that you can still do analytics, even pretty advanced stuff with some more elaborate scripting, if you want. The only thing you need is the access log. Something which has been largely forgotten ever since tools like Urchin became a thing :)
- pc86 1y ago
  One of the greatest jobs I ever had from a technical perspective had terabytes of structured access logs hosted on prem inside of a VPN, with a few small bespoke tools to search through them (and many more pages of commands for common tasks not yet implemented in a UI). Not a single line of tracking or analytics on the front end, we just tracked everything we cared about at the server level.
  - closewith 1y ago
    And most likely a compliance and legal nightmare waiting to drop on a DPO one day.
    - pc86 1y ago
      That place didn't have any European operations so no GDPR concerns¹, but for what its worth it was completely.. pseudonymous I think is the term we want? You couldn't link a server entry to an actual user account by any means² but you could group distinct server calls together as coming from the same person. These weren't "server logs" in the same of IPs or user agents or that kind of thing. More like application logs w/ scrubbed/obfuscated user data just stored in gigantic text files. ¹ To those who would say it doesn't matter, I'd say that laws aren't laws if they can't be enforced and there's no enforcement mechanism for some EU bureaucrat to fine a company with no operations outside of the US. ² I'm sure the technical means existed to do it especially if you already had access to the logs but the point is we weren't explicitly storing any PII or data that was linked to a real account. Just actions throughout the apps.
- 1y ago
paxys 1y ago
Such a product will work fantastic until you get your first user.
cortesoft 1y ago
I can't imagine someone trying to run a web business with no analytics.
crazygringo 1y ago
> Your web site will still work without it. In fact, it will work better! It objectively won't. Analytics tell you where your website isn't working, so you can fix it. Buttons you thought were obvious that users are blind to. Pages where nobody scrolls because they didn't realize there was more content. Figuring out where users get stuck because they don't understand the navigation you designed. Etc etc etc. If you have a hobby website, then sure maybe analytics don't matter. But the idea that sites work better without analytics makes as much sense as saying you'll see better when you wear dark sunglasses.
vivzkestrel 1y ago
this is some kinda joke right? analytics are necessary for 10000 reasons
- eGP9jDq_nw 1y ago
  .. may we see them?
  - XCSme 1y ago
    Tracking conversions, errors, page load speeds, bot traffic, traffic sources, marketing campaigns, top pages, etc. It helps run your business and make sure everything works as expected, and that you don't waste money on ads/marketing/seo/traffic, etc.

For me, the best Google analytics replacement has been nothing. Just don’t do analytics at all. Your web site will still work without it. In fact, it will work better!

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

dylan604 1y ago

That's just not realistic though. People with marketing departments need analytics. Otherwise, they atrophy and reveal to everyone they are not as necessary as led to believe. People without marketing departments probably never look at the logs like you.

jsheard 1y ago
True, but for personal/hobby sites you probably are just better off just not knowing. Nothing good comes of tying your self-worth to how much attention you think you're getting.
- sneak 1y ago
  There is nothing to suggest that people who want to measure (and perhaps increase) their publishing reach are “tying [their] self-worth to how much attention [they] think [they’re] getting”. This is sort of like assuming everyone who is taking photos at a tourist attraction is doing so to show off their holiday for social status. If your site or content is truly valuable, it is a public good to monitor, analyze, and improve upon its reach and usability.
- cortesoft 1y ago
  I think most people are talking about for business websites
- crazygringo 1y ago
  Why would you jump to the conclusion that any of it is about "self-worth"? Maybe you're writing for an audience and you want to see what resonates most with them. Sometimes popularity is a good thing to measure, not for your ego, but by how much you are helping others. It is sad when people assume metrics are about vanity, rather than about how much we're helping others.
closewith 1y ago
> Otherwise, they atrophy and reveal to everyone they are not as necessary as led to believe. In my experience, when analytics and the related ads tracking tools break, Marketing departments are revealed to be much more important than generally believed in the business.
SchemaLoad 1y ago
Product people need analytics too. You need to know how many people use each feature to make informed decisions on what needs to be invested in, what should be cut, etc.

mindcrash 1y ago

Once upon a time we did analytics and error analysis by running shell scripts executing awk, sed and grep over a apache or nginx access log or error log. What I am trying to say is that you can still do analytics, even pretty advanced stuff with some more elaborate scripting, if you want. The only thing you need is the access log. Something which has been largely forgotten ever since tools like Urchin became a thing :)

pc86 1y ago
One of the greatest jobs I ever had from a technical perspective had terabytes of structured access logs hosted on prem inside of a VPN, with a few small bespoke tools to search through them (and many more pages of commands for common tasks not yet implemented in a UI). Not a single line of tracking or analytics on the front end, we just tracked everything we cared about at the server level.
- closewith 1y ago
  And most likely a compliance and legal nightmare waiting to drop on a DPO one day.
  - pc86 1y ago
    That place didn't have any European operations so no GDPR concerns¹, but for what its worth it was completely.. pseudonymous I think is the term we want? You couldn't link a server entry to an actual user account by any means² but you could group distinct server calls together as coming from the same person. These weren't "server logs" in the same of IPs or user agents or that kind of thing. More like application logs w/ scrubbed/obfuscated user data just stored in gigantic text files. ¹ To those who would say it doesn't matter, I'd say that laws aren't laws if they can't be enforced and there's no enforcement mechanism for some EU bureaucrat to fine a company with no operations outside of the US. ² I'm sure the technical means existed to do it especially if you already had access to the logs but the point is we weren't explicitly storing any PII or data that was linked to a real account. Just actions throughout the apps.
1y ago

paxys 1y ago

Such a product will work fantastic until you get your first user.

cortesoft 1y ago

I can't imagine someone trying to run a web business with no analytics.

crazygringo 1y ago

> Your web site will still work without it. In fact, it will work better! It objectively won't. Analytics tell you where your website isn't working, so you can fix it. Buttons you thought were obvious that users are blind to. Pages where nobody scrolls because they didn't realize there was more content. Figuring out where users get stuck because they don't understand the navigation you designed. Etc etc etc. If you have a hobby website, then sure maybe analytics don't matter. But the idea that sites work better without analytics makes as much sense as saying you'll see better when you wear dark sunglasses.

vivzkestrel 1y ago

this is some kinda joke right? analytics are necessary for 10000 reasons

eGP9jDq_nw 1y ago
.. may we see them?
- XCSme 1y ago
  Tracking conversions, errors, page load speeds, bot traffic, traffic sources, marketing campaigns, top pages, etc. It helps run your business and make sure everything works as expected, and that you don't waste money on ads/marketing/seo/traffic, etc.