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As a founder in this space, it not as bad as you think. There are niches in this crowded yet broad space. Plausible - good for self-hosting, but their SaaS is

As a founder in this space, it not as bad as you think. There are niches in this crowded yet broad space. Plausible - good for self-hosting, but their SaaS is very expensive and FOSS vs SaaS offering differ. Ahrefs - they will use your traffic to improve your competitor research, you really should use them cautiously. Matomo - feature rich but can be overwhelming. Posthog - its SaaS is US based so dismissed early by EU customers. Clarity, like GA has serious privacy issues. Our product, Wide Angle Analytics, has its own gotchas compared to competitors - its opinionated and there are folks who do not agree with our opinions, but the landscape of websites is so vast that you find your client nevertheless. That said, we are still in business after 4 years, and we saw few competitors disappear or get acquired and extinguished. So, all the best to the OP. Hope you find your niche :)

meander_water 1y ago
There's a bunch more listed here as well https://github.com/oxnr/awesome-analytics https://github.com/oxnr/awesome-analytics
stuartjohnson12 1y ago
> Posthog - its SaaS is US based so dismissed early by EU customers. Posthog has had an EU server for years. I'm not sure what you mean by this.
- openplatypus 1y ago
  It is US company. It does not matter where the servers are physically located.
  - _heimdall 1y ago
    It would be quite funny to reply to an NSA request by saying "Oh yeah, I have that data and can access it but its on a server in the EU. I can get it, but I won't." I genuinely don't know how they would proceed, but it'd be interesting to watch.
    - jillyboel 1y ago
      Some not-so-friendly men in suits will show up at your house. Afterwards you will most certainly comply.
      - tonyhart7 1y ago
        I mean if you can even refuse that, this is national agency we talking about They can physically tap global internet cable just because they can
    - tonyhart7 1y ago
      ok if that possible, what makes EU agency not doing the same to EU base company then???
      - _heimdall 1y ago
        Well the EU absolutely could do the same thing. If an EU-based company had servers in the US, I would expect the EU could compel them to hand over data despite where the data is stored.
        bjelkeman-again 1y ago
        The EU doesn’t do law enforcement. That is a national concern. But a legal request from one country to another may well happen.
        _heimdall 1y ago
        I misspoke there, I was meaning Europe and shouldn't have put EU. Agreed, the union doesn't have any enforcement mechanism I'm aware of that would fit, but any country in Europe could do a similar thing to companies based in their borders.
      - __m 1y ago
        The EU doesn't have something like the CLOUD Act, so they wouldn't be able to do that.
- tom_y 1y ago
  Niche markets always allow good products to survive.
- withinboredom 1y ago
  An EU server isn't enough. Those EU servers should be operated and maintained by an EU subsidy that licenses the tech from the US company. In other words, even if the US company wanted the data served by the EU company, they couldn't get to it.
nm980 1y ago
What's your sales strategy? Is cold calling companies with google analytics installed on their websites more effective than the blog? Have you been able to retain Next.js users after Vercel released Web Analytics?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
rossjudson 1y ago
What are the privacy issues with GA and Clarity?
bill_yang 1y ago
This is pretty spot on. There's a couple of dimensions the major players sit on, and there's enough combinations that there's plenty of space for smaller players to survive in. I'm not super familiar with all of these products, so some of these ratings will be based on vibes 1-----------------10 OSS <-> Proprietary Small business <-> Enterprise Simplicity <-> Complexity Web analytics <-> Product analytics Privacy <-> No privacy # Rybbit (me) - just launched $0 OSS/Proprietary - 2 I use AGPL 3.0 which isn't as permissive as MIT Small business/Enterprise - 5 I definitely want enterprises to use Rybbit, but it's hard to target them at this stage Simplicity/Complexity - 6.5 I think Rybbit is going to end up as one of the more feature-rich OS analytics tools, but I hope it stays easy to use (famous last words) Web analytics/Product analytics - 4 Want to target both eventually, but my product analytics is weaker relatively Privacy/No privacy - 3 Can be as GDPR compliant as others, but can also be configured to be a bit more invasive # Posthog - ~15M ARR OSS/Proprietary - 4 Have a bunch of enterprise licensed parts of their repo and they tell people in their docs to not self-host it because it's too difficult. Small business/Enterprise - 8 Seems like they hook startups in with generous free tiers and then milk the unicorns that come out Simplicity/Complexity - 10 The scope of Posthog is awe inspiring. They are literally 10 startups in 1 Web analytics/Product analytics - 8 I believe product analytics was their first feature Privacy/No privacy - 7 I think they use cookies? # Google Analytics OSS/Proprietary - 10 Small business/Enterprise - 9 Free for everyone but it's clear they don't care about regular users that want to track their small site Simplicity/Complexity - 8 If there was a dimension for usability it would be 11/10 totally unusable Web analytics/Product analytics - 6 Not too sure about this one Privacy/No privacy - 9 i mean it's google # Mixpanel - $200m ARR I'm the least familiar with this one OSS/Proprietary - 9 Small business/Enterprise - 8 Simplicity/Complexity - 8 Web analytics/Product analytics - 9 Privacy/No privacy - 7 # Umami - unknown ARR (maybe 500K?) OSS/Proprietary - 1 MIT license, no enterprise only features from what I see Small business/Enterprise - 5 Seem to have some big names on their site Simplicity/Complexity - 4 Web analytics/Product analytics - 5 Privacy/No privacy - 5 They claim GDPR compliance but I've self hosted it and they clearly fingerprint users without any obvious opt out. # Plausible - ~2m ARR OSS/Proprietary - 4 AGPL v3 and some a some enterprise features the community version doesn't have. Also they use Elixir so i doubt anyone actually reads it/s Small business/Enterprise - 6 Have to be selling to enterprises with that ARR Simplicity/Complexity - 3 Tool is very simple at the surface, but there's a lot of config options under the hood Web analytics/Product analytics - 3 Mostly just web analytics Privacy/No privacy - 2 This is a big focus for them # Simple Analytics ~500k ARR OSS/Proprietary - 8 Closed source, but they are an open startup that shares their financials Small business/Enterprise - 3 They show some big names, but the creator is an indie hacker Simplicity/Complexity - 2 Self explanatory Web analytics/Product analytics - 2 Privacy/No privacy - 2 Very GDPR compliance focused If this was a multi-dimensional vector, I'm trying to fill the space between something like Posthog and Plausible, where we are as open source as either of them and fill the missing space between extreme simplicity and extreme complexity.
flashblaze 1y ago
I'm using Clarity and was under the impression it was better than GA
gregjw 1y ago
Surprised no ones talked about Fathom Analytics. My alternative of choice.
- herpdyderp 1y ago
  Why do you prefer Fathom?
rmonvfer 1y ago
Just for the record, I use PostHog in my Europe-based startup. They have a EU region so it’s not a problem for us.
- openplatypus 1y ago
  It is US company. Does not matter where server resides. If server is in EU but under US jurisdiction (US company) that can be (needs checking) treated as International Data Transfer.
- teddyh 1y ago
  There are some indications that this may soon no longer be sufficient.
CGMthrowaway 1y ago
What about Amplitude?

meander_water 1y ago

There's a bunch more listed here as well https://github.com/oxnr/awesome-analytics https://github.com/oxnr/awesome-analytics

stuartjohnson12 1y ago

> Posthog - its SaaS is US based so dismissed early by EU customers. Posthog has had an EU server for years. I'm not sure what you mean by this.

openplatypus 1y ago
It is US company. It does not matter where the servers are physically located.
- _heimdall 1y ago
  It would be quite funny to reply to an NSA request by saying "Oh yeah, I have that data and can access it but its on a server in the EU. I can get it, but I won't." I genuinely don't know how they would proceed, but it'd be interesting to watch.
  - jillyboel 1y ago
    Some not-so-friendly men in suits will show up at your house. Afterwards you will most certainly comply.
    - tonyhart7 1y ago
      I mean if you can even refuse that, this is national agency we talking about They can physically tap global internet cable just because they can
  - tonyhart7 1y ago
    ok if that possible, what makes EU agency not doing the same to EU base company then???
    - _heimdall 1y ago
      Well the EU absolutely could do the same thing. If an EU-based company had servers in the US, I would expect the EU could compel them to hand over data despite where the data is stored.
      - bjelkeman-again 1y ago
        The EU doesn’t do law enforcement. That is a national concern. But a legal request from one country to another may well happen.
        _heimdall 1y ago
        I misspoke there, I was meaning Europe and shouldn't have put EU. Agreed, the union doesn't have any enforcement mechanism I'm aware of that would fit, but any country in Europe could do a similar thing to companies based in their borders.
    - __m 1y ago
      The EU doesn't have something like the CLOUD Act, so they wouldn't be able to do that.
tom_y 1y ago
Niche markets always allow good products to survive.
withinboredom 1y ago
An EU server isn't enough. Those EU servers should be operated and maintained by an EU subsidy that licenses the tech from the US company. In other words, even if the US company wanted the data served by the EU company, they couldn't get to it.

nm980 1y ago

What's your sales strategy? Is cold calling companies with google analytics installed on their websites more effective than the blog? Have you been able to retain Next.js users after Vercel released Web Analytics?

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

rossjudson 1y ago

What are the privacy issues with GA and Clarity?

bill_yang 1y ago

This is pretty spot on. There's a couple of dimensions the major players sit on, and there's enough combinations that there's plenty of space for smaller players to survive in. I'm not super familiar with all of these products, so some of these ratings will be based on vibes 1-----------------10 OSS <-> Proprietary Small business <-> Enterprise Simplicity <-> Complexity Web analytics <-> Product analytics Privacy <-> No privacy # Rybbit (me) - just launched $0 OSS/Proprietary - 2 I use AGPL 3.0 which isn't as permissive as MIT Small business/Enterprise - 5 I definitely want enterprises to use Rybbit, but it's hard to target them at this stage Simplicity/Complexity - 6.5 I think Rybbit is going to end up as one of the more feature-rich OS analytics tools, but I hope it stays easy to use (famous last words) Web analytics/Product analytics - 4 Want to target both eventually, but my product analytics is weaker relatively Privacy/No privacy - 3 Can be as GDPR compliant as others, but can also be configured to be a bit more invasive # Posthog - ~15M ARR OSS/Proprietary - 4 Have a bunch of enterprise licensed parts of their repo and they tell people in their docs to not self-host it because it's too difficult. Small business/Enterprise - 8 Seems like they hook startups in with generous free tiers and then milk the unicorns that come out Simplicity/Complexity - 10 The scope of Posthog is awe inspiring. They are literally 10 startups in 1 Web analytics/Product analytics - 8 I believe product analytics was their first feature Privacy/No privacy - 7 I think they use cookies? # Google Analytics OSS/Proprietary - 10 Small business/Enterprise - 9 Free for everyone but it's clear they don't care about regular users that want to track their small site Simplicity/Complexity - 8 If there was a dimension for usability it would be 11/10 totally unusable Web analytics/Product analytics - 6 Not too sure about this one Privacy/No privacy - 9 i mean it's google # Mixpanel - $200m ARR I'm the least familiar with this one OSS/Proprietary - 9 Small business/Enterprise - 8 Simplicity/Complexity - 8 Web analytics/Product analytics - 9 Privacy/No privacy - 7 # Umami - unknown ARR (maybe 500K?) OSS/Proprietary - 1 MIT license, no enterprise only features from what I see Small business/Enterprise - 5 Seem to have some big names on their site Simplicity/Complexity - 4 Web analytics/Product analytics - 5 Privacy/No privacy - 5 They claim GDPR compliance but I've self hosted it and they clearly fingerprint users without any obvious opt out. # Plausible - ~2m ARR OSS/Proprietary - 4 AGPL v3 and some a some enterprise features the community version doesn't have. Also they use Elixir so i doubt anyone actually reads it/s Small business/Enterprise - 6 Have to be selling to enterprises with that ARR Simplicity/Complexity - 3 Tool is very simple at the surface, but there's a lot of config options under the hood Web analytics/Product analytics - 3 Mostly just web analytics Privacy/No privacy - 2 This is a big focus for them # Simple Analytics ~500k ARR OSS/Proprietary - 8 Closed source, but they are an open startup that shares their financials Small business/Enterprise - 3 They show some big names, but the creator is an indie hacker Simplicity/Complexity - 2 Self explanatory Web analytics/Product analytics - 2 Privacy/No privacy - 2 Very GDPR compliance focused If this was a multi-dimensional vector, I'm trying to fill the space between something like Posthog and Plausible, where we are as open source as either of them and fill the missing space between extreme simplicity and extreme complexity.

flashblaze 1y ago

I'm using Clarity and was under the impression it was better than GA

gregjw 1y ago

Surprised no ones talked about Fathom Analytics. My alternative of choice.

herpdyderp 1y ago
Why do you prefer Fathom?

rmonvfer 1y ago

Just for the record, I use PostHog in my Europe-based startup. They have a EU region so it’s not a problem for us.

openplatypus 1y ago
It is US company. Does not matter where server resides. If server is in EU but under US jurisdiction (US company) that can be (needs checking) treated as International Data Transfer.
teddyh 1y ago
There are some indications that this may soon no longer be sufficient.

CGMthrowaway 1y ago

What about Amplitude?