A notable trend is emerging as more individuals seek to lessen their dependence on Google across various aspects of their lives. While Google offers valuable services, its extensive collection of personal data for targeted advertising is widely known.

As privacy-focused web browsers that block Google Analytics scripts and similar trackers become more prevalent, website owners feel compelled to seek alternatives. They do so because relying solely on Google Analytics can compromise data accuracy.

One solution to this challenge is embracing privacy-friendly analytics platforms, particularly those that are open-source. Choosing an open-source option enables users to host the analytics themselves, potentially in compliance with regulations like GDPR, particularly if hosted in regions like Europe. Moreover, most of the software mentioned herein inherently complies with GDPR standards by design, as it doesn’t collect or retain Personally Identifiable Information (PII).

Can website analytics be conducted without necessitating GDPR notifications?

Absolutely.

If your website or blog doesn’t collect any personal data from visitors, there’s no requirement to include a “cookie notice.” Tracking repeat visits by the same user isn’t essential in this scenario. By adopting cookie-less tracking, you avoid creating profiles on your audience altogether. This approach frees you from embedding intrusive widgets or drafting complex privacy policies to justify data tracking.

Does Open-Source equate to cost-free?

While the analytics solutions mentioned are free when self-hosted, pricing details are provided for each, as many also offer premium plans. While “Open-Source” signifies free access to the codebase, it doesn’t always translate to practical cost savings. Self-hosting and managing an open-source analytics solution can require significant time and effort:

• Covering server expenses and server management
• Ensuring the project is updated to the latest version
• Possessing basic knowledge of security measures

In many cases, choosing a modest subscription fee can be preferable. If the project authors are providing commendable work in delivering a privacy-centric tracking solution, they deserve recognition for sustaining the project. However, individual preferences may differ.

1. Umami

Umami stands out as a strictly self-hosted analytics solution, promising deployment within seconds. Its prerequisites are modest: just MySQL or PostgreSQL for the database and Node.js for the backend. Deployment is straightforward, whether on a budget-friendly DigitalOcean droplet or a comparable VPS provider.

The project’s creator conducted a post-mortem, acknowledging existing tools, predominantly paid ones, contrasting Umami’s perpetually self-hosted nature. This unique approach has propelled Umami into the limelight, earning it a prominent place among GitHub’s hottest open-source analytics libraries.

A notable feature of Umami is its Profiles functionality, allowing users to create custom accounts for friends or clients. Each profile offers an independent dashboard and reporting system.

Regarding pricing, Pirsch offers a premium plan with a 30-day trial period at no charge. Subsequently, pricing begins at $5 per month (billed annually) for up to 10,000 pageviews. Self-hosting with Umami, however, remains free of charge.

2. Ackee

Ackee is a Node.js analytics script offering instant deployment options. Whether through Docker or cloud platforms like Heroku, Vercel, or Netlify, setting up is seamless.

Its seamless integration with GraphQL API empowers users with a customizable analytics dashboard, leveraging UI elements provided by the API. This flexibility enables tailored data collection through custom queries and parameters, catering to project-specific requirements.

For those seeking deeper insights, Ackee offers a Detailed mode, tracking additional data. However, Ackee advises enabling Detailed mode only alongside a privacy notice, as it may collect personal data such as browser type and operating system.

In terms of pricing, Ackee operates solely on an open-source model. Users can obtain the repository from GitHub and host it themselves, as there is no premium model available.

3. Offen

Offen presents itself as a privacy-centric alternative to Google Analytics, prioritizing user autonomy in data collection and storage. This self-hosted project, written in Go and JavaScript, introduces innovative concepts to the analytics landscape.

A standout feature is the transparency afforded to site visitors, allowing them to view the data collected about them, including session counts and visited pages. However, this visibility is contingent upon visitor consent, a foundational principle of Offen analytics.

Moreover, even with consent granted, Offen ensures the protection of sensitive data such as IP addresses and User-Agent information. The majority of analytics data is encrypted end-to-end, further safeguarding user privacy.

In terms of pricing, Offen operates on a free and open-source basis, with no indications of a premium model. Self-hosting remains the sole option for implementation.

4. Pirsch

Pirsch offers a lightweight and cookieless analytics solution designed to seamlessly integrate with your website or application backend. Developed in Go, it employs fingerprinting techniques to safeguard the anonymity of user data.

A standout feature is its capability to track visitors even when they have Ad Blockers installed, mitigating the loss of analytics accuracy that can result from such extensions. Reports suggest that brands may experience up to a 30% decrease in total analytics accuracy due to ad blockers and other script-blocking browser extensions.

In terms of tracked data, Pirsch provides a range of statistics, including custom conversion goals, events, and keywords used to access your pages from Google Search. Their subscription model encompasses APIs, SDKs, and data export functionality.

Regarding pricing, Pirsch offers a 30-day trial period at no cost. Premium pricing starts at $5 per month (billed annually) for up to 10,000 pageviews.

5. GoatCounter

GoatCounter provides seamless tracking solutions tailored for medium-sized businesses. Authored by Martin Tournoij, the platform prioritizes easy website analytics monitoring while upholding privacy standards. This is achieved by eliminating tracking identifiers and empowering users to select what they wish to track.

Despite its somewhat simplistic design compared to modern front-end options, GoatCounter boasts a diverse technical infrastructure. It offers free usage for non-commercial projects, with a subscription model available for more demanding websites.

Deploying the library is free, with convenient pre-made integrations for WordPress and Gatsby users, enabling swift tracking implementation.

In terms of pricing, GoatCounter.com currently offers free access for reasonable public usage. While it accommodates personal websites and small-to-medium businesses, excessive pageviews exceeding certain thresholds are subject to subscription fees.

6. Matomo

Matomo, formerly known as Piwik, stands out as a comprehensive analytics solution and a leading competitor to Google Analytics while maintaining a strong emphasis on privacy. Users have the flexibility to utilize Matomo via their cloud platform or opt for self-hosted deployment with their stable release.

Built on PHP and MySQL, integrating Matomo into traditional setups, including WordPress, is straightforward. Its robust feature set encompasses various insightful statistics and use cases, such as analyzing traffic from search engines and specific keywords, creating detailed User Flow graphs, and tracking product purchases and overall evolution.

To ensure compliance with GDPR and maintain transparency, Matomo equips users with tools to anonymize user data effectively. Additionally, a custom-built GDPR Manager facilitates ongoing compliance with relevant rules and regulations, depending on the features utilized and the type of data analyzed.

In terms of pricing, self-hosted deployment of Matomo is free. For those opting for their Cloud offering, plans start at $19 per month, accommodating up to 50,000 hits, with data storage located in Europe.

7. PostHog

PostHog specializes in product analytics, addressing the challenge of sending event data to third parties by offering an in-house solution for comprehensively understanding customer interactions with your websites or apps.

With the option to self-host PostHog, users retain full control over data storage and processing. The platform’s accessibility is enhanced by its ease of deployment across various environments, including Ruby, React, and Android, thanks to pre-built libraries.

PostHog adopts a product-first approach, providing a suite of tools to analyze app usage effectively. Supported by a vibrant open-source community and robust financial backing, PostHog competes favorably against industry giants like Google, Mixpanel, and Heap.

One notable feature is its comprehensive Feature Flags solution, enabling seamless rollout and rollback of new product features. This functionality also facilitates targeted feature deployments to specific user subsets.

In terms of pricing, PostHog is open-source and completely free for self-management. For those opting for their premium Cloud model, the platform offers up to 1,000,000 events at no charge.

8. Counter

Counter is a recent entrant into the privacy-friendly analytics arena, developed by a small team of three. It adopts a unique pay-what-you-want model to attract users to its service. Additionally, the team is actively seeking investment to further develop and maintain Counter.

Technologically, Counter is built using Go for the server and handling static files, with data storage managed through Redis.

Despite being relatively new, Counter has gained traction on GitHub, indicating potential for success. There’s a growing demand for genuinely privacy-focused projects that prioritize user data protection and respect.

In terms of pricing, Counter operates on an open-source basis, with its cloud service adopting a flexible pay-what-you-like approach, allowing users to contribute according to their discretion.

9. Fugu

Fugu stands out as the 9th analytics solution on this list, offering a simpler approach tailored for developers and creators seeking real-time insights into their app usage.

It employs an event-based tracking system, requiring developers to call the Fugu API whenever they want to track an event in their app. Each request includes an event name, with optional event properties.

In terms of pricing, self-hosting Fugu is free of charge. For those opting for their Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, pricing is a modest $9 per month.

10. Shynet

Shynet provides robust and privacy-centric analytics solutions without imposing complexities. It prioritizes versatility, ease of use, and respects both website owners and visitors, aligning well with contemporary privacy expectations.

With Shynet, all visitor data remains self-hosted, ensuring complete control and privacy protection. Its cookie-free operation eliminates the need for intrusive cookie consent pop-ups, maintaining compliance with privacy regulations effortlessly.

Shynet is lightweight and flexible, catering to various website sizes, from small blogs to medium-sized enterprise websites. It seamlessly scales from single-machine setups to Kubernetes clusters for higher traffic demands. Additionally, it operates inclusively, even when visitors disable JavaScript.

In terms of tracking and metrics, Shynet offers granular insights into website performance, tracking metrics such as hits, sessions, page load times, bounce rates, traffic sources, and device usage. It’s typically not blocked by ad blockers, providing accurate visitor metrics.

The platform supports multiple users managing analytics across different sites, making it suitable for agencies or teams. Deployment and updates are relatively painless, thanks to its Django foundation.

However, Shynet may not be ideal for ultra-high traffic websites and requires some technical proficiency for deployment. Those seeking a straightforward, plug-and-play solution may find other options more suitable.

In terms of pricing,  Shynet is open-source and completely free to use.