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Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

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Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#291

Post by JackWritesCode »

justinclift wrote: post #273
JackWritesCode wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics and bring up compliance challenges (storing access logs and using them for purposes other than security etc.)

> Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics ... Based on what? Server side logs records what the server itself sent. That sounds like it should offer far more accuracy than what a JS only solution would do. That being said, if the code for analysing the server logs is lousy, it's not going to help. :)

Before looking at accuracy, you already have compliance challenges with logging IPs / user agents and using it for analytics purposes.

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#292

Post by solidasparagus »

jwr wrote: post #159
srrr wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Analytics may give you the number of paid subcriptions but that is not the reason it exists. Modern analytics systems are build to give you a statistical view of all events/interactions leading up to a conversion or, more important, to a conversion that did not happen. With this information it is possible to optimize all touchpoints a user has with your services. It is easy to track all aspects of subscriptions inclu…

> google analytics is really good in separating bots from human visits That certainly wasn't my experience. But more generally: I optimize touchpoints using automated Bernoulli bandits with multiple variants. And I track the metrics that really matter (like signups, MRR, churn, etc) very, very carefully. My point was that just adding GA doesn't bring much value, and makes the web worse. Another example of how page vi…

It's more like the supermarket keeping track of what isles people are going down and what items they are looking at. Which supermarkets would do if they could because it's extremely valuable data.

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#293

Post by justinclift »

JackWritesCode wrote: post #286
justinclift wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For every star we had on GitHub we did 21 cents in monthly revenue ... Who gives a crap? You guys started out as OSS and said it would continue to be. That turned out to be bullcrap, just looking for exposure. > I have used both but Table Plus is 10000x better and more popular. sigh Table Plus supports many different types of database. If people are looking for a macOS specific solution that does that, Table Plus m…

We are 2 indie developers trying to build a sustainable business. We are trying to compete against Google. The idea that the open-source package is responsible for our success is ludicrous. Our success came from thousands of hours of work. You’ll believe the narrative you choose. You’re entitled to that. We will always be “liars” to you because we chose to spend our time building up the paid service. You feel like we…

I'm still trying to understand why your current "production" (eg SaaS) version of Fathom can't also be FOSS.

Other places (eg Redash) do so, and are doing extremely well.

The change from FOSS to non-FOSS, especially throwing away the goodwill you'd started out with... makes no sense. :(

Popularity of DB Browser for SQLite wise, you might want to check our stats page:

https://sqlitebrowser.org/stats/

We're doing decently well, and our GitHub organisation has more active developers now than ever before. :)

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#294

Post by justinclift »

JackWritesCode wrote: post #291
justinclift wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics ... Based on what? Server side logs records what the server itself sent. That sounds like it should offer far more accuracy than what a JS only solution would do. That being said, if the code for analysing the server logs is lousy, it's not going to help. :)

Before looking at accuracy, you already have compliance challenges with logging IPs / user agents and using it for analytics purposes.

Please don't try and change the goal posts. You said:

> Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics...

What is your thinking behind that statement, as it sounds incorrect?

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#295

Post by ivanche »

JackWritesCode wrote: post #291
justinclift wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics ... Based on what? Server side logs records what the server itself sent. That sounds like it should offer far more accuracy than what a JS only solution would do. That being said, if the code for analysing the server logs is lousy, it's not going to help. :)

Before looking at accuracy, you already have compliance challenges with logging IPs / user agents and using it for analytics purposes.

What compliance is challenged by logging user agents?

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#296

Post by Ataraxy »

XCSme wrote: post #288
Ataraxy wrote: post #271

All of these web tracker alternatives but what I've really been itching for is a very low barrier to entry, no hassle to scale, easy/fast to query adhoc event tracker. Something like a self hosted amplitude or keen.

Hmm, depends on what you mean by "easy/fast to query". Is something with a GraphQL API easy/fast to query? Or should it have some UI to do it? I wonder if it's easy to just send events to something like Firebase and then query that DB.

Fast adhoc aggregations over firestore isn't a reasonable possibility.

A graphql api or not doesn't really matter since that's just an abstraction for querying a service or database.

I really mean something like an open source Amplitude or Keen where you can dump events into it and then aggregate/group them in any way you like on demand.

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#298

Post by dan15 »

tobilg wrote: post #297

If you have an AWS account and want a lightweight, cheap and privacy-friendly alternative, you can have a look at https://github.com/ownstats/ownstats as well.

I guess this isn't usable outside of AWS? It's unfortunate that it's tightly coupled to one particular provider.

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#299

Post by tobilg »

hackernewsn00b wrote: post #131
JackWritesCode wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Server side logs aren’t an accurate way of doing analytics and bring up compliance challenges (storing access logs and using them for purposes other than security etc.)

Can you talk a little bit more about why server side logs aren't accurate for analytics? I was planning on doing basic analytics (pageviews mostly) using Cloudfront access logs stored in an S3 bucket and queried through Athena for a site I'm working on which uses the AWS stack. I know Cloudfront logs can sometimes drop, but is there a more important reason you're talking about?

Shameless plug, you might want to have a look at https://github.com/ownstats/ownstats

Re: Lightweight Alternatives to Google Analytics

#300

Post by cosmie »

solidasparagus wrote: post #292
jwr wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> google analytics is really good in separating bots from human visits That certainly wasn't my experience. But more generally: I optimize touchpoints using automated Bernoulli bandits with multiple variants. And I track the metrics that really matter (like signups, MRR, churn, etc) very, very carefully. My point was that just adding GA doesn't bring much value, and makes the web worse. Another example of how page vi…

It's more like the supermarket keeping track of what isles people are going down and what items they are looking at. Which supermarkets would do if they could because it's extremely valuable data.

> Which supermarkets would do if they could

They can, and they do. Here[1] is a random example of applying that to a supermarket (the other pages on that vendor's site shows some of the other ways the tech can be used).

Solutions tend to use a mix of video camera data and cellular data (wifi and bluetooth beacons[2]) to track in-store movements and behavior.

Done well, they can also connect individual store journeys to specific point of sale transactions, and understand hoe variations of in-store behavioral patterns ultimately influenced actual transactions. Which opens the door to running in-store optimization experiments very similarly to how you'd run A/B optimization tests for websites/apps.

[1] https://retailerin.com/en/retailerINfor/customer-behaviour-a...

[2] https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/retail-m...

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