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Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

counter.dev

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Re: Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

#11

Post by Techonomicon »

ihucos wrote: post #7
amnotelonmusk wrote: post #5

How does it compare to plausible? Using them atm

At the first sight they really look quite similar. Counter does not use a relational database and is highly optimized to serve users for free. If you want more details and really dig into the data plausible could be a better fit. If you value a free product and don't need too much details or actually even value less data collection then I would say go with counter.

If you're collecting data, you generally want a) as much as you can get and b) be able to make use of it any way you want.

Yes users of a privacy centric analytics tool are opting into less information, though the inability to do more may be a large downside to counter (if it is the case that it has less data collection capabilities vs plausible at this time). You never know what data you will need later, better to collect however much you're able to in a fashion you can do anything you need to with it.

Re: Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

#13

Post by rdm_blackhole »

I moved from GA to Plausible a while back. Very nice product and easy to set up. Its a paid product but I would rather keep my user's data private.

This product seems interesting but its free so I fail to see how you will keep maintaining it in the future if you don't get paid.

I understand that running it will cost you a few dollars a month if that at the beginning but eventually, between the time spent on maintenance and the ongoing costs, you are going to have to start charging your customers.

Re: Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

#15

Post by ihucos »

calebclark wrote: post #12

The product looks awesome! I do have a question... If Counter is free, what is the revenue model? How will you sustain the platform? Although it's open source, it seems to be a SaaS platform that runs on your servers.

Yes, so although it is optimized to be very cheap to operate many users there still are costs. We hope to get that via donations or as it's communicated in the website "Pay what you want". One single advertising banner is also something we are considering. So the amount we have to get from active users is really low. Currently there are 80 integrations with multiple sites on the cheapest linode VPS. The redis database is 2 megabytes on disk and the CPU does not go over 1% usage (before this HN post). If you just take our current integrations and divide them by the costs the VPS makes you get to pennies per user per month. I did not put in my calculation that not all integrations are active but you get the idea :-)

Re: Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

#19

Post by YY-EN40P »

ihucos wrote: post #15
calebclark wrote: post #12

The product looks awesome! I do have a question... If Counter is free, what is the revenue model? How will you sustain the platform? Although it's open source, it seems to be a SaaS platform that runs on your servers.

Yes, so although it is optimized to be very cheap to operate many users there still are costs. We hope to get that via donations or as it's communicated in the website "Pay what you want". One single advertising banner is also something we are considering. So the amount we have to get from active users is really low. Currently there are 80 integrations with multiple sites on the cheapest linode VPS. The redis databas…

You can study fathom( https://usefathom.com/pricing ). As you say, the running cost of Counter is low, but your job is more valuable!

Re: Show HN: Counter – Simple and Free Web Analytics

#20

Post by bumblewax »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #13

I moved from GA to Plausible a while back. Very nice product and easy to set up. Its a paid product but I would rather keep my user's data private. This product seems interesting but its free so I fail to see how you will keep maintaining it in the future if you don't get paid. I understand that running it will cost you a few dollars a month if that at the beginning but eventually, between the time spent on maintenan…

I swapped from GA to Plausible myself recently and am loving it. Just the feeling of knowing there's no trackers on your site is worth it tbh.
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