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Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

plausible.io

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Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#81

Post by octref »

Does anyone have recommendation for static site hosting with simple server-side analytics? The only thing I can find is Netlify Analytics, but $9/mo is too much for hosting a few pages of OSS project documentations.

If there's no complex interactivity achieveable only through JS, I prefer to ship sites with plain HTML/CSS, so I don't really like to use any client-side analytics. And yes – I can live without all the fancy features to track and profile my visitors.

I don't want to host by myself either, since I enjoy using a simple git push to deploy my site.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#82

Post by eitland »

thinkingemote wrote: post #58

One of the reasons for mobile apps is that adblocking is disabled. Explains why Reddit promotes it so much. Similarly, wrapping websites like Discord or Slack in Electron also gives the website owners full telemetry and tracking that they can't get in a tech savvy browser. Would an always on VPN, a remote pihole be the only way for privacy?

It doesn't need to be an actual VPN to somewhere else. Lockdown for iOS can be run without using the VPN server.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#83

Post by timdaub »

ponytech wrote: post #22

This article clearly suggests that you should use their own solution, Plausible Analytics. They are also JavaScript based, so how long before ad-blockers start blocking them too? Isn't it time to come back to server side analytics?

They are blocked a whole lot too, see my comment in the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28365505

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#85

Post by teekert »

marak830 wrote: post #55
kunagi7 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Bromite, Vivaldi or Brave on Android. They have built-in ad tracker protection. The first two even support custom filtering lists. On iOS the options are a bit worse but Brave has some kind of adblocking that works. Safari also supports blocking lists via AdGuard but it's more limited.

Or just use Firefox. Android of course, your screwed on Apple.

AdGuard (local app) works in Safari. I don't like safari, but the AdGuard blocking does not work in FireFox! I use DDG browser mostly and it works well. I do see the occasional ad.

The whole browser situation in iOS is really user unfriendly.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#86

Post by kunagi7 »

marak830 wrote: post #55
kunagi7 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use Bromite, Vivaldi or Brave on Android. They have built-in ad tracker protection. The first two even support custom filtering lists. On iOS the options are a bit worse but Brave has some kind of adblocking that works. Safari also supports blocking lists via AdGuard but it's more limited.

Or just use Firefox. Android of course, your screwed on Apple.

Firefox is another nice alternative if you have a good Android phone I guess.

Sadly, I have a quite old Android device (but its battery life it's still good) where Chromium-based browsers are already quite slow and Firefox feels even slower and drains the battery faster (the old Fennec was worse than the new one, it hanged for 30 seconds).

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#88

Post by maattdd »

octref wrote: post #81

Does anyone have recommendation for static site hosting with simple server-side analytics? The only thing I can find is Netlify Analytics, but $9/mo is too much for hosting a few pages of OSS project documentations. If there's no complex interactivity achieveable only through JS, I prefer to ship sites with plain HTML/CSS, so I don't really like to use any client-side analytics. And yes – I can live without all the f…

I use AWS Cloudfront on top of my static blog to get basic analytics (and some edge caching). It is almost free.

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#89

Post by shantnutiwari »

octref wrote: post #81

Does anyone have recommendation for static site hosting with simple server-side analytics? The only thing I can find is Netlify Analytics, but $9/mo is too much for hosting a few pages of OSS project documentations. If there's no complex interactivity achieveable only through JS, I prefer to ship sites with plain HTML/CSS, so I don't really like to use any client-side analytics. And yes – I can live without all the f…

Netlify analytics is very inaccurate to begin with-- it was showing me I was getting 20,000 visits a month on a 5 year old blog I never updated!

Moving to a normal analytics, the number is closer to a dozen, maybe a few hundred.

I suspect Netlify doesnt remove bot traffic

Re: Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics

#90

Post by lambdaba »

azalemeth wrote: post #72
lambdaba wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Android I use personaldnsfilter ( https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dnsfilter.android/ ), which creates a local VPN, there are also actual VPN apps that allow blocking ad hosts, and you can also use AdGuard DNS directly.

Out of curiosity, what does this bring you over hosts file blocking, and how much does it affect battery life? I use dead-simple modifications to /etc/hosts and it seems to be remarkably good. Do you MITM yourself for further adblocking, or just use it for the modified DNS?

My phone is not rooted, and I just switched to nextdns.io on suggestion of another commenter here. I can't say about the phone battery, but I don't think it makes a big difference.
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