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Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

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Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#1

Post by lindesvard »

I have created an open-source alternative to Mixpanel and will explain a bit about why I decided to do this.

Mixpanel is a GREAT tool and quite easy to understand (compared to GA4 and similar). I have used Mixpanel extensively for one of my React Native apps, but the last invoice was $300, which was way over my budget. I think I was paying for MTU (monthly tracked users), which was around 7000-10k users.

However, a downside of Mixpanel is that it is purely a product analytics tool; you don't get any basic web analytics similar to what GA4 or Plausible offers.

Therefore, I have combined the best features of Mixpanel and Plausible to create what I believe is the ultimate experience in an analytics tool (product and web).

The focus has always been: it should be easy yet also powerful. This has been a challenging balance, but I think I have managed to keep it somewhat simple.

Key Features: - Privacy-first - Visualize your events like Mixpanel - Plausible-like overview - Self-hostable - Better support for React Native than Plausible - Real-time (no delays for events) Ability to access all individual events and sessions

It's currently in beta and completely free during the beta period.

Give it a spin: https://openpanel.dev

Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel
github.com

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#5

Post by lindesvard »

weejewel wrote: post #3

Looks really good! How do you create funnels without cookies? In other words, how do you track sessions?

Thanks! Similar to how Plausible is doing. Each user gets a unique identifier which is based on `hash(domain+useragent+ip+salt)` (the salt is generated each day).

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#6

Post by lindesvard »

ralusek wrote: post #4

If we use your hosted version, what will the pricing be when it's out of beta. I always think these services should basically be like 2x cost of underlying S3 or whatever storage you're using, but they end up being like 100x+

So you can start by using the beta if you want to try it. I dont think I'll take any money until after summer (I have no rush here)

Currently the pricing looks like this: No tiers, you get everything. You only pay for events. So everything except events are unlimited.

5000 events - free

10,000 - $5

100,000 - $10

200,000 - $20

500,000 - $40

1,000,000 - $60

2,000,000 - $80

5,000,000 - $120

10,000,000 - $150

I hope to push the pricing model for things below 1m events. But its so hard for me to set a pricing model before getting to know how much resources I need.

/ edit format

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#7

Post by metadat »

lindesvard wrote: post #5
weejewel wrote: post #3

Looks really good! How do you create funnels without cookies? In other words, how do you track sessions?

Thanks! Similar to how Plausible is doing. Each user gets a unique identifier which is based on `hash(domain+useragent+ip+salt)` (the salt is generated each day).

If the salt changes daily, how is. It possible to know how many users returned after > 24 hrs?

Edit: @lindesvard- Got it, thanks for clarifying!

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#8

Post by lindesvard »

metadat wrote: post #7
lindesvard wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Similar to how Plausible is doing. Each user gets a unique identifier which is based on `hash(domain+useragent+ip+salt)` (the salt is generated each day).

If the salt changes daily, how is. It possible to know how many users returned after > 24 hrs? Edit: @lindesvard- Got it, thanks for clarifying!

You'll never know any returning users after salt changes. This is the hole point with privacy first.

But you have options tho. Compared to other tools that is privacy first, you can actually pass your own user id. You can get this ID from where ever you want (db, cookie, localStorage. Its up to you whom implement it)

But I want to have a middle ground where privacy is important but you have the options to decide what path you take.

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#9

Post by klaussilveira »

This doesn't seem to be buffering inserts to ClickHouse: https://github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel/blob/c90848765a6a...

So any major website will have problems with it. I would suggest moving this into a stream (NATS, Kafka) or just having some sort of service that buffers events, then offloads to Clickhouse in batch.

Re: Show HN: Openpanel – An open-source alternative to Mixpanel

#10

Post by klaussilveira »

lindesvard wrote: post #5
weejewel wrote: post #3

Looks really good! How do you create funnels without cookies? In other words, how do you track sessions?

Thanks! Similar to how Plausible is doing. Each user gets a unique identifier which is based on `hash(domain+useragent+ip+salt)` (the salt is generated each day).

That does create clusters for users that work at the same company, with the same company-issued devices. Or iPhones in a New York City block.
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