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In web analytics, Google Analytics divides users opinions.
Despite these glaring issues, Google Analytics holds82.1% of the traffic analysis market share.
And while many consider it as their go-to analytics platform, others want a smoother analytics user experience.
Personally, I find it counterintuitive, especially with multiple layers of menus that are challenging to navigate.
Fortunately, many open-source self-hosted web analytics tools offer greater control, customization, and cost efficiency.
you’re able to import and export data at your will and choose what works best for you.
However, there are caveats.
In this post, Ive researched and reviewed the best self-hosted open source web analytics platforms.
These platforms are chosen based on their data compliance, traffic analysis, and user-friendliness.
you’re free to trust Geekflare
At Geekflare, trust and transparency are paramount.
Umami also supports tracking UTM parameters and custom events such as clicks and form entries.
Its analytics dashboard offers a real-time user footprint via the Activity log.
you could easily visualize trends by comparing durations and applying filters for country, online window, and URL.
Umamis product analytics presents user journeys, retention, conversion, and drop-off rates.
Even with all these details, its a cookieless tracking and analytics solution where all visitor data is anonymized.
you’ve got the option to also self-host for complete control and export/ share data anytime.
Fathom Lite
Lite is a lightweight version of Fathom Analytics that you might self-host and deploy for free.
It was the first version made by the Fathom Analytics developers, which still exists and is well maintained.
However, you wont see any new features down the road; only bug fixes.
If that works for you, Fathom Lite is a Google Analytics alternative Ill recommend for tech-savvy folks.
So, the regulatory compliance (and everything else) is yours to manage.
For instance, Fathom suggests avoiding US-based servers and hosting companies for GDPR compliance.
Lites more feature-rich cousin, Fathom Analytics, presents real-time metrics, filters, UTM, and campaign tracking.
It complies with multiple privacy frameworks, including GDPR, ePrivacy, COPPA, CCPA, and PECR.
Still, this is a good bet for admins trying to manage everything independently for entry-level projects.
you could rest assured that Aptabase isnt based on unit fingerprinting or cookies.
I also liked the fact that you own the data and can export it even with its cloud-hosted edition.
However, its specialty is a mobile-optimized user dashboard that keeps admins in the know everywhere.
Every data point Aptabase collects is totally anonymized, which helps keep individual identities secret.
Plausible CE
Plausible CE has basic bot filtering and optionally gives access to raw data.
You also have filters to compare metrics from two different time periods.
Plausible doesnt collect any personally identifiable information, and you dont have to rely on cookies.
This means you dont have to show cookie banners or take GDPR consent.
Plausible CE Pricing
You dont pay anything to Plausible while using their self-hosted analytics.
Cloud plans have a 30-day free trial before billing $9/month.
GoatCounter
With just 3.5KB of tracking script, GoatCounter is one of the simplest and lightweight analytics solutions around.
you could self-host or use their free cloud hosting.
you’re free to also ignore specific IP addresses to avoid tracking your own visits.
Besides, its up to the admin whether to count unique visits or every page view.
GoatCounter also has provisions to skip views coming from staging or development environments.
However, you wont be restricted while self-hosting GoatCoutner on your servers.
Pirschs enterprise versions also come with multi-step marketing funnel analysis to track visitors journey until conversion.
It allows defining up to 8 steps, which helps you visualize what doesnt work.
I found that there are a few perks of using Pirschs public dashboards for data sharing.
Pirsch comes with RESTful API, SDKs, webhooks, a WordPress plugin, etc., allowing easy integrations.
Pirsch Pricing
you oughta communicate with the sales team for the enterprise license.
This is typically what we get from standard analytics tools.
I liked that you’re able to define and track an unlimited number of custom actions.
Much like Google Search Console, it also displays which search terms are gaining visitors.
It comes with built-in privacy controls that help your business become GDPR compliant.
Integrations arent a problem either with its data access API.
Open Web Analytics Pricing
While Open Web Analytics is free, you dont have to start blind.
There are multiple demos depicting its reporting and tracking capabilities to check upfront.
Matomo
Matomo has one of the most flexible self-hosted analytics offerings Ive ever encountered.
The standard free version has limited features besides multiple add-ons to boost functionality as needed.
Businesses have 100% data ownership when using Matomo.
Admins get to export data and switch between its cloud and on-premises editions.
The cloud-hosted version starts at $26/month for 50K monthly hits.
OpenReplay
OpenReplay lets you experience what your users went through with session replays.
This way, you might see and troubleshoot the exact areas needing improvement on the website and mobile app.
The whole process is enhanced with AI.
It lets you filter specific use cases using normal conversational language, such as users who couldnt click CTA.
Plus, you get session summaries per user to peek if everything went as planned and the errors encountered.
Teamwork is a cakewalk with OpenReplay.
Admins can share sessions by adding short messages and tagging members.
It also supports real-time collaboration where the team can collectively visualize the session replays and pinpoint the issues.
you’re free to also apply filters to show what interests you the most.
OpenReplay is SOC 2 throw in II-certified and GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA ready.
OpenPanel
OpenPanel is a real-time, cookie-less web and product analytics platform with cloud and self-hosting deployment flexibility.
You also get a list of referrer domains and the pages getting maximum hits.
OpenPanel supports funnel analysis to monitor user journeys leading to conversions.
you’re able to also track user retention rates and develop ways to improve.
One aspect OpenPanel is currently working on is export.
You only have their export API without any one-click option from the user dashboard.
OpenPanel Pricing
OpenPanel is fully GDPR-compliant.
Its cloud-hosted version works for under 10K events for free before upgrading to paid subscriptions.
you could also self-host for greater control (and responsibility).
Countly also offers event tracking and funnel analysis, where you could go deep to evaluate actual user journeys.
Countly has powerful user segmentation capabilities, which allow creating groups based on demographics and behavior for specific durations.
Heat maps make it easy to see which sections of your website work great and which need further work.
They provide details like the most clickable elements, scroll depth, and whether user engagement varies among platforms.
Countly Pricing
you’ve got the option to self-host Countlys Lite and Enterprise editions.
The cloud-hosted version, Countly Flex, has a free version, whose paid tiers start at $80/month.
PostHog
PostHog has generous free tiers for web analytics and well-defined pricing when you exceed the free limits.
You also have filters for page, unit, and UTM parameters and comparison between two timelines.
Besides, PostHog offers user segments by geolocation, rig, and net online gate.
I liked its scroll tracking feature, giving you pointers about when and why users bounce off.
However, you’re free to go even further by leveraging the session recordings.
This presents invaluable information about the user journeys, something which numbers cant tell you.
Importantly, PostHost isnt a cookie-less solution yet.
Swetrix
Swetrix is a cookie-less Google Analytics alternative with a simple dashboard.
The inbuilt filters can highlight visits based on select parameter(s) and provide you with valuable insights.
Swetrix also supports tracking UTM parameters and custom events, showing top referring domains.
The Performance tab is about page load time.
Again, you get this metric for different locations, pages, browsers, and rig types.
Selecting anyone provides average loading time for frontend, backend, and data pipe for that specific category.
Sessions is about individual visits.
Swetrix Pricing
Swetrix can be self-hosted.
It also has a cloud version starting at $5/month with 14-days of free trial.
Who Should Use Open-Source Web Analytics?
The idea of going open source and doing it all is fascinating and offers complete control over the data.
Moreover, most of the vendors restrict their self-hosted versions just to divert more customers to their cloud subscriptions.
This can be repelling for any business seeking a specific feature only available with cloud versions.
So, ping customer support and ask about the differences between cloud and self-hosted clearly.
Plus, there is community support to fall back on.
Start by leasing a VPS(Virtual Private Server) from cloud hosting providers.
Besides, the analytics should be initially deployed in the staging environment.
