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Igor Lanko

What Google Analytics alternative service do you use for web apps?

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Given how Google services intrude into people's privacy lately, I'm looking for Google Analytics analogues out there. Preferably something that includes heat maps and programmable events too. But most importantly, so it won't store any cookies on the user's machine. A lot of awesome products here on PH too (like https://www.producthunt.com/posts/plausible-analytics for example). Curious, what are your favorites and why do you like it? Thanks!

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Aleksandra Sztemberg
Keep in mind that once you start recording your data in a free GA plan, it is not possible to get it out of there and analyze it somewhere else. I recommend you to get Segment first (they have a free startup plan) and from there, you can test different products without having to set up data again and lose the historical data.
Fabian Maume
Smartlook Qualitative Analytics provide heat maps and events, but I'm not sure how they handle cookie. If you want zero cookie you would need to setup some server side analytics. Check out server side google tag manager.
Christian Heine
It's hard to beat Google analytics. For our app, we don't use it (for privacy reasons, in fact) and only track some very basic usage metrics using custom functions with our own backend. For the landing page: After a bit of search, we tried Clicky, but eventually went back to Google. Would be really curious if there are other options out there. And just to throw that in: I do believe that in order to realistically compete, there should be a limited feature (but unlimited time) basic plan.
Igor Lanko
@christianheine, indeed! Likewise, we're building a product that we would like to avoid using Google Analytics for for the same reason as you. We also recommend other services for our client projects in the agency. That's why I wanted to bring this conversation up! For now seems like there's no complete winner that would beat the "company of evil" while respecting people's privacy.
Christian Heine
@igorlanko Well, I wouldn't go as far as to call Google that. I do love some of their products & services and I think they do contribute a lot (of good) to modern life. At the same time it's always good to have a healthy competition. So I'd say go for it.
Ali Rajool
heap.io But I prefer Google Analytics
Igor Lanko
@rajool Thanks, I'll check that out! Mind me asking, why do you prefer Google Analytics? I find its UX very clunky personally. And plus, they don't care much about privacy. I'm looking for something that does.
Chris McCaw
We have personally benefited from https://amplitude.com
Igor Lanko
@nopasswordlogin, it's nice! I've used it in the past while working on desktop apps. Not sure if they approached the privacy issue in some way, do you know?
Chris McCaw
@igorlanko I'm not sure about the privacy issue. We have been using it to understand how users use our app and the order in which they click buttons
Kate Dalessi
There is yandex.metrics service. There's a cool webvisor tool that allows you to follow users' behavior on your page
Igor Lanko
@katyaveremeichik, I like everything about Metrika. Slick Yandex design. Only concern is the privacy there.
Aleksandra Sztemberg
Try https://www.stormly.com/ and get insights on your data with a single click, you can also do custom analytics, contact me if this is something you'd like to explore!
Igor Lanko
@aleksandraszte2, thanks! To me it seems quite expensive for the early stage simple products though. So does it analyze what data GA has acquired and then gives insight? Or does it do its own scanning on the website/app?
Yogi
Cloudflare Analytics is good, but you need a pro plan for that!
Igor Lanko
@bigint, I'm using basic Cloudflare analytics right now. Is the pro plan is like a complete alternative, with events and stuff? Specifically for user research, not only for traffic routing thing?
Anton Prakash
Piwik works great. Now it's renamed as https://piwik.com/ Matomo
Igor Lanko
Here's my list of Google Analytics alternatives that in my opinion are worth checking. Basic coverage of GA functionality and they claim that they respect user privacy. Plausible Analytics. Starts at $6/mo. Simple Analytics. Starts at $19/mo (yearly is cheaper). umami. Not sure about the privacy, but it's self-hosted and free. Friendly Analytics. Claim to respect the privacy, though a little more expensive starting from $99/mo. Would love to know about something else that would offer heatmaps and generally more info that would help analyze the UX. I hope this helps someone!
Igor Lanko
$0 for 10k views/mo Claim to be private! https://panelbear.com/