Do you use self hosted analytics?
The question probably should be more about how you track your application usage, and if you use Google Analytics, or something else.
It mostly relates to the problem of strict regulations in UE, Canada, which probably other countries will follow. I look for solution to have analytics working fast, preferred without cookies so I don't have to ask for consent. The less puzzle the better, but also data should be meaningful, without duplication etc.
The cool part about Google Analytics is that, it's data is trustworthy, people believe it's real. So it's easier to prove that our website/app have a lot of traffic, rather than using any other solution. But maybe there is no such a bias at all, no idea.
The funny part is, as a makers we probably care more about user privacy then most of the users of our products :)
I certainly care about privacy but also know that user's are becoming increasingly aware. I use Plausible and honestly couldn't be happier. It's clean, simple and actionable.
They offer a hosted service but you can host it yourself too if you like.
@nblackburn Yes, I wonder if the analytics for regular users matters as much so they may get annoyed and switch to our competitors. What I like about Plausible and similar tools, is that we don't have to ask for any consent or mention about cookies. There are no cookies at all.
Good question. As an indie dev hosting your own analytics seems like a headache, it's one more thing to worry about when I'm already strapped for time.
I'm happy to pay https://plausible.io to handle everything for now, additionally I make the analytics for Portabella (https://portabella.io) public as part of the #buildinpublic manifesto.
@AlexBH_ Yes, it is a headache to host it on our own. I think of deploying it on the VPS which already host some services and there are some spare resources. It should work as long as the traffic is not overwhelming. It's always a balance between trying to keep the costs low and save time, thought.
Not only that, but I'm working on yet another self-hosted analytics solution with deep respect to privacy in mind. Key differences would be ultimate simplicity (and thus - extremely low operational costs), also the open-source version could be used as both, library or a standalone service. I personally write many web services in Go and would rather embed a library to get my stats than have another service running next to mine doing only the analytics. Essentially, I am looking for a zero-configuration, one-function API. I believe that self-hosted is a good thing, but zero-effort self-hosting (as part of your service) is even better.
Lots of pro/cons already covered. But one thing I want to add: self-hosted/custom domain analytics might be even more accurate than Google Analytics, as GA is widely blocked by browser extensions. Whereas self-hosted/custom domain analytics should usually be fine.
I'd say the biggest advantages of GA is price, features & integrations. BUT I'd argue most indiehackers are not really making use of the last two. So its more: am I willing to pay for privacy?
I still use GA but I'm strongly considering switching to Fathom.
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