[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":613},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-19883876":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":5,"maker":10,"posted_at":11,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rank_in_year":15,"shown_in_year":16,"top":17,"tier":18,"category":19,"subcategory":20,"format":21,"keywords":22,"reception":26,"sentiment":27,"stance_mix":28,"scored_comments":32,"aspects":33,"strip":42,"post_text":45,"what":46,"said":59,"maker_in_thread":182,"shape":188,"grid":193,"attempts":575,"same_week":576,"maker_shows":38,"maker_hidden":606,"reader_version":607,"card":608},"19883876","benhoyt.com","I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics","title","Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics","https:\u002F\u002Fbenhoyt.com\u002Fwritings\u002Freplacing-google-analytics\u002F","benhoyt",1557537978,2019,475,137,36,2195,2,"legend","web_saas","web analytics","other",[20,23,24,25],"log analysis","google analytics alternative","self-hosted analytics","debated",0,{"positive":29,"neutral":30,"mixed":27,"critical":31},10,16,11,37,{"execution":34,"idea":36,"privacy":39,"performance":40,"design":41},{"positive":35,"critical":17},1,{"positive":37,"critical":38},8,4,{"positive":27,"critical":38},{"positive":27,"critical":27},{"positive":27,"critical":35},[43,27,27,27,27,35,35,35,17,43,35,27,43,27,27,35,27,27,38,27,27,27,27,27,35,43,44,44,27,27,43,43,44,44,44,43,35,35,27,27],5,3,null,{"problem":47,"audience":45,"pricing":45,"motivation":53,"time_to_build":45,"stack":57,"openness":58,"stage":58,"team_size":58},{"value":48,"source":49,"evidence":50},"Replacing Google Analytics with simple analytics based on server logs","maker",[51],{"id":52},"post",{"value":54,"source":49,"evidence":55},"Wanted simpler analytics than Google Analytics",[56],{"id":52},[],"unknown",{"praise":60,"objections":80,"requests":103,"questions":122,"alternatives":137},[61,69],{"value":62,"source":63,"evidence":64},"Log parsing is a sound, old-school way to measure traffic","commenter",[65],{"id":66,"by":67,"text":68},"19885570","AdriaanvRossum","Love what you are doing here. A few points: 1. I would rename the pixel.png to something like image.png. Never call your script anything like tracking, analytics, or pixel when…",{"value":70,"source":63,"evidence":71},"Avoids ad blockers and works without JavaScript",[72,76],{"id":73,"by":74,"text":75},"19884545","octref","> Obviously with log parsing you don’t get as much information as a JavaScript-heavy, Google Analytics-style system. There’s no screen sizes, no time-on-page metrics, etc. But…",{"id":77,"by":78,"text":79},"19886274","tdhz77","“Most tracking systems, including Google Analytics, don’t work at all without JavaScript.“ I have found solutions with GA, matomo, fantom all to have image based solutions that…",[81,96],{"value":82,"source":63,"evidence":83},"Ad-blocker bypass and tracking framing raise privacy concerns",[84,88,92],{"id":85,"by":86,"text":87},"19885660","xiaq","> Never call your script anything like tracking, analytics, or pixel when you don't want to be blocked by ad blockers. But this is a tracking script, no? If I were you I'd keep…",{"id":89,"by":90,"text":91},"19886935","notafraudster","I don't think what you're doing is the end of the world, but answer this is extremely patronizing. You've basically said you know some users block your stuff, but you think they…",{"id":93,"by":94,"text":95},"19887356","jamiequint","I'm fine with people being patronizing towards whiny, entitled users who think they have a right to use any website they want on their terms. If you don't like someone running…",{"value":97,"source":63,"evidence":98},"Raw logs are less accurate than GA for real users and bots",[99],{"id":100,"by":101,"text":102},"19885959","redm","This looks like a solution in need of a problem. Previously I had tried some similar things at scale, mainly because I wanted upsampled reports and GA charges $100,000 for…",[104,111],{"value":105,"source":63,"evidence":106},"Server-side tracking for GitHub Pages or Netlify",[107,108],{"id":73,"by":74,"text":75},{"id":109,"by":10,"text":110},"19884606","> I would really love it if GitHub pages or Netlify can provide some simple server-side tracking. It doesn't match GA but in some cases that's all I need. That would be a great…",{"value":112,"source":63,"evidence":113},"Add user flow and conversion tracking",[114,118],{"id":115,"by":116,"text":117},"19886538","MuffinFlavored","You don’t track user’s flow on site? like conversion for ecommerce, bounce rate, time on page, etc.?",{"id":119,"by":120,"text":121},"19886598","harianus","Not at the moment. We will implement tracking user flow with in a privacy minded way. I asked Hacker News a while ago if they would think it was privacy friendly [1] To be clear…",[123,130],{"value":124,"source":63,"evidence":125},"Does dropping GA affect Google Search rankings?",[126],{"id":127,"by":128,"text":129},"19884724","nnx","Has anyone done research whether stopping using Google Analytics impacts Google Search rankings?",{"value":131,"source":63,"evidence":132},"Is there keyword or search phrase data for organic traffic?",[133],{"id":134,"by":135,"text":136},"19884806","pknerd","I could not find organic traffic details like keywords that bring visitors to the site?",[138,149,160,171],{"value":139,"source":63,"evidence":140},"Matomo",[141,145],{"id":142,"by":143,"text":144},"19884767","abhin4v","Why not use a self-hosted analytics software like https:\u002F\u002Fmatomo.org\u002F ?",{"id":146,"by":147,"text":148},"19885164","telaelit","I also would suggest looking into Matomo (https:\u002F\u002Fmatomo.org\u002F) if your want an open source analytic service to replace Google Analytics.",{"value":150,"source":63,"evidence":151},"GoAccess",[152,156],{"id":153,"by":154,"text":155},"19884640","interfixus","If you take the trouble to host everyting on a stack you actually control, raw server logs and GoAccess is a highly capable and for most cases sufficient monitoring tool. I use…",{"id":157,"by":158,"text":159},"19884949","Neil44","I like GoAccess because it works well with multiple vhosts, if you have a lot of sites and want to see relative busyness. Also you can see if any particular site or individual…",{"value":161,"source":63,"evidence":162},"AWStats",[163,167],{"id":164,"by":165,"text":166},"19884839","acidburnNSA","For those of you hosting on your own server, this is a PSA that awstats is still working. It reads server logs and makes little graphs via a cron job. It's fun to have analytics…",{"id":168,"by":169,"text":170},"19885394","pmlnr","I never moved from awstats. It still works.",{"value":172,"source":63,"evidence":173},"Snowplow",[174,178],{"id":175,"by":176,"text":177},"19905215","mejakethomas","(data engineer here) Nice post! It's always fun reading about people being creative and challenging the analytics status quo (aka GA). Besides the joy of doing it yourself,…",{"id":179,"by":180,"text":181},"19884645","arjunbanker","i’ve heard snowplow is good for this",{"comments":17,"answered":35,"key":183},[184,185],{"id":109,"text":110},{"id":186,"text":187},"19884644","Yeah, good question. I wanted to do that, but GoAccess is a web server log parser and doesn't support custom fields (you don't get screen resolution via web logs, so it kinda…",{"commenters":189,"max_depth":190,"maker_replies":17,"first_comment_mins":191,"lifespan_hours":192},101,9,171,71,[194,196,198,200,202,205,208,211,214,217,218,219,222,225,227,230,233,236,239,242,246,249,252,254,256,259,263,266,268,270,273,275,277,280,283,286,288,291,294,297,300,303,306,308,309,312,315,317,318,321,322,325,328,330,334,337,340,342,345,348,352,355,358,360,363,366,369,372,375,378,381,384,387,389,392,394,396,398,400,402,404,407,409,412,415,416,419,421,424,427,429,432,434,436,440,443,445,449,453,455,458,460,463,465,468,472,476,478,482,484,487,490,494,499,501,505,509,511,513,516,518,522,526,530,532,536,540,544,548,552,555,558,561,563,566,569,571],[66,27,43,195,67,27],"maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fexecution",[85,27,27,197,86,27],"commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fprivacy",[199,27,27,197,120,27],"19885678",[201,27,27,197,86,27],"19885853",[203,27,27,197,204,27],"19886642","lioeters",[206,27,27,197,207,27],"19887564","la_barba",[209,27,27,197,210,27],"19888424","kerng",[212,27,27,213,120,27],"19900571","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[215,27,27,197,216,27],"19886431","dx034",[89,27,27,197,90,27],[93,27,27,197,94,27],[220,27,27,197,221,27],"19887389","jononor",[223,27,27,197,224,27],"19887489","krupan",[226,27,27,197,94,27],"19887748",[228,27,27,197,229,27],"19888235","xfer",[231,27,27,197,232,27],"19890837","SahAssar",[234,27,27,197,235,27],"19890413","lkiernan",[237,27,27,197,238,27],"19887774","haney",[240,27,27,197,241,27],"19902959","nathan_long",[243,27,35,244,245,27],"19886050","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea","judge2020",[247,27,27,248,120,27],"19886604","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[250,27,35,244,251,27],"19886707","ceejayoz",[253,27,27,248,245,27],"19887572",[255,27,27,197,245,27],"19887578",[257,27,27,197,258,27],"19886173","matz1",[260,27,35,261,262,27],"19886317","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fprivacy","snlnspc",[264,27,27,197,265,27],"19887765","qwertox",[115,27,44,267,116,27],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[119,27,44,269,120,27],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[271,27,35,261,272,27],"19888553","aembleton",[73,35,43,274,74,27],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[109,35,27,276,10,35],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[278,35,27,213,279,27],"19885037","sdan",[281,35,27,213,282,27],"19885104","dewey",[284,35,35,261,285,27],"19885083","JensRex",[287,35,27,197,216,27],"19886434",[289,35,27,213,290,27],"19885433","highace",[292,35,27,213,293,27],"19885507","hjnilsson",[295,35,27,213,296,27],"19885559","kingo55",[298,35,27,213,299,27],"19885536","weego",[301,35,27,213,302,27],"19885588","jasonlingx",[304,35,27,305,216,27],"19886444","other\u002Fcritical\u002Fnone",[307,35,43,274,120,27],"19885632",[164,17,27,213,165,27],[310,17,27,213,311,27],"19885167","avian",[313,17,27,213,314,27],"19886403","xfitm3",[316,17,27,197,311,27],"19887219",[146,44,27,213,147,27],[319,44,27,213,320,27],"19891343","addandsubtract",[157,38,27,213,158,27],[323,43,27,213,324,27],"19884681","cromulent",[326,43,27,213,327,27],"19885862","blakesterz",[142,329,35,244,143,27],6,[331,329,27,332,333,27],"19884794","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs","Zolomon",[335,329,27,332,336,27],"19884837","ifcho",[338,329,27,213,339,27],"19885029","eitland",[341,329,27,213,282,27],"19885112",[343,329,27,213,344,27],"19884940","ptman",[346,329,27,213,347,27],"19885108","secfirstmd",[349,329,27,350,351,27],"19885328","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing","akvadrako",[353,329,27,248,354,27],"19884919","luckylion",[356,329,27,248,357,27],"19884990","tmoravec",[153,359,43,274,154,27],7,[361,359,43,274,362,27],"19885476","helij",[364,37,35,261,365,27],"19884518","eljimmy",[367,37,27,197,368,27],"19884535","ComputerGuru",[370,37,27,197,371,27],"19884586","taormina",[373,37,27,197,374,27],"19884658","foota",[376,37,27,197,377,27],"19884698","ngold",[379,37,27,197,380,27],"19885113","thinkingemote",[382,37,27,197,383,27],"19885188","manigandham",[385,37,27,197,386,27],"19884754","busymom0",[388,37,27,197,371,27],"19884801",[390,37,27,248,391,27],"19885058","NicoJuicy",[393,37,27,248,386,27],"19885280",[395,37,27,197,371,27],"19887236",[397,37,27,197,386,27],"19889102",[399,37,27,197,354,27],"19884936",[401,37,27,197,386,27],"19885047",[403,37,27,197,354,27],"19885194",[405,37,27,197,406,27],"19884707","julsimon",[408,37,27,197,354,27],"19884930",[410,37,27,197,411,27],"19885463","OrgNet",[413,37,27,197,414,27],"19885309","tinus_hn",[100,190,35,244,101,27],[417,190,43,274,418,27],"19885996","RA_Fisher",[420,190,27,248,101,27],"19887333",[422,29,44,276,423,27],"19886263","eruci",[425,29,27,248,426,27],"19886736","Zenbit_UX",[428,29,44,267,423,27],"19887633",[430,31,27,213,431,27],"19885415","achairapart",[127,433,44,267,128,27],12,[435,433,27,213,386,27],"19884747",[437,433,44,438,439,27],"19884787","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance","spongeb00b",[441,433,44,267,442,27],"19885233","cknoxrun",[168,444,27,213,169,27],13,[446,447,27,213,448,27],"19884836",14,"TomK32",[450,451,27,213,452,27],"19885270",15,"stevenicr",[454,451,27,213,414,27],"19885303",[456,451,27,213,457,27],"19885648","jefftk",[459,451,27,213,452,27],"19887750",[461,451,27,248,462,27],"19887384","oefrha",[464,451,27,248,452,27],"19887787",[466,30,43,274,467,27],"19895159","nathan-io",[469,470,27,213,471,27],"19886024",17,"qrbLPHiKpiux",[473,474,27,213,475,27],"19886832",18,"cartofu",[175,477,43,274,176,27],19,[479,480,44,267,481,27],"19884592",20,"amanzi",[186,480,27,483,10,35],"maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[485,480,43,486,481,27],"19884665","maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[488,480,35,489,391,27],"19885043","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fexecution",[491,480,44,492,493,27],"19886281","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","jon-wood",[495,496,44,497,498,27],"19886250",21,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fprivacy","finchisko",[500,496,44,497,176,27],"19905383",[502,503,44,267,504,27],"19902495",22,"cphoover",[506,507,27,213,508,27],"19885741",23,"gorkemcetin",[134,510,44,267,135,27],24,[512,510,27,248,448,27],"19884840",[514,510,27,248,515,27],"19884843","wwweston",[517,510,27,213,120,27],"19885597",[519,520,44,276,521,27],"19885474",25,"pawurb",[523,524,27,213,525,27],"19887835",26,"gscott",[527,528,43,274,529,27],"19885470",27,"louismerlin",[77,531,35,489,78,27],28,[533,531,27,534,535,27],"19887021","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution","mobjack",[537,538,44,276,539,27],"19887935",29,"qwerty456127",[541,542,44,276,543,27],"19885001",30,"bryanrasmussen",[545,542,35,546,547,27],"19885017","project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdesign","speedplane",[549,542,27,550,551,27],"19885240","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign","johnchristopher",[553,542,27,550,554,27],"19885980","justkez",[556,542,27,550,557,27],"19888644","tangue",[559,542,27,560,547,27],"19890893","commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fdesign",[562,542,27,550,543,27],"19885497",[179,564,27,565,180,27],31,"other\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea",[567,564,27,568,481,27],"19884950","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fexecution",[570,564,27,565,176,27],"19905021",[572,573,27,565,574,27],"19885063",32,"bilater",[],[577,581,586,591,596,601],{"id":578,"name":579,"points":580,"category":19},"19910691","30 Hour Jobs",558,{"id":582,"name":583,"points":584,"category":585},"19886754","Python Machine Learning",350,"learning_science",{"id":587,"name":588,"points":589,"category":590},"19892758","Koonchi",275,"creative",{"id":592,"name":593,"points":594,"category":595},"19876710","WildDuck",222,"infrastructure",{"id":597,"name":598,"points":599,"category":600},"19888481","GradType",202,"security_privacy",{"id":602,"name":603,"points":604,"category":605},"19904605","Eigengrau's Generator",153,"games",false,"v2",{"id":609,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":606,"cat":19,"year":12,"points":13,"comments":14,"rec":26,"s":27,"top":17,"kw":610,"maker":10,"domain":5,"tier":18,"attempts":27,"strip":611,"url":9,"mix":612,"praise":62,"objection":82,"sub":20},19883876,[20,23,24,25],"5000011125105001004000001533005533351100",[29,30,27,31],1793990989186]