Should you build your own Pirsch?
Collect cookieless page views and custom events with compact dashboards
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Pirsch, collect cookieless page views and custom events with compact dashboards. The hard boundary is hosted reliability, privacy operations, apis, email reports, and scale, plus data pipeline reliability and analytical depth.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build a personal replacement for Pirsch in an empty repository.
Use Next.js 15, TypeScript, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, and Docker Compose; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: collect cookieless first-party page views and custom events, answer a small set of product questions with compact dashboards, and retain raw data under the owner's control.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Ship a lightweight browser SDK for page views and explicit custom events.
Create projects, API keys, environments, event names, and a documented event schema.
Ingest idempotently, filter obvious bots, truncate IP data, and avoid fingerprinting.
Build dashboards for visitors, sessions, funnels, retention, sources, pages, and events.
Expose filters by date, environment, device, country, referrer, and selected properties.
Add retention controls, raw-event export, deletion, health checks, and backup instructions.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out cross-site identity graphs.
Deliberately leave out session replay and automatic DOM capture.
Deliberately leave out warehouse-scale reverse ETL and enterprise governance.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR
What would building your own look like?
Collect cookieless first-party page views and custom events, answer a small set of product questions with compact dashboards, and retain raw data under the owner's control.
What you will need
- Docker
- ClickHouse
- PostgreSQL
- public HTTPS collector endpoint
- site script access
People still pay for Pirsch because teams pay because analytics must keep collecting and remain trustworthy while the product changes underneath it. The recurring cost buys event schemas, bot filtering, identity, late data, retention, query cost, privacy, backups, and always-on ingestion, not just the visible interface.
xhosted reliability, privacy operations, APIs, email reports, and scale
xidentity stitching
xsession replay
xwarehouse connectors
xhigh-volume global ingestion and support
Prefer something ready-made?
UmamiCookieless page views and custom events with a compact dashboard and no hosted meter.Open source↗
Plausible Community EditionSimple cookieless traffic and goals; the Community Edition keeps the dashboard deliberately narrow.Open source↗
RybbitA broader cookieless dashboard with events, goals and funnels, still deployable from Compose.Open source↗View all 4 alternatives to Pirsch →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Pirsch cost?
- Monthly billing
- $6/mo$6/mo
- Per year
- $72/yr$72/yr
- Annual billing
- $60/yr17% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$31.35/moR$314/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Pirsch’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| standard | $6/workspace≈ $6 | $5/workspace≈ $5 | At the displayed 10,000-pageview level: 10,000 monthly pageviews, 50 websites, unlimited members, and unlimited data retention |
| plus | $12/workspace≈ $12 | $10/workspace≈ $10 | At the displayed 10,000-pageview level: 10,000 monthly pageviews, unlimited websites/members/retention, plus funnels, teams, A/B testing, segmentation, custom domains and white labeling |
| enterprise | custom | - | Variable traffic with unlimited websites/members/retention; managed cloud or on-premise, SAML SSO and raw-data access |
Free tierno free tier
Billing termsmonthly + annual; 30-day no-card trial; prices exclude tax
Additional costsCustom events and 10% of session-extension events count against the pageview quota, and deleted domains keep counting until reset. At the cap, dashboard access is limited and collection continues only 5 more days unless you upgrade.
verified 2026-08-12 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Pirsch?
Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.
Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.
Starting hours estimated from the analysis (multi-day). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Can I rebuild Pirsch?
Kinda. The core of Pirsch is buildable in a weekend with the prompt on this page, but there are real gaps: hosted reliability, privacy operations, APIs, email reports, and scale, identity stitching. Read the honest list above before committing.
How much does Pirsch cost?
Pirsch costs about $6/mo (Standard, checked 10/20/2026), which is $60 per year.
What do I lose by replacing Pirsch?
Honestly: hosted reliability, privacy operations, APIs, email reports, and scale; identity stitching; session replay; warehouse connectors; high-volume global ingestion and support. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Pirsch?
Yes: Umami (Cookieless page views and custom events with a compact dashboard and no hosted meter.) Plausible Community Edition (Simple cookieless traffic and goals; the Community Edition keeps the dashboard deliberately narrow.) Rybbit (A broader cookieless dashboard with events, goals and funnels, still deployable from Compose.) All 4 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/pirsch/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.