Should you build your own Simple Analytics?
Privacy-first website analytics without cookies or personal tracking
Pageview analytics, events, dashboards, and exports are very buildable; paid value is hosted privacy posture, reports, reliability, and support.
ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.
Build me privacy-first web analytics to replace Simple Analytics, self-hosted for my own
sites. Requirements:
- A Node + Express service with better-sqlite3: one /collect endpoint and a dashboard at
/dash behind basic auth (password in .env).
- A tracker snippet under 1 KB of plain JS, no cookies: sends path, referrer, screen
width, and a daily-salted hash of IP + user agent for unique counting; the salt
rotates daily so nothing is traceable across days.
- Keep raw hits 30 days; a nightly node-cron job aggregates into daily rollups per site
(pageviews, uniques, top pages, top referrers, device split), keeps rollups forever,
deletes expired raw hits.
- Custom events via sa('signup') in the snippet, counted per day.
- Dashboard per site: a 30-day chart (hand-rolled SVG, no chart library), pages and
referrers tables, a date-range picker.
- Filter obvious bots by user-agent list; ignore my own visits via a localStorage opt-
out flag.
- CSV export per site and month from the dashboard.
- No cookies and no personal data stored, GDPR-sane by construction.
- Out of scope: funnels, session replay, and multi-user access. Uptime is on me; the
collect endpoint sits behind my existing reverse proxy.
- README: the snippet to paste and the Caddy or nginx route.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?
Add JS tracker, record anonymous pageviews/events, aggregate by dimensions, and expose dashboard/API.
What you will need
- server
- database
- tracker script
- domain/SSL
- backups
- optional email reports
They pay for low-maintenance analytics they can put in a privacy policy with confidence.
xmanaged hosting
xprivacy/legal positioning
xbot filtering
xreports
xuptime
xsupport
Prefer something ready-made?
UmamiPrivacy analytics without cookies, personal profiles or a monthly invoice.Open source↗
Plausible Community EditionA nearly identical promise, delivered from a Compose file you own.Open source↗
GoatCounterThe spartan version: useful traffic numbers and very little else to argue about.Open source↗View all 3 alternatives to Simple Analytics →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.
How much does Simple Analytics cost?
- Monthly billing
- $20/mo$20/mo
- Per year
- $240/yr$240/yr
- Annual billing
- $200/yr17% cheaper than paying monthly
- On a Brazilian card, with 3.5% IOF
- R$105/moR$1,045/yr
Saved to My list. You will see a notice on this site when the price changes.
You complete the purchase on Simple Analytics’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| free | $0/workspace | $0/workspace | 1 user, 5 websites, 30 days of history and unlimited pageviews under fair use; badge required. |
| simple (100k monthly data points) | $20/workspace≈ $20 | $16.67/workspace≈ $16.67 | 100,000 monthly pageviews/data points and 1 included user; website count is not numerically capped on the plan card. |
| enterprise | custom | - | Custom traffic, users and service terms; numeric limits and price not public. |
Free tier1 user, 5 websites, 30-day data history and unlimited pageviews under fair use; a Simple Analytics badge is required.
Billing termsmonthly + annual (2 months free); self-serve bill automatically follows measured traffic
Additional costsPaid pricing rises automatically with traffic: monthly plans use the current month then a 3-month average; annual plans can auto-increase after a 1-week warning. Each extra user costs $20/month. Bitcoin payment is annual-only and adds 10%; bank-transfer invoices of at least $500 add 10%.
verified 2026-08-11 · source ↗
Is it cheaper to build or buy Simple Analytics?
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 (weekend). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).
Is Simple Analytics free?
Free for one user and 5 websites with 30 days of history; paid keeps data longer. The paid plan is Starter at $20/mo (checked 10/20/2026).
Can I rebuild Simple Analytics?
Yes. A competent AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) can build a usable personal Simple Analytics replacement in one session with the prompt on this page. It runs on your own machine or server with no subscription.
How much does Simple Analytics cost?
Simple Analytics costs about $20/mo (Starter, checked 10/20/2026), which is $200 per year. That’s what you save by replacing it with one prompt.
What do I lose by replacing Simple Analytics?
Honestly: managed hosting; privacy/legal positioning; bot filtering; reports; uptime; support. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Simple Analytics?
Yes: Umami (Privacy analytics without cookies, personal profiles or a monthly invoice.) Plausible Community Edition (A nearly identical promise, delivered from a Compose file you own.) GoatCounter (The spartan version: useful traffic numbers and very little else to argue about.) All 3 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/simple-analytics/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.