Simple Analytics

Privacy-first website analytics without cookies or personal tracking

YES · focused build
price $20/mosubscription / year $240estimated build time weekendreplaced by 0 people

Pageview analytics, events, dashboards, and exports are very buildable; paid value is hosted privacy posture, reports, reliability, and support.

Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability

What you give up

  • managed hosting
  • privacy/legal positioning
  • bot filtering
  • reports
  • uptime
  • support

Why people still pay

They pay for low-maintenance analytics they can put in a privacy policy with confidence.

Your build guide

The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.

Before you start

  • Runtime and tools: TypeScript, Node, Express, better-sqlite3, a small first-party browser tracker and a durable aggregation worker with an authenticated server-rendered dashboard.
  • Before starting: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures.
01
TypeScript, Node, Express, better-sqlite3, a small first-party browser tracker and a durable aggregation worker with an authenticated server-rendered dashboard
02
Data design: Store Site, EventType, Observation and Aggregate; allowlist event names/properties and discard sensitive URL parameters before they reach logs or database storage.
03
Setup: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures
engineering roadmap

Implementation plan

1

Phase 1

Pin the working slice and create its example input: Collect minimal pageviews and named events from one owned site, aggregate common dimensions and provide a private dashboard plus CSV export. Confirm setup: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures.

2

Phase 2

Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Site, EventType, Observation and Aggregate; allowlist event names/properties and discard sensitive URL parameters before they reach logs or database storage.

3

Phase 3

Connect the working view to real saved state. Treat the browser site ID as public, not a secret credential. Validate registered sites, allowed browser origins and bounded event schemas, with per-site quotas; an Origin header is only one abuse signal. Strip unapproved URL parameters, referrer details and event properties before logs, queues or storage. Deduplicate by site and client event ID within a documented window. Store accepted events and pending aggregation state durably; update aggregates and mark events processed in one transaction so retries cannot count twice. Define event-time/timezone and late-event rules, retention and deletion across raw data and aggregates. Keep dashboard queries scoped to the authenticated site owner and do not infer audited people from event counts.

4

Phase 4

Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Counts are observations rather than audited people or conversions. Cookieless tracking still needs a considered privacy design; no raw fingerprinting or unverifiable legal-compliance promise.

5

Phase 5

Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Submit a referrer containing a token and repeat a page event during SPA navigation; sanitize the referrer and apply a documented navigation-count policy. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.

the pro prompt
download AGENTS.md
Build the following focused alternative to Simple Analytics. Implement the focused workflow below first; the verdict is not evidence of a completed or production-certified build.

WORKING SLICE
Collect minimal pageviews and named events from one owned site, aggregate common dimensions and provide a private dashboard plus CSV export.

SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
Use TypeScript, Node, Express, better-sqlite3, a small first-party browser tracker and a durable aggregation worker with an authenticated server-rendered dashboard. Prerequisites: One owned site, HTTPS tracker/intake URLs, private dashboard credentials, a declared event schema, a retention/deletion policy, and synthetic SPA navigation, duplicate, invalid-site and sensitive-URL fixtures. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success.

DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS
Store Site, EventType, Observation and Aggregate; allowlist event names/properties and discard sensitive URL parameters before they reach logs or database storage.

IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT
Treat the browser site ID as public, not a secret credential. Validate registered sites, allowed browser origins and bounded event schemas, with per-site quotas; an Origin header is only one abuse signal. Strip unapproved URL parameters, referrer details and event properties before logs, queues or storage. Deduplicate by site and client event ID within a documented window. Store accepted events and pending aggregation state durably; update aggregates and mark events processed in one transaction so retries cannot count twice. Define event-time/timezone and late-event rules, retention and deletion across raw data and aggregates. Keep dashboard queries scoped to the authenticated site owner and do not infer audited people from event counts. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content.

APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY
Counts are observations rather than audited people or conversions. Cookieless tracking still needs a considered privacy design; no raw fingerprinting or unverifiable legal-compliance promise.

ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO
Submit a referrer containing a token and repeat a page event during SPA navigation; sanitize the referrer and apply a documented navigation-count policy. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested.

DELIVERY
Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product.

PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md
Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan

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Alternatives to building your own

UmamiPrivacy analytics without cookies, personal profiles or a monthly invoice.38kaug 2026open source↗Plausible Community EditionA nearly identical promise, delivered from a Compose file you own.28kaug 2026open source↗GoatCounterThe spartan version: useful traffic numbers and very little else to argue about.5.8kaug 2026open source↗

all 3 free alternatives to Simple Analytics →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real

Simple Analytics pricing

planmonthlyannual (per mo)what you get
free$0/workspace$0/workspace1 user, 5 websites, 30 days of history and unlimited pageviews under fair use; badge required.
simple (100k monthly data points)$20/workspace$16.67/workspace100,000 monthly pageviews/data points and 1 included user; website count is not numerically capped on the plan card.Annual plan gives 2 months free; higher traffic changes the price.
enterprise——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.

billingmonthly + annual (2 months free); self-serve bill automatically follows measured traffic

hidden 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%.

pricing sources checked 2026-08-11 · pricing source ↗

Questions about Simple Analytics

Can you build your own Simple Analytics with AI?

The verdict is yes for the scoped workflow. Pageview analytics, events, dashboards, and exports are very buildable; paid value is hosted privacy posture, reports, reliability, and support.

What does the Simple Analytics build prompt cover?

The prompt starts with this scope: Collect minimal pageviews and named events from one owned site, aggregate common dimensions and provide a private dashboard plus CSV export. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: managed hosting; privacy/legal positioning; bot filtering. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.

How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?

Start with the Simple Analytics prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.

How long will this Simple Analytics project take?

The catalogue estimate is weekend for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.

What would I give up by replacing Simple Analytics?

managed hosting; privacy/legal positioning; bot filtering; reports; uptime; support. They pay for low-maintenance analytics they can put in a privacy policy with confidence.

What price is this guide comparing against?

The recorded Starter plan is $20/mo (monthly), checked 2026-08-07. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.

What can I use instead of building Simple Analytics?

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. Compare all listed options at https://howtovibecodeit.dev/simple-analytics/alternatives. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.

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