core
A variant of Web Analytics (Privacy-First).
View the interactive variant page →
Web Analytics (Privacy-First)
A GDPR-compliant, cookie-free web analytics platform you run yourself. No consent banner, no third-party requests, and no figure on any screen that does not say what it cannot tell you.
Quickstart
cp .env.dev.example .env.dev # fill in your OIDC provider and first admin
wbsp deploy --destination dev
Then register a site in the dashboard and paste one line into your <head>:
<script defer src="https://your-deployment/js/script.js"
data-site="your-site-uuid"></script>
857 bytes gzipped. First visits appear within ten seconds.
Documentation
| Getting started | Install it, measure a site, read the figures |
| API reference | Collection, the first-party proxy, the server-side transport, reporting |
| OpenAPI | The machine-readable description, verified against the router on every release |
| Useful commands | Running, migrating, seeding, and the things you want at 2am |
| Testing | Every gate, what it asserts, and how to run it |
| Constitution compliance | The six principles, checked against the running system |
What makes it different
- No cookie, no client storage, no fingerprinting. The tracker's bundle is grepped for every such API on each release. The visitor's address becomes a daily-salted hash and is discarded inside the same request.
- The salt is destroyed nightly. Yesterday's visitor hashes cannot be reproduced by anyone, including the operator. That is why every multi-day visitor figure is labelled an estimate — and why there is no code path that could ever undo it.
- Every screen states its own limits, in the page flow, under a heading. Not a tooltip, not a footnote.
- Figures are exact. Every reported number is checked against a precomputed expectation derived independently of the query under test. Analytics that are silently wrong are worse than analytics that are absent.
- Narratives are generated inside your deployment. Plain-English findings from your own daily totals, with no outbound request of any kind — verified by counting sockets, not by reading the source.
- You own the data. Stream it out as CSV or NDJSON, re-import it into a fresh deployment and get the same figures back exactly, or destroy a site permanently — with the audit entry that records you did it surviving the purge.
Licence
MIT. See LICENSE.
Background
Candidate #32 — A GDPR-compliant, cookie-free web analytics platform focused on data sovereignty, simplicity, and regulatory compliance in an era of privacy-first expectations.
Market Opportunity
The privacy-first analytics segment is the fastest-growing part of a $8–10 billion global web analytics market, expanding at 17–18% CAGR through 2033. The catalyst: GDPR enforcement intensifying, Google Analytics ruled non-compliant by EU data protection authorities, and rising user cookie rejection rates (40–60% in some EU markets).
Market drivers:
- German, Austrian, French, and Italian data protection authorities ruled GA4 non-compliant with GDPR
- Google Privacy Sandbox (Topics API, Attribution Reporting) was officially retired in October 2025
- 78% of enterprises use at least one analytics tool; 60%+ are seeking alternatives to GA4
- SaaS companies lose 40–60% of conversion signal from rising cookie rejection rates
What This Platform Solves
A lightweight, GDPR-compliant, privacy-by-default analytics platform that requires no cookie consent banners and runs on first-party data only. It delivers web analytics metrics without collecting personally identifiable information.
Core value proposition:
- No cookies required: Anonymous aggregate-only tracking; IP addresses hashed and immediately discarded
- No consent banners: GDPR-compliant by default in most EU jurisdictions (notably in France under CNIL guidance)
- EU-hosted: All data processed and stored within the EU; zero data transfers to the US
- Lightweight script: Under 2KB (54x smaller than GA4); no measurable Core Web Vitals impact
- Simple UI: Single-page dashboard reporting pageviews, unique visitors, bounce rate, sources, and custom events
- Cost-effective: Cloud pricing from €9/month; self-hostable for free
Competitive Differentiation
| Aspect | This Platform | Plausible | Fathom | Umami | Matomo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Script Size | <2KB | <1KB | <1KB | <2KB | ~15KB |
| Cookie-Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Optional |
| Self-Hostable | Yes (MIT) | Yes (AGPL) | No | Yes (MIT) | Yes (GPL) |
| EU Hosted | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cloud Price | €9/mo | €9/mo | $15/mo | Freemium | €29/mo |
| Funnel Analysis | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes (v3+) | Yes |
Key Features
Must-Have (MVP)
- Cookieless tracking using daily-rotating hash
- GDPR-compliant by default; no data transfers to US
- Core metrics: pageviews, unique visitors, bounce rate, session duration, referrers
- Custom event tracking with lightweight JavaScript snippet
- Single-page dashboard for non-technical users
- Self-hosting option under permissive licence
Should-Have (v1.1)
- Server-side tracking path to bypass ad blockers
- Funnel analysis for multi-step conversion tracking
- Cohort and retention analysis
- AI-powered natural language summaries (weekly digest with recommendations)
- Multi-site consolidated dashboard for agencies
- REST API for programmatic data access
Nice-to-Have (Backlog)
- Session replay with client-side PII masking
- Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) performance tracking
- AI anomaly detection on aggregated cohort data
- Probabilistic cookieless multi-touch attribution
- Intelligent data minimisation using on-device inference
Technology Stack
Backend: Elixir/Phoenix (permissive licence) or Go
Frontend: Svelte/React
Database: ClickHouse (GDPR-friendly, EU-hosted option)
Storage: EU-only S3-compatible storage
Licensing: MIT or Apache 2.0 (fully permissive)
Market Entry Strategy
- MVP Launch (months 1–4): Lightweight, cookie-free analytics with simple dashboard
- EU Expansion (months 5–8): Marketing focus on GDPR-compliant positioning, CNIL compliance documentation
- Feature Expansion (months 9–12): Server-side tracking, funnels, cohorts, AI summaries
- Monetization: Cloud tier (€9–49/month by volume), self-hosted enterprise support ($500–$5K/month)
Why This Matters
- Regulatory tailwind: GDPR enforcement and GA4 rulings create immediate compliance demand
- Privacy sentiment shift: 60%+ of users reject cookies; analytics platforms enabling first-party measurement are positioning themselves for the cookieless future
- SaaS pain point: Analytics teams are losing conversion signal from cookie rejection; privacy-first alternatives eliminate this friction
- Open-source opportunity: Plausible and Umami are successful but remain proprietary at scale; open-source alternative could capture developer-first segment
- AI opportunity: Natural language anomaly explanation and probabilistic attribution are underserved for privacy-preserving tools
Success Metrics
- Year 1: 10,000 active websites, €500K ARR from cloud + self-hosted support contracts
- Year 2: 50,000 active websites, €2M ARR; featured in G2 Category Leaders
- Year 3: 200,000 active websites, €10M ARR; de facto standard for EU SaaS analytics