At a Glance:
Betterlytics is an open-source, cookieless web analytics platform built on Rust and ClickHouse for real-time insights, with support for self-hosting, session replay, user journeys, and GDPR/CCPA compliance out of the box.
Overview:
Betterlytics is a privacy-focused web analytics tool designed to provide developers and site owners with real-time traffic and performance data without relying on cookies. It is built on Rust and ClickHouse, delivering analytics through a modern dashboard while keeping the tracking script lightweight at under 2KB. The platform covers core metrics like page views, bounce rates, and traffic sources, alongside advanced capabilities such as session replay, funnel analysis, and Core Web Vitals monitoring. It is designed to operate without sharing data with third parties and comes ready for GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliance, with an EU hosting option available.
Key Decision Points:
Data collection model: Uses cookieless tracking, which means it can operate without cookie consent banners but may impact the granularity of user-level identification compared to cookie-based tools.
Deployment flexibility: Offers a self-hosting option for those who want full control over their analytics infrastructure, alongside a standard script-tag integration.
Technical footprint: The core tracking payload is under 2KB, and framework-specific SDKs for React and Next.js are documented, which matters for teams watching their JavaScript bundle size.
Observability scope: Includes uptime monitoring and SSL certificate checks, making it more than a pure traffic analytics tool for operators who want consolidated monitoring.
Access control model: Role-based access and OAuth integration suggest it is structured for use by multi-user teams rather than solo projects.
Core Features:
Cookieless analytics: Tracks page views, visitors, bounce rates, traffic sources, geographic insights, and device information without setting cookies.
Session replay and user journeys: Captures session recordings and lets users build funnel analyses and user journey maps.
Custom events: Supports tracking of custom events beyond default page-level metrics.
Core Web Vitals monitoring: Measures LCP, INP, CLS, and TTFB performance metrics for tracked pages.
Framework SDKs: Offers dedicated SDK packages for React and Next.js applications.
Role-based access and OAuth: Access controls with two-factor authentication and sign-in options via Google or GitHub OAuth.
Use Cases:
Developers or site owners who need lightweight analytics and want to avoid cookie consent implementations while staying compliant with GDPR and CCPA.
Operators who want to combine uptime and SSL certificate monitoring with traffic analytics in a single dashboard.
Self-hosting users who prefer to keep web analytics data on their own infrastructure rather than using third-party SaaS analytics services.
Open-Source Alternative Value:
Betterlytics is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, with a documented self-hosting option, which means users can run their own instance without relying on an external analytics SaaS vendor. The cookieless architecture and EU hosting support are built directly into the project, reducing the operational work needed to meet GDPR and CCPA requirements compared to configuring a generic analytics tool for privacy compliance. Its inclusion of session replay and Core Web Vitals monitoring in an open-source package also places it in a narrower category of analytics tools that combine privacy-focused tracking with detailed observability features.
