
Show HN: I spent 8 months building a self-hosted web analytics app - magnus_b
https://321analytics.com
======
magnus_b
Hi everyone,

I spent the last 8 months working on a web analytics app that is completely
self-hosted. First it was just as a small side project - but then I more and
more liked the idea and added feature after feature.

I wanted to have a web analytics tool that I could easily set up on a new
project, that is easy to use, provides an appealing user-experience and
combines all the features of "classic" analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics)
with functionalities like Heatmaps (so I only have to use one tool).
Furthermore, I wanted to have full control over all my data.

I was so pleased with how everything came out that I decided to give it a try
and make it a product (321 Analytics).

So the first version of 321 Analytics is finally ready and I wanted to share
it with you.

I would be very happy to hear your thoughts and appreciate any feedback or
suggestions for improvement.

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conradk
When I see something like this, I immediately think: what's the difference
with Piwik / Matomo ? [https://matomo.org/](https://matomo.org/)

~~~
magnus_b
Thank you for commenting. One of the main differences is that I think 321
Analytics provides more functionalities "out-of-the-box". You don't have to
install plugins, buy add-ons or something like that. E.g. just the heatmap
feature costs 199$/year for matomo. With 321 Analytics you get the whole range
of functionalities (as well as future updates) as one package without hidden
costs or the need to extend the app with add-ons or plugins. Furthermore I
like to think that 321 Analytics is also a bit nicer in terms of UI. Another
advantage of 321 Analytics is the way the data is structured and how you can
therefore filter that data. You can pretty much create infinite numbers of
filter combinations to get the exact insights that you want.

321 Analytics is not free. But I think a price of 50$ for the current product
is not too expensive. The annual renewal is just for further updates/support
after the first year - it's impossible to sustain development otherwise. But
you do not have to renew the license - you can terminate the renewal at any
time.

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fiatjaf
Since we must buy this program, maybe there could be larger screenshots and
more detail about the features. Perhaps even a demo instance everyone could
access
([https://321analytics.com/analytics](https://321analytics.com/analytics)
doesn't show any data).

Also, I'm intrigued about the way the program must be deployed. "Upload the
app files on my hosting" doesn't mean much, except if I'm a PHP user who has
one of those all-PHP hosting accounts. What about the database?

~~~
mtmail
I saw empty demo pages as well. Turns out it tries to load a local
/analytics.js file which my adblocker prevented.

~~~
fiatjaf
Yes, exactly that. Thanks!

~~~
magnus_b
Awesome! Does the demo work properly?

~~~
fiatjaf
Yes, it does, and it is beautful. I however found it a little too slow.

~~~
magnus_b
Awesome - thank you for this great feedback! It might be a little bit slow at
the moment because I have been working on the whole site constantly today.
Also the app does pull all the data in real-time so you always get the latest
accurate metrics - which can take slightly longer compared to cached or
estimated analytics data.

------
ibdf
Feedback:

Browser history is a must or at least some url paths to link to. Otherwise I
have to keep going back to the metric menu for every action.

Each pages displays a whole lot of information. It's broken down nicely, but
sometimes less information is more. Being able to focus on one type of
graph/data rather then several blocks is easier.

The "plus" icon on some graphs expends and collapses (UI issue)

The UI colors seem really light. Might want to check for color contrast
because I think this would fail accessibility.

~~~
magnus_b
Thank you for this awesome feedback! I will try to implement your suggestions
as good as possible!

Do you think the orange/yellow UI itself is too light, is it the gray/white
background combination or just some of the font colors that might have not
enough contrast? Thanks for your help.

------
stevesearer
Looks interesting. I’ve been thinking about self hosting analytics so this is
timely.

I didn’t see any sort of feature comparisons available vs something like
Matomo/piwik or hosted Google analytics.

One thing that has kept me from self hosting and just using Google analytics
is that I feel like Google probably does a good job at filtering out bots and
spam where I’d be more unsure with a less mature option. Would be interested
to hear more if you have a moment, though perhaps I could run both for a month
and just compare the data.

~~~
magnus_b
Thank you very much for your feedback. I will definitely add a comparison
table soon - that's a very good idea! As I will be constantly improving the
app (by the way: the app updates itself automatically when I release new
updates) I will also try to improve filters more and more. Also, if users have
any wishes or suggestions for improvement, I do my best to implement them as
well. I'm going to run a few comparisons in the near future as this is a good
point. Also, if you give 321 Analytics a chance, I would of course also be
super happy to hear your thoughts and experiences.

------
executive
Took 19.32s to load this page with 12 buttons:
[https://321analytics.com/analytics/en](https://321analytics.com/analytics/en)

~~~
magnus_b
Thank you for the feedback. I am very sorry for the inconvenience. Due to the
boost in traffic from a few sites yesterday the hosting is struggling to keep
up with the traffic. I have already been calling my host twice and work hard
myself to keep things up and running. I am very sorry for this inconvenience.

------
newsat13
503 Service Unavailable No server is available to handle this request.

~~~
magnus_b
I am extremely sorry for that. I launched the app on a few sites today and
traffic seems to be a little bit too much for the server at the moment. I have
already called my server company and do my best to get it up and running again
as quickly as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.

