
We Rebuilt Fathom Analytics from the ground up and moved to Laravel Vapor - JackWritesCode
https://usefathom.com/news/moved-to-vapor
======
rkwz
I built a similar privacy focussed analytics inspired by Fathom:

[https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics](https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics)

Privacy

* Cookies are not used

* Personally identifiable information (PII) is not collected

Dashboard

* Switch between multiple projects

* Slice the data within a date range

* See the pageview in different dimensions like page urls, referrers, browsers etc

Tracking

* Currently focuses on website pageview tracking

* Tracks visited page urls, referrers, browsers and browser versions

Projects

* Supports multiple projects

* Different projects can have different reporting timezones

Users

* Users can either be Admin or normal users

* Admins can create/edit/delete projects and other users

Written using TypeScript, React, Postgres (PipelineDB), Express.

Here are some screenshots:
[https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics/blob/master/docs/sc...](https://github.com/sheshbabu/freshlytics/blob/master/docs/screenshots.md)
:)

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dna_polymerase
Ouch, this move and the plan to abandon the OSS part (discussed in the
comments here) makes me uncomfortable about using Fathom.

The option to run my own instance if wanted was the main point for paying for
their service. Because I don't want to maintain an instance of Fathom myself
now, but maybe later. Now potentially giving up the OSS version makes me
reconsider alternatives to Fathom.

All these changes lately make me feel bad about their future and their grand
promises on my users' privacy.

~~~
jamil7
I also really liked the open source version for side projects, maybe a
community fork could exist to fill the gap?

~~~
tedivm
The biggest problem with the open source version is that it's written in Go
and there aren't that many people with both the skills and the time to
maintain it, let alone expand it. It might be easier for a group of people to
get together and build out a privacy centric open source project from scratch
(something I'd be interested in).

~~~
JackWritesCode
Fantastic idea! Don't wait for someone to start it, start it yourself!

We're still going to be updating the OS version of Fathom but I 100% support
anybody creating another privacy-focused analytics platform. Additional
alternatives to Google Analytics are great!

Good luck :)

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dylz
Has the open source version that's actually usable on prem for privacy-
conscious sites been completely shitcanned at this point? I haven't seen or
heard any updates at all about it and every link to it has been removed from
the site.

~~~
JackWritesCode
Hey there,

Thanks for the love! The OS version has not been shitcanned. We spoke about
our plans on our podcast 10 days ago:
[https://fathom.transistor.fm/episodes/the-open-source-
dilemm...](https://fathom.transistor.fm/episodes/the-open-source-dilemma)

Running 2 software products & working a full time job is hard but we'll get
some updates to the OS version. We're likely going to hire a contractor to
help us!

~~~
dylz
At this point it's completely diverged from the SaaS version, and is not
similar in any way, correct?

Are you porting the SaaS version? Would you be willing to do some kind of paid
"license" to run the SaaS version locally?

~~~
tedivm
I asked the same questions on Twitter. One of the cofounders had a meltdown
over the questions, and the other founder actually hopped on a phone call with
me to discuss their plans.

As far as I can tell the open source version (which hasn't had any updates
other than readme changes since earlier this year) is basically on life
support. They have no plans to make the new hosted version open source, and
only vague plans on hire a contractor in the future to keep the open source
version alive. According to the cofounder I spoke with they went back and
force about this half a dozen times, which is why their messaging has been so
mixed- they had originally said in previous HN and twitter threads that they
would open source the new version, but went back on that because they were
worried it would take money from their hosted version.

~~~
JackWritesCode
Pretty much bang on. The only piece I'd point out is that Paul didn't have a
meltdown, he thought you were a troll.

We're looking to make the business sustainable so that we are in this for the
long run. Without money, we couldn't spend the same amount of time on it that
we are.

And we were definitely bad on the messaging and are going to be more careful
in the future as it does cause upset.

~~~
tedivm
I asked about the open source version, and then made a tweet about how you had
changed your mind (which you've admitted to here, and on our phone call). Your
cofounder showed up, accused me of lying, and then blocked me before I could
respond with screenshots of your company previously committing to open
sourcing the new version.

If anyone was a troll in that situation it wasn't me ;-)

~~~
JackWritesCode
You're not a troll, we thought you were. We were very wrong. You were the
complete opposite and wanted to help.

Paul has publicly admitted that he was wrong on the podcast. It is funny in
hindsight. He denied that we said we would OS it then I reminded him that he
made the graphic announcing it!

Big mistakes made on the messaging of this and lessons have been learned.

~~~
tedivm
Glad I could be helpful! If you ever decide to open source the new version
feel free to reach out if you'd like an advisor (or even just someone to
bounce ideas off of). Open Source Sustainability is a huge issue for me, and
I'm always happy to help open source companies.

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mtm7
There’s some negativity in this comment section, so I just wanted to say that
I really like your product.

I’m glad you’re working on making it sustainable before spending more time on
the open source version.

~~~
JackWritesCode
Appreciate the nice comment. And we always expect to be challenged when we
post to Hacker News. It keeps our minds sharp as people ask some good
questions ;)

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gremlinsinc
Curious... what your November costs vs September costs ended up being. Did
vapor actually end up saving $$. It's probably a better user experience I'd
imagine.

~~~
JackWritesCode
We're on track to hit around $450 this month. Includes a ton of migration-
related spikes though. Comparatively, Heroku would've been $700-750.

Also, we have over-provisioned cache & RDS with Vapor, whereas Heroku we were
running on the edge.

