Analytics and monitoring decision
Pirsch
A competent engineer can build a useful, privacy-first analytics replacement using existing open-source components within a few weeks; Pirsch's enterprise features and managed services justify paying for scale and support.
Visit website↗$6/mo
$72/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off80 h to build
$0/mo8 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Pirsch alternatives, with the arithmetic →
Code Pirsch publishes itself
Not a way out of the subscription - these are the vendor’s own repositories. Worth a look for how they build, and for anything you would have to integrate with.
- pirsch-analytics/pirsch★1,027 GitHub starsAGPL-3.0Pirsch is a drop-in, server-side, no-cookie, and privacy-focused analytics solution for Go.↗
- pirsch-analytics/laravel-pirsch★50 GitHub starsMITOfficial Laravel integration for Pirsch Analytics.↗
- pirsch-analytics/pirsch-js-sdk★27 GitHub starsMITJavaScript Client SDK for Pirsch Analytics.↗
What a replacement has to do
- Collect pageviews via a small client script → ingest events via HTTP API → store anonymized events in a database → aggregate queries for dashboards → render a filtered dashboard with basic session views and CSV export
What it still won’t have
- Advanced enterprise features (SAML SSO, managed cloud/on-premise options)
- Extensive white-labeling, custom domains, and advanced theming
- Priority/managed support and onboarding
- Built-in advanced funnels/A/B flows and URL shortener (unless implemented separately)
- High-scale infra and multi-region hosting out of the box
What remains hard
- Compliance and regulation
Privacy-friendly web analytics made and hosted in Germany 🇩🇪, Europe 🇪🇺 — powerful, cookie-free, and fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PECR.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal privacy-first web analytics service using: Node.js (Express) backend, Postgres for event storage, a small vanilla JS tracking script, and a React frontend. In-scope: cookieless client script that hashes/anonymizes identifiers; ingest API with validation and basic rate-limiting; store raw events in Postgres; nightly aggregation jobs for daily/hourly metrics; REST endpoints for filtered queries and CSV export; SPA dashboard showing totals, trends, basic funnels, session drilldowns, and site management (one site). Out of scope: white-labeling, SAML SSO, managed cloud. Include logging, error handling, basic tests for ingest and aggregation, and a Docker Compose setup for local dev and a deployment guide for a single VPS (Postgres + app).
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score64
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productPirsch – The Best, Privacy-Friendly Google Analytics Alternative
- official pricingSimple Pricing – Pirsch Analytics
- official docsAll Features – Pirsch Analytics
- open sourcerybbit-io/rybbit
- open sourcemilesmcc/shynet
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
