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Comment by phlsa | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if Google realized that Analytics has become unfathomably complex for non-power users and wants a clean break now.

I run a side business[1] that is lucky to not be dependent on search ads. We started using GA 10-ish years ago because it was free and took almost no effort to set up. But over the years it just got more and more complicated to use, to the point where it got hard to act on the results.

Last year, I switched to Plausible[2] for data protection reasons. The unexpected side effect was that I suddenly understand every single metric in my analytics tool. As a result, I use it a lot more for actual decision-making.

[1] https://push-conference.com

[2] https://plausible.io

edit: typos

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Plausible is great for my content website. The benefit of not tracking my users or pestering them with a cookie notice outweighs the inconvenience of limited insights.

I miss seeing the user flow from page to page, but that’s it.

On my personal website, I just don’t use any analytics at all. It’s not a metric I want to be exposed to.

Kudos for mentioning Plausible. I also love and use them. They actually inspired me to start a privacy-focused products analytics tool that doesn't track unique users (and is open-source). Shamelessly plugging it here: https://fugu.lol (GitHub: https://github.com/shafy/fugu)

Looks cool, thanks for the tip!

I’m glad that there are more and more such simple, single-purpose tools now. It took me a long time to learn this, but I’m now actively staying away from anything that markets itself as “enterprise-ready”. Too much hidden cost in keeping up with all the shifting trends and mental models.

Thanks :-) Yes exactly. I personally enjoy tools that focus on simplicity and don't chase every trend and feature, so that's what I'm trying to do with Fugu, too.

The new version GA4 is definitely not on the easier side. New words, new mental model, new report flow, etc.

I am not sure if I like it or if I hate it.

It's a better data model with a significantly worse UI. Hard to believe they put it out there as is.

Yep, I think that's the proper summary. I like the all-in move to "events", but the UI, especially for content-heavy websites, is incredibly more difficult to navigate and extract insights from.

+1 for Plausible. I use selfhosted version.

I agree that less features is upside for better understanding of all collected data. Simple dashboard is all I need and I guess it is same for most of websites.

In a serious question, what decision can you make from Plausible?

As far as I can see, there's no event support, you can't filter user journeys who went to a specific page or see heatmaps.

I thought those counters were just for fun.

Plausible seems interesting, except this weirdness: "Made and hosted in the EU" (incorporated in Estonia), but pricing is in GBP. Immediately sets off an alarm IMHO.

Hm, maybe it has something to do with your location? I'm in Germany and the pricing is in Euros for me.

Yup. Tried again from another connection and it was in €. Before posting the previous comment, I verified that there was no currency selector on the pricing page, so there are two separate issues, but not the one I initially pointed.

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