I build open-source applications, most of them self-hosted.
Like many developers, I need metrics. Not marketing metrics. Just basic signals:
- Is the application actually used?
- How many instances are alive?
- Which features are used at all?
- And for a long time, the default answer was obvious: Google Analytics.
But at some point, I decided to stop shipping it entirely.
Google Analytics is a poor fit for open-source and self-hosted apps
Google Analytics is not a bad tool. It’s just built for a completely different purpose.
It assumes:
- a centralized SaaS product,
- tracked end-users,
- marketing funnels,
- cookies, consent banners, and external dependencies.
None of that aligns well with self-hosted open-source software.
Embedding GA in an open-source app means:
- sending usage data outside the user’s infrastructure,
- introducing legal and privacy concerns you don’t control,
- tracking individuals when you only want aggregate usage.
At that point, the cost (technical, ethical, cognitive) is higher than the value.
Existing alternatives didn’t really solve my problem
I looked at many “privacy-friendly” or “self-hosted” analytics tools, like Countly, PostHog, ...
Most of them still assume:
- websites, not distributed instances,
- user tracking (even anonymized),
- dashboards designed for marketing teams,
- heavy setups for very simple questions.
What I needed was much simpler.
What I actually need as a developer / CTO
For open-source and self-hosted software, my questions are boring but essential:
- Is this instance still running?
- Is anyone using this feature?
- Is adoption growing or stagnating?
- Did this release break usage patterns?
I don’t need:
- page views,
- funnels,
- session replay,
- user identity.
I just need signals, not surveillance.
A pragmatic response: build something smaller
So I built a small open-source service called SHM (Self-Hosted Metrics).
It’s intentionally minimal:
- it accepts simple JSON events,
- it doesn’t track users,
- it’s agnostic to the application,
- it works well with self-hosted deployments.
The goal is not analytics.
The goal is observability of usage, without violating the principles of open-source or self-hosting.
Repository:
👉 https://github.com/btouchard/shm
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What this says about the open-source ecosystem
A lot of real needs sit between:
- “no metrics at all”
- and “full SaaS analytics stacks”
Big tools don’t care about these needs.
They’re not scalable, not monetizable, and not flashy.
But for maintainers, indie developers, and small teams, they matter.
Not everything needs to be measured like a growth funnel.
Sometimes, knowing that your software is simply used is enough.
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