David🚀

Posted on Aug 9 • Edited on Aug 11

How I Built a Click Tracking System Without Cookies or Complex Setup

#sideprojects #startup #analytics #privacy

For months, I thought I knew where my users were coming from.

I’d post in a subreddit, reply to a thread on X, drop a link in a community… then check my analytics.

Google Analytics would tell me:

Direct
Social

Which basically means 🤷🏽 not helpful at all.

The result? I kept doubling down on channels that weren’t actually working, while ignoring the ones that were quietly bringing signups.

In early-stage SaaS, a few weeks of guessing can be the difference between growing and giving up.

Why I Didn’t Use Google Analytics

For me, it came down to three big problems:

Setup overhead – too much bloat for a small side project.
Privacy concerns – cookies, consent banners, tracking scripts I didn’t feel great about adding.
Vague reporting – "Direct" or Social isn't actionable when you need to know exactly which post or link brought someone in.

I wanted something that was:

Dead simple to set up.
Cookie-less and privacy-friendly.
Laser-focused on the one question: “Where did this click come from?”

The Core Idea

What if I created a unique link for every place I posted?
That way, I could:

Redirect users to my site.
Log exactly where they came from.
Group those links into campaigns for quick comparison.

The Build

I kept the architecture simple:

Stack

Supabase PostgreSQL for storing links and click logs
Next.js

Database schema (simplified)

-- Links table
id | original_url | campaign_name | tag | click_count

-- Visits table
id | link_id | timestamp | referrer

The redirect endpoint

// pages/api/track/[id].js
import { supabase } from '../../lib/supabase'

export default async function handler(req, res) {
  const { id } = req.query
  await supabase.from('clicks').insert({ link_id: id, referrer: req.headers.referer })
  const { data } = await supabase.from('links').select('url').eq('id', id).single()
  res.redirect(data.url)
}

No cookies. No personal data. Just a timestamp and referrer.

Privacy-First by Design

Here’s what I decided NOT to do:

❌ No cookies or localStorage.
❌ No IP address logging.
❌ No fingerprinting or hidden tracking.

Instead, I store only:

The link ID.
The time it was clicked.
The referrer (if available). That’s it.

The Result

Within the first week of using this system, I found out:

70% of my signups came from showcase on X.
A channel I thought was working? 0 users. Now, I double down on what’s actually driving results, no guesswork.

From Side Project to Tool

I ended up turning this into a simple SaaS called Reddimon so other founders can:

Track exactly which post, comment, or link brings them users.
Do it without cookies or heavy setup.
Focus only on marketing that works.

If you’re tired of “Direct / Unknown” in your analytics, you might like it.

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