Analytics stack: no card, no self-host

decision Thu Jun 25 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) analyticsno-cardops

Analytics stack: no card, no self-host

Two hard constraints: (1) no card on file (matches the no-card rule across the fleet), (2) no self-hosting (we don't run servers for analytics — too much ops for a donations-only project). That eliminates a lot of the field. What remains is the industry-standard hosted free tier set.

Stack — the 6 tools we ship

1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — baseline session + event analytics; the lingua franca everyone reads.
2. Cloudflare Web Analytics — privacy-friendly pageviews, no cookies, free with CF Pages hosting.
3. Microsoft Clarity — session replay + heatmaps, free unlimited tier.
4. PostHog Cloud — product analytics, funnels, feature flags; free tier on hosted cloud.
5. Fathom Lite — free tier of the privacy-first analytics product.
6. GoatCounter — free OSS-hosted plan (we use their hosting, not ours).

Considered and rejected

• Plausible — would require self-hosting to stay free ? rejected (no self-host rule).
• Umami — same self-host blocker ? rejected.
• Mixpanel — needs card on file for any meaningful tier ? rejected.
• Amplitude — card required ? rejected.
• Heap — card required ? rejected.
• Hotjar — card required ? rejected.
• FullStory — card required ? rejected.

Related:

• atomic-packages-lazy — analytics stays inline; no in-house wrapper package (embed vendor snippets directly).
• no-card-on-file-prepaid-escape — the card-rule this enforces