Can AI replace Simple Analytics?

YES · one-shottable
price $20/moyou'd save $240/yrbuild time weekendcategory 📊 analyticsreplaced by 0 peoplebuild unverified

Pageview analytics, events, dashboards, and exports are very buildable; paid value is hosted privacy posture, reports, reliability, and support.

the prompt
Build me privacy-first web analytics to replace Simple Analytics, self-hosted for my own
sites. Requirements:

- A Node + Express service with better-sqlite3: one /collect endpoint and a dashboard at
  /dash behind basic auth (password in .env).
- A tracker snippet under 1 KB of plain JS, no cookies: sends path, referrer, screen
  width, and a daily-salted hash of IP + user agent for unique counting; the salt
  rotates daily so nothing is traceable across days.
- Keep raw hits 30 days; a nightly node-cron job aggregates into daily rollups per site
  (pageviews, uniques, top pages, top referrers, device split), keeps rollups forever,
  deletes expired raw hits.
- Custom events via sa('signup') in the snippet, counted per day.
- Dashboard per site: a 30-day chart (hand-rolled SVG, no chart library), pages and
  referrers tables, a date-range picker.
- Filter obvious bots by user-agent list; ignore my own visits via a localStorage opt-
  out flag.
- CSV export per site and month from the dashboard.
- No cookies and no personal data stored, GDPR-sane by construction.
- Out of scope: funnels, session replay, and multi-user access. Uptime is on me; the
  collect endpoint sits behind my existing reverse proxy.
- README: the snippet to paste and the Caddy or nginx route.

$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter) or copy it raw · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

why people still pay

They pay for low-maintenance analytics they can put in a privacy policy with confidence.

what you lose

xmanaged hosting

xprivacy/legal positioning

xbot filtering

xreports

xuptime

xsupport

prior art · use these instead of building, if you'd ratherUmamiOpen-source web analytics platform for privacy-friendly tracking.
share on X ↗"I just replaced Simple Analytics ($20/mo) with one prompt"
questions
Can AI replace Simple Analytics?

Yes. A competent AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) can build a usable personal Simple Analytics replacement in one session with the prompt on this page. It runs on your own machine or server with no subscription.

How much does Simple Analytics cost?

Simple Analytics costs about $20/month (Starter, checked 2026-07-30), which is $240 per year. That's what you save by replacing it with one prompt.

What do I lose by replacing Simple Analytics?

Honestly: managed hosting; privacy/legal positioning; bot filtering; reports; uptime; support. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Simple Analytics?

Yes — Umami (Open-source web analytics platform for privacy-friendly tracking.). Using prior art is also a valid exit; the prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.