Koko Analytics

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SHOW HN2019

187points
62comments
#214of 2,195 in 2019
Top 10%of 2019 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

10 positive, 14 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score +0.16.

Idea: 4 for, 0 againstDesign: 3 for, 0 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 3 againstDocs: 0 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Open source, self-hosted and privacy-friendly

    From 2 comments
    • I have zero interest in running Wordpress but I just wanted to say congrats for releasing something that ticks a lot of “objectively good” boxes otherwise: open source, self…
      stephenr on HN
    • This is a great alternative to Google Analytics. It's free and it works as soon as you activate the plugin. Most bloggers set up Google Analytics without thinking too much but…
      markosaric on HN
  • Clean, simple interface

    From 3 comments
    • Webalizer was clumsy and cluttered. I used it like 20 years ago. Koko is way cleaner.
      onreact on HN
    • Looks really nice and neat, excited to try it!
      zapt02 on HN
    • Looks lovely - I'll be testing this out on a few clients websites for simpler stats experience viewing for them. I do have Google Analytics running on them but GA can be…
      mcescalante on HN
  • Easy to use, works right after activation

    From 2 comments
    • This is a great alternative to Google Analytics. It's free and it works as soon as you activate the plugin. Most bloggers set up Google Analytics without thinking too much but…
      markosaric on HN
    • I tried Koko on two of my blogs. I really like it. You just need a current PHP version.
      onreact on HN

Objections

  • Cookie-less returning visitor detection via referrer is less reliable and misnamed

    From 3 comments
    • > Option to not use any cookies while still being able to determine returning visitors and unique pageviews. This strikes me as a potentially non privacy-friendly feature. How is…
      smonsays on HN
    • I don't think it's at all clear from the term that returning visitors wouldn't include someone who visited your page from a search page, went back, made a new search, and clicked…
      iudqnolq on HN
    • I agree. A returning visitor is someone who visited your site before and now they're back again. The "return" in returning visitor is the fact that they left and came back. What…
      JangoSteve on HN
  • Still uses JavaScript, not fully server-side

    From 2 comments
    • It still uses JavaScript. I'd rather see something completely server-side that sets Etag evercookies.
      Mathnerd314 on HN
    • GoAccess is a modern log based analyser. I’ve just deployed it analysing logs coming out of varnish cache (on two servers, using syslog to keep log data the same across machines)…
      stephenr on HN
  • Not trusted by buyers who expect Google Analytics

    From 2 comments
    • The only downside I see is for people who plan on selling their website at a later time. The industry standard is GA and people want access to this before buying a website, many…
      x__x on HN
    • Maybe trust wasn't the best word. Most marketplaces where you can sell a website has an option to link your GA account directly to the sales page, showing the site stats directly…
      x__x on HN

Requests

  • Filter out bots and crawlers

    From 2 comments
    • Installed this on a few sites I run, its really seems like exactly what I want for simple "is anyone viewing this page" type of info. I had previously left GA and analytics all…
      ac29 on HN
    • The plugin issues a tracking request using a tiny client-side JS script, so most of those bots will already be omitted (as lots will most likely not be executing JavaScript or…
      dvko on HN
  • Add browser, screen size, time on page, bounce rate and pathing metrics

    From 1 comment
    • This is really great. I'm trying it now on my local dev environment. I'm looking for a GDPR-friendly analytics solution for a media property I am building so I am very excited in…
      donohoe on HN
  • WooCommerce support

    From 1 comment
    • Well since I saw in hn all the fuck-fest with fathom v2 and the founders talking down to legitimate users asking about the open source version, I'm glad you released it, will try…
      agustif on HN
  • Static site version

    From 1 comment
    • Looks really nice. I wish there was kind of the same thing for static website. A super simple, minimalist, privacy-friendly statistics tool.
      fbnlsr on HN

Questions

  • Does it work behind Cloudflare

    From 2 comments
    • Reminds me of the programs that would make summary pages from your web logs. (Webalizer) http://www.webalizer.org/ But how does it work if you are behind a cdn like cloudflare is…
      acomjean on HN
    • You can make it work with cloudflare, just a bit configuration needed so CF is sending you the real visitor IPs, otherwise every hit looks like it's done by distributed CF…
      9HZZRfNlpR on HN
  • How returning visitors are determined without fingerprinting

    From 1 comment
    • > Option to not use any cookies while still being able to determine returning visitors and unique pageviews. This strikes me as a potentially non privacy-friendly feature. How is…
      smonsays on HN
  • How to use it with the WordPress REST API front end

    From 1 comment
    • When a wordpress site is required, I use the REST API to build the front end so that its not bloated to hell the WP's own theming system, is this plugin available to those using…
      TamDenholm on HN

Alternatives named

  • Matomo

    From 2 comments
    • Speaking of self hosted analytics, I used to use Piwik and it was great. It's called Matomo now https://matomo.org/
      jotm on HN
    • I am a great fan (as much as one can be a fan of an analytics tool) and advocate for matomo. They even have server log analytics with no client-side tracking whatsoever. We're…
      Lerain on HN
  • GoAccess

    From 1 comment
    • GoAccess is a modern log based analyser. I’ve just deployed it analysing logs coming out of varnish cache (on two servers, using syslog to keep log data the same across machines)…
      stephenr on HN
  • AWStats

    From 1 comment
    • AWStats still gets frequent updates. I use it for all of my sites' nginx logs since I prefer that over anything that requires JavaScript. https://www.awstats.org/
      Lammy on HN
  • Webalizer

    From 1 comment
    • Reminds me of the programs that would make summary pages from your web logs. (Webalizer) http://www.webalizer.org/ But how does it work if you are behind a cdn like cloudflare is…
      acomjean on HN
  • Google Analytics

    From 2 comments
    • This is a great alternative to Google Analytics. It's free and it works as soon as you activate the plugin. Most bloggers set up Google Analytics without thinking too much but…
      markosaric on HN
    • The only downside I see is for people who plan on selling their website at a later time. The industry standard is GA and people want access to this before buying a website, many…
      x__x on HN
  • Fathom Analytics

    From 1 comment
    • Hey, developer here. Thank you, would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for it. PS. Since this is brought up all the time: in case anyone wonders why this feels similar…
      dvko on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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