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How we bootstrapped our open source Google Analytics alternative to $500k ARR
by
Alessandro
https://plausible.io/blog/bootstrapping-saas
congratulations for your $500k ARR Man, It's a good feeling to compete with the big fish and reaching a good target :)
I understand why users could want this on their own servers for free (data privacy etc), but I completely do not understand why someone choosing your solution instead of using GA or something similar...
Because when you use GA, you basically allow Google to suck all your data and feed it into their advertisement platform with no way to opt out.
In essence your user data does not belong to you when you use GA.
Also GA is about to become illegal in the EU https://chromeunboxed.com/google-analytics-banned-italy-europe
So to summarize, stop giving your data for free to Google, support a business that is ethical and let your users enjoy some privacy.
Hmm, you saying that providing users data to one small company is more ethical than giving it to google. Ok, this is your opinion, but keep in mind, this data stored in DB, that could be stolen, or, this company could be sold, or a lot of different cases when data will be passed to 3rd party company/user that couldnt' happen with google (I'm sure the data in Google in 100x more protected than in small company)...
just be honest with yourself when selecting who will have access to your data ;)
hmm,
For starters, you completely missed my point that says that GA is free because Google takes your data and feeds it into its ad platform and secondly you also completely missed the part where I said that GA is about to become illegal in certain countries in Europe due to the fact that it does not comply with the law.
Finally this sentence basically tells me that, no offense but you don't know what you are talking about: "be passed to 3rd party company/user that couldnt' happen with google"
What I just quoted is basically the entire business model of Facebook and Google. Facebook provides the Facebook platform for free then builds a profile of who you are and sells access to your data to an unlimited number of companies who want to target you as a consumer.
Google does the same with GA. Google gives you GA for free but in exchange for that free service, Google keeps your data and then sells access to your user's data via their advert platform. Its not that hard to understand.
If the product is free, then you are the product. It's that simple.
Instead of dancing around the subject, lets call a spade a spade, should we? If you use GA on your website, you are willingly giving the data of your users to Google and you do not care about your user's privacy.
And if I was one of your potential customers, then I would not buy anything from you.
"just be honest with yourself when selecting who will have access to your data ;)"
I have no idea what that sentence means.
I don't protect google, I know why and how it works :) don't explain this to me ))
Also, I don't want to prove something to you, as I told you before - this is your opinion. I just want you to got my point:
If you are paying for something and this doesn't call Google - this doesn't mean your data is protected. Small companies have different problems with data, for example, security. Do you see any security certificates on their site? I also don't see them. How do you know that version in the cloud is equal to the version in open-source? Please re-read my first message.
Mate, I responded to you but you haven't responded to me.
So what is this conversation for?
I already addressed your points.
Yes Plausible is a more ethical company than Google because Plausible makes its money by charging customers money for their product.
It does not rely on selling user's data and then funneling that money in an ad platform that is completely blackboxed.
If Plausible tomorrow starts selling their user's data , then their business will implode because they would have broken the trust of their users and people like me will stop paying them.
On the contrary Google is more than happy to stop people from using ad blockers and will suck all of your data when you use GA for your websites because it does not care about privacy.
As for your concerns about security, do you think that Google is immune to being hacked? Why don't you do a search on "google data breaches" and see what kind of results you get?
Don't have time? Let me do it for you!
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2022/04/16/google-chrome-hack-attacks-zero-day-exploit-new-chrome-release/
or this one
https://firewalltimes.com/google-data-breach-timeline/
You are ultimately arguing in bad faith so I ll stop responding to you.
Ok, I have tried to explain the problem to you, just to summarize:
amazing, thank you for the motivation.
Being resourceless might be a good advantage really. Thanks for the post.
Man, this blog post led me to the license bit.
I'm launching Emailgurus.xyz as open source and your article got me to add the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 to my github!
Thanks a bunch! <3
This is a big motivation for me, really. I'm working on my startup, started putting things in place and sometimes I worry about funding but I honestly don't think I have it in me to go after VCs. Now I know it's not compulsory as long as I'm willing to put in the work I can still bring my dream to life. Thank you.
I actually just signed up for plausible the other day. Very happy with it. Thanks for making a solid GDPR alternative!
What's nice congratulations for your $500k ARR.
Alessandro, that tips can you give me to find my first few customers. I'm in an industry that I don't have any contact.
How was it possible to position yourself in a world with a) VERY strong competitor (GA) and b) SO MANY smaller players in the market too. I mean, being anti GA was your main selling point, but what differentiated you from many many others smaller analytics platforms that try to do exactly same?
Chek out their blog. They have an EXCELLENT and extremely consistent content marketing and distribution strategy.
This is the best bootstrapping story I've ever read. It goes to show when you have a passion for something and a good product you can be successful. Well done, guys on showing that bootstrapping a company can totally work.
Wow, congrats! Looks like you've done a phenomenal job. Especially going up against Google Analytics. Most people would say don't try and compete with the big fish but you've proven it can be done.
Congratulations on the success! I love the sound of plausable.io, cant wait to give it a go
The project is open source. How if someone fork it and make his own SaaS?