Same question as @timleland on this thread - I'd be interested to hear the reactions from the IHers on here that have built standalone privacy focused analytics sites.
Always a danger when you jump on a niche that shows momentum, that a bigger player will come out with a free addition to their system which mimics your own offering. It has happened to us in the past but we managed to ride it out thankfully.
I think it would be valuable to learn if:
This announcement starts to show an impact on signups or subscriptions
How they are still different from the CF offering
Steps they are taking to demonstrate via marketing that their offering is better
Too early to say but right now I would say that the vast majority of GA users who try Cloudflare expecting to see a valid alternative will run back. It doesn't have a lot of data, they don't really filter out bots, the interface is a unnatural to what analytics users expect and they also remove all the data after one week which is just not good enough for most users.
So the main threat at this stage is that Cloudflare Analytics will give everyone else in this market a bad name and nobody would want to try out any other alternatives after trying them.
I did a review couple of months ago when it was released: https://markosaric.com/cloudflare-analytics-review/ . Cloudflare have been in touch with me again after publishing that so I do know that they have taken in the feedback and plan to improve. So we'll see.
In general, I think they need to do a lot more work to become a Google Analytics competitor. It doesn't really look and work like an analytics tool GA users would expect. And the data they present and the fact that they delete it after one week wouldn't really be acceptable for vast majority of analytics users.
And they're not really focused on privacy. You can judge just by looking at all the calls they make to Google and Facebook products directly from their landing page and the announcement. They're sharing your data with them at the same time as telling you that their business model is not about sharing the data. It's more marketing than the belief that privacy is important.
yeah I know that but just look at who they share your data with when you visit their landing page to sign up for this product or the announcement page.
I've included the list on my review but you can also check it yourself.
So in one sentence they're saying things against Google and against surveillance capitalism but at the same time they are sending your data to them.
That's very inconsistent in my opinion and if they truly believed that Google is evil as they make it sound like, they would never send so much data about their visitors to Google.
Thanks for the tag. Competition helps. Not a fan of giant corps trying to undercut with “free” but that’s business, and consumers can make their own decision. Honestly, the thing that makes me laugh the most is how much press coverage it gets 😂
True, from Simple Analytics, Fathom, Plausible, Kind Metrics, and Panel Bear, etc. there's a lot of great options even from right within this community.
Since I'm using cloudflare for one of my sites I've occasionally checked the analytics. It's way off. It shows about 4 times the visits that GA does.
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Same question as @timleland on this thread - I'd be interested to hear the reactions from the IHers on here that have built standalone privacy focused analytics sites.
Always a danger when you jump on a niche that shows momentum, that a bigger player will come out with a free addition to their system which mimics your own offering. It has happened to us in the past but we managed to ride it out thankfully.
I think it would be valuable to learn if:
I'm the co-founder of https://plausible.io/
Too early to say but right now I would say that the vast majority of GA users who try Cloudflare expecting to see a valid alternative will run back. It doesn't have a lot of data, they don't really filter out bots, the interface is a unnatural to what analytics users expect and they also remove all the data after one week which is just not good enough for most users.
So the main threat at this stage is that Cloudflare Analytics will give everyone else in this market a bad name and nobody would want to try out any other alternatives after trying them.
I did a review couple of months ago when it was released: https://markosaric.com/cloudflare-analytics-review/ . Cloudflare have been in touch with me again after publishing that so I do know that they have taken in the feedback and plan to improve. So we'll see.
Thanks Marko! Appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question in such a detailed way.
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say that I’m not affiliated with Cloudflare nor do I hold any Cloudflare stock, so I have no motive here. :)
I’ve used Cloudflare on some sites and when I saw the news, I thought others might find it interesting as well.
Wonder if this will take away the need for some of the recent privacy first analytics sites?
I'm the co-founder of https://plausible.io/
In general, I think they need to do a lot more work to become a Google Analytics competitor. It doesn't really look and work like an analytics tool GA users would expect. And the data they present and the fact that they delete it after one week wouldn't really be acceptable for vast majority of analytics users.
And they're not really focused on privacy. You can judge just by looking at all the calls they make to Google and Facebook products directly from their landing page and the announcement. They're sharing your data with them at the same time as telling you that their business model is not about sharing the data. It's more marketing than the belief that privacy is important.
I did a review couple of months ago when it was released: https://markosaric.com/cloudflare-analytics-review/
Their business model is not about sharing your data though, never been.
People trust Cloudflare with critical tasks. Taking their word for privacy in regards to their analytics tool isn't too naive.
yeah I know that but just look at who they share your data with when you visit their landing page to sign up for this product or the announcement page.
I've included the list on my review but you can also check it yourself.
So in one sentence they're saying things against Google and against surveillance capitalism but at the same time they are sending your data to them.
That's very inconsistent in my opinion and if they truly believed that Google is evil as they make it sound like, they would never send so much data about their visitors to Google.
This comment was deleted a year ago.
Thanks for the tag. Competition helps. Not a fan of giant corps trying to undercut with “free” but that’s business, and consumers can make their own decision. Honestly, the thing that makes me laugh the most is how much press coverage it gets 😂
This comment was deleted a year ago.
True, from Simple Analytics, Fathom, Plausible, Kind Metrics, and Panel Bear, etc. there's a lot of great options even from right within this community.
This comment was deleted 9 months ago.
This comment was deleted 5 months ago.