Plausible as an alternative to Google Analytics
I just swapped out Google Analytics with Plausible for AINIRO.IO. It’s only been a week, but so far I am super jazzed about it. First of all, Plausible doesn’t use cookies, so I can completely drop all cookie disclaimers and popups I had because of GDPR. Second of all, the site scores significantly better on load time. This results in a 10x better user experience for my website visitors, while making sure the website is still 100% conforming to GDPR laws.
GA is a hot smoking pile of garbage
Everyone who knows anything about software development, and Google Analytics, knows it basically garbage software. In fact, everything Google does is garbage. They’re violating every single industry best practice in most of their frontend JavaScript code, such as creating blocking JavaScript, sprinkling their code with document.write, and basically adding code you’d expect even a junior developer to be incapable of producing. What they do in their backend code, nobody knows of course, since 100% of their backend code is closed source.
For instance, if you add the reCAPTCHA frontend JavaScript to your page, your page drops 20 points when measured with Page Speed Insight. There’s no way to say this politely, and I’m not even sure we should, since sometimes the truth simply needs to get out there — But …
Google Analytics is garbage tech!
Simplicity
As a software developer by trade, having been forced to understanding marketing to sell our AI chatbot — Plausible is also a bajillion times less complex and easier to understand. I am 100% confident in that Google Analytics has “a bajillion” features Plausible does not have — But that’s kind of the point. I can understand Plausible, and I can rapidly find what I’m looking for.
In addition there’s the bonus of that Plausible doesn’t keep on crashing my web browser like GA does every now and then. Which reminds me of …
Did I tell you Google’s frontend code is garbage?
Open Source
Plausible is also 100% open source. I personally use their cloud version, first of all because I don’t want to spend a couple of days configuring it in our Kubernetes cluster — Secondly, because I kind of enjoy the idea of paying them a little bit. Besides, it’s only $10 per month, so it’s not like as if I’m going bankrupt or anything. They also have a 30 day trial version if you want to try before you buy.
However, the idea of having an Open Source alternative to Google Analytics is simply such a good feeling for me personally — Especially considering it seems to be a bajillion times better than GA’s junkware …
Watering the good stuff
I enjoy shedding a light on great products — And for the record, I am not affiliated with Plausible in any ways. I’m simply writing this because I like Plausible’s products, and I think they deserve some light of day. They don’t know I’m writing this, but I might at-reply them on LinkedIn and Facebook when I publish it.
However, sometimes in order to have the great stuff grow and prosper, we also need to shed a light on the sick junkware it’s intended to replace. And where Google Analytics fails at every single important metric possible to measure by, Plausible simply wins hands down — At least so far ...
I’ve only used Plausible for a week, so my feelings about it might change over time. However, if you read this article in the future, then post a comment asking me if I still love it. If it passes the test of time, and I’m still an advocate 6 months down the road, I guess we can all rest assured of that where Google fails on every metric possible to measure by, Plausible wins. If you want to try it out, you can find a link below.