this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2025
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Hi guys, I've been working on a self-hostable web analytics platform since the start of this year after being frustrated with Google Analytics and Plausible.

I've packed a bunch of cool web analytics features into Rybbit, but I've tried very hard to keep the interface simple to use,

https://github.com/rybbit-io/rybbit

Check it out!

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[–] EarMaster@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just a word of warning for everyone: The free self hosted version is heavily limited. I will stick with Plausible which may be simpler but also doesn't want to push me into a subscription.

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

as opposed to plausible community edition which is even more limited and is only updated a couple times a year?

[–] EarMaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The community edition allows me to have multiple sites, multiple users and is way easier to set up. If I ever need additional features like funnels I would need a subscription for both - Plausible is less expensive.

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 75 points 4 days ago (3 children)

A few more screenshots in case you don't want to leave the site

[–] MakingWork@lemmy.ca 27 points 4 days ago

I have no idea how to use this, but this is amazing!

[–] bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 days ago

What should we try with the live demo? Neat stuff, it's this a long-term project?

[–] helix@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago

You're awesome. Thanks!

[–] lung@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Wow holy crap, great work - the world badly needs this. Im assuming the mechanism is the same, you inject a js script into your site. I'm also very interested in pure server side solutions for analytics, but they can't hit all the features you did in a generic way afaik

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yea, we use a client-side script like almost everyone else. The major difference is that we don't use cookies so you can avoid a lot of the cookie banner/GDPR nonsense.

Rybbit definitely isn't the first open source cookieless web analytics platform (Plausible and Umami are the two other big ones), but it's probably the most "all-in-one" of all these alternatives.

[–] criss_cross@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Do you use fingerprinting instead? Or what’s the mechanism you use?

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

GoAccess uses your server side access log.

[–] Vex_Detrause@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is it "reebit"? OR "Raybit" ?

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

it's "ribbit"

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 19 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I would love for this to work on yunohost.

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You mentioned being frustrated at Plausible. What did you not like about it?

I haven't tried Plausible, but it seemed popular

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago

it didn't have enough features, especially since the community version is heavily nerfed (it's missing even funnels)

[–] osprior@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Question is the self-hosted version less featured than the paid hosted version?

This looks amazing btw.

[–] EarMaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The free self hosted version is heavily limited. I will stick with Plausible which may be simpler but also doesn't want to push me into a subscription.

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Only very slightly so. One of the reasons I created Rybbit is because platforms like plausible and fathom have much inferior self-hosted versions (very limited featureset and basically never updated). We have a comparison here

[–] spacelord@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

@Goldflag

I appreciate the intent behind Rybbit, but I have to respectfully disagree with the "only very slightly so" characterization. Looking at your official comparison table, the self-hosted version is missing:

  • Pages View
  • Web Vitals
  • Email reports
  • Google Search Console integration
  • VPN/Crawler/ASN tracking
  • Google/GitHub OAuth
  • Email support

That's 7 significant features—which seems more than "very slightly" different.

More importantly, this raises AGPL compliance questions. Under AGPLv3 Section 13, if users interact with modified AGPL software over a network (your cloud version), you're required to make the complete corresponding source code available to those users. If these cloud-only features are integrated into the same AGPL-licensed codebase, withholding them from the public repo while running them as a network service appears to conflict with the license terms.

There are really only two compliant scenarios here:

  1. These features exist in the public repo but are just marketed as "cloud-only" (in which case the comparison table's misleading)
  2. These features are truly separate proprietary code that interfaces with Rybbit without being part of the AGPL-licensed work (which would require careful architectural separation)

If it's neither—if these are AGPL-covered features running in your cloud service but withheld from the repo—that's exactly the "loophole" the AGPL was designed to close. The irony is that you criticized Plausible and Fathom for having "much inferior self-hosted versions," yet this appears to be a similar approach.

Could you clarify the licensing status of these cloud-only features? Are they in the public repo but disabled by default, or are they proprietary additions that don't derive from the AGPL codebase?

[–] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 2 points 10 hours ago

OAuth is one thing I hate to see locked behind a paywall; it's one thing for the pretty, management-geared stuff (dashboards and charts) to be a paid feature, but not security.

[–] custard_swollower@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AGPL means they are licensing it to you, they are not bound by the license because they are the copyright owners.

[–] spacelord@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's misleading. While copyright owners aren't bound by their own license, AGPL Section 13 requires that when they run AGPL software as a network service, they must make the complete source available to users.

The AGPL was specifically designed to close the "SaaS loophole." Being the copyright owner doesn't exempt you from AGPL's network service requirements if you're distributing under that license.

[–] GameGod@lemmy.ca 0 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

This is flat out wrong. If you're the copyright owner, you're not licensing the code to yourself. The AGPL is the license under which they're making the open source version available to YOU. The version they run themselves is proprietary.

[–] spacelord@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

That's inacurrate. Licensing representation matters. If the cloud service is genuinely presented as AGPL-licensed, Section 13 obligations apply regardless of copyright ownership. However, copyright owners remain free to maintain truly separate proprietary versions under dual licensing.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Thank you for your service.

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[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Is there any plans for a data migration feature from Plausible?

[–] farcaller@fstab.sh 2 points 19 hours ago

I don’t think that's plausible.

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

We have data migration plans in work but it doesn't appear that a plausible migration is possible

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I've been using Plausible for a long time, will definately be checking this out.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

hmm interesting im using matomo but im not liking how its increasingly becoming bloated and subscription based

[–] helix@feddit.org 11 points 3 days ago

You can try https://goaccess.io/ or https://plausible.io/ aswell. Ribbit is very cool though!

[–] parmesancrabs@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Aways a fan of alternate options, this looks quite tidy! I had a few thoughts / queries. Not at my system right now but I will test it out later.

I noticed in the screenshots you have a "users" page - but with a cookieless tracking system I would have assumed it wouldn't be reliable to identify a long term user past individual sessions? Are you doing some hefty finger printing?

Looking at your features table has a few statements that might need adjusting. Such as GA4's segmentation sequencing / filtering can be quite complex, I'd argue its not limited and potentially more advanced than Rybbit (not tested yet). It also has a user exploration feature.

Do you have any plans for a drag and drop style report creation, so that I could create reports with any dimensions / metrics and filter accordingly? I think that would bring a lot of flexibility to the platform for an individuals bespoke needs.

[–] jarhead@pie.jarofmilk.cloud 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 3 points 3 days ago (4 children)

What's the advantages over awstats?

[–] Goldflag@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

from what i know, awstats gets analytics from server-side logs while Rybbit uses a client side script. So not really and apples to apples comparison

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