Blog
Notes on privacy-first analytics, measured comparisons, and building a $1/month, billed yearly product in the open.
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A web analytics MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex
A hosted web analytics MCP server, live since November 2, 2026. Connect Claude Code, Codex or Cursor with one read-only API key and ask about your traffic.
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Add analytics to Hugo with a 1.2 KB cookieless tag
Add analytics to Hugo with one ~1.2 KB cookieless tag in layouts/baseof.html — works with any theme as of Hugo 0.169, and sets no cookies.
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The AI referrer hostname list, with a ready GA4 regex (2026)
The AI referrer hostnames to group in GA4, as of October 2026 — a complete copy-paste list and a ready Source-matches-regex string.
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Cheapest privacy analytics by pageviews, from 10k to 500k a month
Cheapest privacy analytics by pageviews, prices checked 21 October 2026: Simplytics is $12/year at any volume, then Pirsch at $72, Plausible at $90.
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Add cookieless analytics to WordPress without a plugin
Add analytics to WordPress without a plugin — a ~1.2 KB cookieless tag in the theme header, added via a child theme and wp_head so updates don't wipe it.
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Why your GA4 landing page report shows (not set)
GA4 landing pages can show (not set) when a session has no page_view event. How to check event-only sessions, tag failures and timeouts.
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Analytics JavaScript size across 17 trackers, gzip and brotli measured
Analytics JavaScript size measured for 17 trackers on 2026-09-23, gzip and brotli transfer bytes, from Google Analytics at ~121 KB down to 326 bytes.
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Add analytics to a Next.js App Router site without cookies
Add analytics to a Next.js App Router site with a ~1.2 KB cookieless tag in app/layout.tsx — client-side navigations are counted automatically.
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Email alerts when your website traffic spikes 3x
Get an email when your website traffic spikes — Simplytics sends it the morning after a site does 3x its usual, with no threshold to set. September 2026.
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Add analytics to an Astro site with View Transitions
Add analytics to an Astro site with a 1.2 KB cookieless tag — where it goes, why View Transitions route changes still get counted, and how to verify.
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How many companies does your cookie banner actually share data with? A new complaint counted 1,741
A July 2026 GDPR complaint says one cookie-banner "Accept" shared data with 1,741 ad partners. Why the only safe vendor count is zero.
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Is ChatGPT losing traffic share in 2026? That headline is about the wrong number
The viral "ChatGPT dropped to 54%" stat measures visits to chatgpt.com, not referrals to your site. The 2026 AI assistant mix, and why trackers differ.
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A US Supreme Court ruling just put Google Analytics' EU data transfers back in question
On 29 June 2026 the Supreme Court stripped the FTC of the independence the EU-US Data Privacy Framework leans on. What it means for GA4.
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Can you run web analytics without a cookie banner in France? The CNIL says yes — if your tool passes this test
France permits a consent exemption for analytics meeting all CNIL criteria; since January 2026 providers document their own assessment. Here is the test.
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AI crawlers vs. AI referrals: what your analytics actually sees
AI bots crawl thousands of your pages per visitor they send back. Crawl traffic and AI referral clicks are different layers — analytics measures one.
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GA4's Source Group dimension cleans up messy traffic sources — here's what it does, and the model that made it necessary
GA4's Source Group (June 2026) merges facebook, fb and m.facebook.com into one label, retroactively. What it does, and why GA4 needed it at all.
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Why your GA4 is full of traffic from China and Singapore — and why you can't filter it
The 2026 GA4 ghost-traffic wave POSTs fake hits straight to Google's servers, so your WAF never sees them. Why GA4's own filters cannot stop it.
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GA4's Measurement Protocol is in maintenance mode — what changed, and why "own your data" shouldn't mean re-plumbing every 18 months
Is the GA4 Measurement Protocol deprecated? No — it's frozen. What maintenance mode means, the 2026 deadlines, and why server-side still needs the pixel.
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See your website visitors on a map — by country, without an IP lookup
Simplytics shows visitors on a world map. How GA4, Plausible, Fathom, Matomo and Simplytics draw geography — and which resolve down to your city.
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Compare this period to the last one — period-over-period is built into every Simplytics dashboard
Simplytics overlays the previous equal-length period on your charts, with delta badges on every metric except the one number we won't fake.
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The EU's Digital Omnibus wants to exempt aggregated analytics from cookie consent — what it would and wouldn't cover
The EU's Digital Omnibus proposes exempting first-party, aggregate-only audience measurement from cookie consent. What it covers, and what it excludes.
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How to track single-page app pageviews (React, Vue, Next) without cookies
SPAs only count the first page load by default. How GA4, Plausible, Fathom, Matomo and Simplytics handle client-side routing, and which need no config.
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How long does each analytics tool keep your data? The aggregate-retention vs raw-data trade-off
GA4 keeps user data 2–14 months; Plausible reports 3–5 years. Simplytics deletes raw visits nightly and keeps held daily totals without a scheduled expiry.
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GA4's June 15, 2026 data-controls change — and the consent machinery a cookie-less tool never had
On June 15, 2026 GA4 makes Consent Mode the single control over the Google Ads data flow. What changed, who must check it, and who need not.
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GA4 finally has a native "AI Assistant" channel — here's what it still hides
GA4 added an automatic AI Assistant channel on May 13, 2026. It catches ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude — but Perplexity and AI Overviews still slip past.
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Show a view counter on every blog post — one script, no per-post setup
Add a live "views" badge to every blog post — one snippet in your post template, or a plain image URL. No per-post setup, all-time views, ~1 KB SVG.
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We measured how much JavaScript five analytics tools make your visitors download
Measured June 2026, re-measured September 2026: Google Analytics ships ~140 KB of compressed JavaScript per visitor. Simplytics ships ~1.2 KB.
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How to see ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini traffic in your analytics (and why GA4 hides most of it)
AI assistants are a real referral channel now, but GA4 buries most of it in Direct. How to recover the measurable part, in GA4 or automatically.