Why Not Google Analytics? (Or why I love reinventing the wheel)
To be honest, this wasn't an easy call. I’ve been in development for quite a while and had grown accustomed to GA. What could be simpler: you slap a script with your ID onto the site, and data starts flowing into the analytics console. All that's left is to wait for the traffic to roll in and then analyze it by country, gender, age groups, and so on.
Yes, that’s how it used to be, but in today’s reality, there are objective reasons to rethink this concept. Let’s be real: hooking up Google Analytics in 2026 is like putting a massive deadbolt on your front door but leaving the keys with your neighbor. Everything seems under control, but the neighbor knows exactly when you came home, what you bought, and why you have a long face. And when someone visits you and wants to stay incognito, the neighbor won't give them the keys, and they won't even tell you they stopped by. Their response would be something like: “Nobody came, I never sleep, everything is under control…”. What am I getting at?
Remember the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?
Now, for your analytics to work, you must display a cookie consent banner and get the user's permission. And that’s where the problem lies. 90% of users don’t accept all cookies—only the strictly necessary ones. And what does that mean? Google Analytics ends up dead in the water. Besides, everyone is sick and tired of these banners. So, if there’s a legal way to ditch them, why not take it?
