How to Set Up Open Analytics on Your Website

Open Analytics (analytics.gitopen.dev) is a realtime, privacy-friendly website analytics tool. Setup takes three steps: sign in with Google or GitHub, create a project to get a site key, and paste one script tag into your HTML or Next.js layout. Events then POST to the Open Analytics server and land in a PostgreSQL database — you don't provision a separate analytics database yourself. The Startup plan is free to apply for one year with up to 100 projects; paid plans come with a 14-day free trial.

Before you start

• A Google or GitHub account for sign-in.
• Access to your site's HTML, or your Next.js layout file if you use Next.js.
• No database setup on your side — each project gets a site key, and there is no separate analytics database to provision.

Step 1: Create a project

Sign in with Google or GitHub, then create a website in the dashboard. Each project is issued a site key that identifies where its events come from.

Step 2: Add the script

Copy the single script tag into your HTML, or into your Next.js layout. This one embed is the whole integration — there is no SDK to install or config file to write.

<!-- Paste the script tag from your project dashboard -->
<script src="https://analytics.gitopen.dev/script.js" data-site-key="YOUR_SITE_KEY"></script>

For Next.js, place the same tag in your layout so it loads on every page.

Step 3: Verify data is flowing

After deploying, open your site in a browser and check the dashboard. Events POST to the Open Analytics server and flow into PostgreSQL, so you should see activity appear in realtime rather than after a batch delay. The live visitor view shows who is on the site right now, which pages they're viewing, and where they came from — for example, a visitor arriving from Google Search on /pricing.

What you can track once it's live

You can also create public dashboards to share analytics with clients, teammates, investors, or your community — viewers don't need to log in.

Common snags

• No data after deploying: confirm the site key in the script tag matches the project, and that the tag is present on the pages you expect to track.
• Next.js pages missing events: the tag needs to be in the layout, not a single page, so it loads site-wide.
• Sharing access: use a public dashboard instead of handing over account credentials, since viewers don't need a login.

Who this fits

Open Analytics is aimed at founders rather than analysts: the focus is visitors, conversions, traffic sources, campaigns, and SEO performance, without dozens of unused reports. If you mainly need historical reporting and deep custom analysis, a heavier analytics suite may suit you better. If you want realtime visibility and a one-script setup, this gets you there in minutes.