OpenPanel — Open-Source Product and Web Analytics Platform

Introduction

OpenPanel combines web analytics and product analytics into a single open-source platform. It tracks page views, custom events, user journeys, and funnels while keeping data under your control, providing a self-hostable alternative to commercial tools like Mixpanel and Amplitude.

What OpenPanel Does

• Tracks page views, sessions, and custom events with automatic property capture
• Provides funnel analysis and user journey visualization
• Offers real-time dashboards with filtering by any event property
• Supports both web and mobile SDKs for cross-platform tracking
• Includes a lightweight script (less than 1KB) for minimal performance impact

Architecture Overview

OpenPanel uses a TypeScript/Next.js frontend with a backend that ingests events via a REST API. Event data is stored in ClickHouse for fast analytical queries. PostgreSQL handles metadata like project settings and user accounts. The ingestion pipeline processes events asynchronously for high throughput.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Deploy via Docker Compose with ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, and Redis included
• Configure the .env file for database credentials, domain, and SMTP settings
• Place behind a reverse proxy (Nginx, Caddy) for TLS and custom domain support
• Data retention policies are configurable to manage storage costs
• Supports sending email reports via configured SMTP server

Key Features

• Unified web and product analytics in one dashboard
• Privacy-friendly with cookie-free tracking option
• Real-time event stream for debugging integrations
• Customizable dashboards with saved filters and date ranges
• Export capabilities for raw event data analysis

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Mixpanel — Full-featured commercial product analytics; OpenPanel provides similar event tracking and funnels as a self-hosted open-source option
• Plausible — Focuses on simple web analytics; OpenPanel adds product analytics features like funnels and user properties
• PostHog — Broader platform with feature flags and A/B testing; OpenPanel focuses specifically on analytics with a lighter footprint
• Umami — Minimal web analytics; OpenPanel extends into custom event tracking and user-level analytics

FAQ

Q: How does OpenPanel handle GDPR compliance? A: Self-hosting means data stays on your infrastructure. The cookie-free mode tracks sessions without storing personal identifiers.

Q: What is the tracking script size? A: The web SDK is under 1KB gzipped, designed to have no measurable impact on page load times.

Q: Can I import data from Google Analytics? A: There is no built-in import tool, but the event API accepts custom events that you could use with a migration script.

Q: Does it support server-side event tracking? A: Yes, the REST API accepts events from any backend, enabling server-side tracking alongside the client SDK.

Sources

• https://github.com/Openpanel-dev/openpanel
• https://openpanel.dev