Ackee — Privacy-Focused Self-Hosted Web Analytics

Introduction

Ackee is a lightweight, self-hosted web analytics platform that respects visitor privacy. It collects basic page view and referrer data without using cookies, fingerprinting, or personally identifiable information, making it compliant with GDPR out of the box.

What Ackee Does

• Tracks page views, referrers, browsers, operating systems, and screen sizes
• Presents analytics in a clean, real-time dashboard
• Works without cookies or persistent identifiers
• Provides a GraphQL API for querying analytics data programmatically
• Supports tracking multiple domains from a single instance

Architecture Overview

Ackee is a Node.js application with a React-based frontend. It uses MongoDB to store visit records. A small JavaScript tracker script is embedded in the target website and sends anonymous page view events to the Ackee server via its GraphQL API. The dashboard queries the same API to render charts and tables.

Self-Hosting and Configuration

• Deploy with Docker, Docker Compose, or install from npm
• Requires a MongoDB instance for data storage
• Set admin credentials via environment variables at first launch
• Add a domain in the dashboard and embed the provided tracking script on your site
• Optionally configure CORS headers to restrict which origins can send tracking data

Key Features

• Cookie-free tracking that does not require a consent banner
• Minimal tracker script (under 2 KB gzipped) with negligible performance impact
• Real-time dashboard showing active visitors, top pages, and referrer sources
• GraphQL API for building custom reports or integrating with other tools
• Supports detailed or anonymized tracking modes depending on privacy requirements

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Plausible Analytics — similar privacy-first approach but offered as SaaS; Ackee is fully self-hosted with no cloud dependency
• Umami — another self-hosted analytics tool using SQL databases; Ackee uses MongoDB and has a GraphQL API
• Matomo — feature-rich analytics suite with cookie-based tracking; Ackee is simpler and cookie-free
• Fathom — privacy-focused but commercial; Ackee is free and open source

FAQ

Q: Does Ackee use cookies? A: No. Ackee does not set any cookies or use browser fingerprinting.

Q: Is it GDPR compliant? A: Yes. Because it collects no personal data and uses no cookies, it does not require a consent banner under GDPR.

Q: Can I track single-page applications? A: Yes. The tracker script supports manual page view calls for SPAs that change routes without full page reloads.

Q: How long is data retained? A: Data stays in MongoDB indefinitely. You can purge old records manually or via a scheduled script.

Sources

• https://github.com/electerious/Ackee
• https://ackee.electerious.com