Countly — Self-Hosted Product Analytics and User Engagement Platform

Introduction

Countly is a self-hosted product analytics platform that gives teams complete control over their user data. It tracks events, sessions, crashes, and user journeys across mobile, web, and desktop applications, providing real-time dashboards and segmentation without sending data to third-party services.

What Countly Does

Tracks custom events, sessions, page views, and user properties in real time
Segments users by device, location, behavior, and custom attributes
Sends targeted push notifications for iOS, Android, and web
Provides crash and error reporting with stack traces and device context
Supports A/B testing and feature flags for controlled rollouts

Architecture Overview

Countly runs on Node.js with MongoDB as its data store. The server exposes a REST API that receives events from client SDKs. Data is aggregated into time-series buckets for fast dashboard queries. A plugin system extends core functionality with modules for push notifications, crash analytics, surveys, and revenue tracking. The web dashboard is a single-page application that visualizes metrics through charts, funnels, and cohort tables.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

Deploy via Docker Compose with MongoDB included in the stack
Use the one-line install script for Ubuntu or CentOS bare-metal deployments
Configure data retention, rate limiting, and API key management in the dashboard
Set up SMTP for email reports and push credentials for mobile notifications
Scale horizontally by adding Node.js workers and MongoDB replica sets

Key Features

Full data ownership with self-hosted deployment and no third-party data sharing
SDKs for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Web, Node.js, and 10+ more platforms
Real-time dashboards with drill-down by any event property or user segment
Plugin marketplace with 50+ official and community plugins
GDPR-compliant with built-in consent management and data export tools

Comparison with Similar Tools

Google Analytics — Cloud-only, limited to web; Countly is self-hosted with mobile SDK support
PostHog — Similar self-hosted analytics; Countly has stronger push notification and A/B testing features
Matomo — Focused on web analytics; Countly provides native mobile SDKs and crash reporting
Plausible — Privacy-focused but lightweight; Countly offers deeper user segmentation and engagement tools
Mixpanel — Cloud SaaS with event analytics; Countly can be fully self-hosted for data sovereignty

FAQ

Q: What database does Countly use? A: MongoDB. Countly stores events, sessions, and user profiles in MongoDB collections with time-series aggregation for dashboard performance.

Q: Can I migrate from Google Analytics to Countly? A: Countly tracks different data models than GA, so there is no direct import. You can run both in parallel and transition your dashboards over time.

Q: Is the self-hosted version feature-complete? A: The Community Edition includes core analytics, crash reporting, and push notifications. The Enterprise Edition adds advanced features like funnels, cohorts, and drill.

Q: How much server resources does Countly need? A: For small to medium apps (under 1M events/day), a single server with 4 GB RAM and 2 CPUs is sufficient. Larger deployments benefit from MongoDB sharding and multiple API workers.