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Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Betterlytics?

Betterlytics is a privacy‑first, cookieless platform that combines web analytics, client‑side error tracking, session replay, and uptime monitoring in a single tool. Instead of paying for and integrating separate services for analytics, error tracking, replays, and uptime checks, you get all of them with one lightweight script and one dashboard, without compromising user privacy. You can use our hosted service or deploy it yourself. Start with the Introduction and explore the Dashboard to see what you can do.

Is Betterlytics compliant with privacy regulations?

Yes. Betterlytics is compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR out of the box. Data on our hosted service is processed on EU infrastructure, visitor IP addresses are never stored, no personal data is collected, and each website’s data is isolated to prevent cross‑site tracking. Session Replay is optional, requires consent where applicable, and masks all text and inputs by default. Learn more in the Session Replay guide.

How does it ensure privacy?

Privacy is built in by design. We do not use cookies and we do not collect personally identifiable information. Visitor IP addresses are never stored: they only serve as one of several non-identifying signals combined into an anonymous visitor identifier, using a secret salt that rotates daily and is then discarded, so not even we can trace an identifier back to an IP address. Each website’s data is isolated to prevent cross‑site tracking. For SPAs or apps with sensitive paths, you can normalize dynamic routes so user‑specific IDs don’t appear in your analytics; see Dynamic URLs. Session Replay is opt‑in and masks text and inputs by default; enable it only after consent where required and configure masking/blocking as needed; see Session Replay. Our hosted service runs on EU infrastructure and is designed to be compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR; see the Installation Overview.

What insights can I get?

The overview shows unique visitors, pageviews, bounce rate, scroll depth, and visit duration with interactive charts. You can dive deeper into referrers and channels, geography, devices and browsers, custom events, funnels, user journeys, outbound links, and Core Web Vitals. Beyond analytics, you can track client‑side JavaScript errors with stack traces and session trails, watch session replays, and monitor uptime and SSL certificates with alerts in Slack, Discord, Teams, or via webhooks. Everything respects your time range and query filters. Browse the feature guides under Dashboard.

How do I integrate it?

Most sites can add a single async script tag with your Site ID and start seeing data in minutes; follow the Cloud Quick Start. For React and modern frameworks, we recommend using the @betterlytics/tracker NPM package for a typed API and easier SPA handling; see Custom Events. You can also enable optional features such as Session Replay, Dynamic URLs, Outbound Links and Web Vitals via script attributes or package options.

Can I query my analytics with AI?

Yes. Betterlytics has a built‑in MCP server (Model Context Protocol), so you can connect AI assistants and coding agents like Claude, Cursor, or Codex directly to your analytics data. Ask questions in natural language (“which pages have the highest bounce rate?”, “what errors are affecting the most users?”), run ad‑hoc funnel analyses, or let your coding agent use real traffic data to inform UI and code changes, all without leaving your editor. See the MCP Server guide for setup instructions for each tool.

Who is Betterlytics for?

Teams of all sizes that want actionable insights without cookie banners or invasive tracking: anyone who would rather run one tool than juggle separate analytics, error tracking, and uptime monitoring services, marketers who need clear acquisition and content insights, product and engineering teams optimizing UX and performance, and privacy‑conscious organizations that value data ownership. Choose the hosted service for the fastest setup and managed operations, or self‑host for maximum control over your data and infrastructure.

Do Betterlytics Cloud and self-hosted have the same features?

Mostly, but not always at the same time. New features launch on Betterlytics Cloud first, and the self‑hosted image is updated periodically from our stable releases, so a recently launched feature may be live on Cloud before it reaches the self‑hosted image. A few features also depend on additional infrastructure and are not yet supported when self‑hosting, such as Session Replay, which requires S3‑compatible object storage. Check the cloud vs self‑hosted comparison for the current status of each feature.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. The Growth plan is free up to 10,000 events per month and includes the core analytics features. As you grow, you can upgrade to plans with higher limits and longer data retention. See the full details on Pricing & Billing and the guides for Upgrading, Changing Plans and Managing Subscription.

What’s the performance impact of the tracking script?

The script loads asynchronously and is lightweight (under 2KB), designed not to block rendering or degrade page performance. Optional add‑ons such as Core Web Vitals collection and Session Replay are disabled by default and only load when you opt in, so you stay in control of any additional overhead. See the Cloud Quick Start for the script tag and the Web Vitals and Session Replay guides for details.

How does Betterlytics compare to other analytics tools?

We have detailed comparison pages that cover features, privacy, performance, and pricing side by side:

For how long is my data stored?

Data retention on Betterlytics Cloud depends on your plan: Growth retains data for 1+ year, Professional for 3+ years, and Enterprise for 5+ years. Session Replay recordings have a shorter retention period of 60 days to balance usefulness with privacy and storage considerations. If you self‑host, your analytics data lives in your own database, so retention is entirely under your control. You can review the plan‑specific policies on Pricing & Billing and replay retention under Session Replay → Storage and Security. For definitions of metrics and how we calculate them, see the Metrics Glossary.

Still have questions?

If you didn’t find what you were looking for, join our Discord community  or reach out via email. You can also browse the Installation Overview to get started or review Pricing & Billing for plan details.

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