Use analytics.js without Segment (analytics-js-without-segment)

A tool to use (and render) Segments open-source analytics library (analytics.js) WITHOUT using the paid Segment service (segment.com). To be used with your favorite analytics-tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Hotjar, etc.

@Gatsby-users: Use the related gatsby-package.

Features

• Best-practise loading of analytics.js: This plugin loads Segments analytics.js following best-practises and enables you to easily set options (cdnUrl and services).
• Unlimited and free: You'll use the free analytics.js and not depend on Segment (which has aggressive pay-or-leave policies, after you hit the 1000 free monthly users)
• Track events anywhere: You can track custom-events anywhere in your code via analytics.track()
• Supported integrations: A LOT of analytics-tools are supported. see https://github.com/segment-integrations.
• Development-mode: In development you'll only see the events in the console. Your events will NOT be forwarded
• Production-mode: All events will be routed to the services. Check your console for possible errors.

INSTALL

Install via npm

npm install analytics-js-without-segment --save

Usage

In your client, add:

const { renderAnalytics, runAnalytics } = require('analytics-js-without-segment')

const options = {
  cdnUrl: 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/analytics.js/2.9.1/analytics.min.js',  // host yourself or use cdnjs (https://cdnjs.com/libraries/analytics.js)
  services: {
    // see integration https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics.js-integration-google-analytics/blob/master/lib/index.js
    'Google Analytics': {
      trackingId: 'UA-XXX-1',
      anonymizeIp: true,
    },
    // see integration https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics.js-integration-mixpanel/blob/master/lib/index.js
    'Mixpanel': {
      token: 'XXX',
      people: true,
      trackAllPages: true,
    },
    // see integration https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics.js-integration-fullstory/blob/master/lib/index.js
    'FullStory': {
      org: 'XXX',
      debug: true,
    },
    // ... other service? See supported integrations (that can be loaded via analytics.js) at https://github.com/segment-integrations.
  },
}

// OPTION 1)
// AUTOMATICALLY attach to window.analytics and make global `analytics.*`-object available
runAnalytics(options)  // after running this, `analytics` is globally available

// OPTION 2)
// MANUALLY attach to window.analytics and make global `analytics.*`-object available
const snippet = renderAnalytics(options)
eval(snippet)

Why this package?

The concept of analytics.js is awesome. BUT Segments's free tier (max 1.000 monthly users) might not work for you, if you have a lot of non-paying visitors on your website.

So if you want an easy-to-configure analytics.js-wrapper for your analytics (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Hotjar, YouNameIt, ...), then this is your go-to! Basically ALL big analytics-integrations are supported.

This solution is open source, unlimited and free forever!

Background (state 2018-10-24): Segment.com has aggressive pay-or-leave policies, which they will apply after you hit the 1000 free monthly users limit. They will lock your account and stop processing your events after a deadline.

WHY using this?

Advantages:

• You will NOT run out of segments free tier after hitting 1000 MPU (monthly users), because you simply do NOT use it
• You'll have a single API for tracking analytics (p.e. analytics.page() or analytics.track())

Disadvantages:

• This does NOT work on server-side
• It might take a bit more time to configure than using segment
• You do NOT any of segments other cool features (which you will not need when starting a side-project)

Question: What analytics-services are supported?

You should be able to use ALL services that segment itself supports and has integrations available. You'll have to dig around a bit in segment's code to find the options for each individual tool.

Check out the supported Integrations (that can be loaded via analytics.js) at https://github.com/segment-integrations.

Credits

This is project is based on https://gist.github.com/typpo/5e2e4403c60314e04e8b6b257555f6de and the related blogpost at http://www.ianww.com/blog/2017/08/06/analytics-js-standalone-library/.

Contribute (Development notes)

CLI cheatsheat:

npm run build-watch;  # auto-compile on file-change from /src to / via babel

License

MIT