Idea checked

a privacy-first mobile analytics SDK

There is already a crowded privacy-first mobile analytics field, but the gap is better SDKs and clearer mobile-specific privacy handling rather than a brand-new category.

Confidence: high — The search turned up 6 named open-source projects, 4 active and 2 slow, plus one first-hand complaint and one stated want. There are enough concrete numbers to judge the space, but only thin firsthand demand signals.

85 signals collected
33s to run
2026-08-01
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hackernews 32
github 20
githubissues 1
discourse nothing found
intent 1
stackexchange nothing found
registries 13
tavily 9
devto 10

2 sources came back empty — what that means

discourse searched, nothing relevant found
stackexchange searched, nothing relevant found

Treat the report as weaker where a source is missing. Nothing here was substituted from somewhere else to fill the gap.

Interest over time From data

Hacker News stories mentioning analytics privacy-first self-hosted (topic read as “privacy-first mobile analytics”), by year — 4 in total, currently rising.

1 2021
0 2022
0 2023
0 2024
2 2025
1 2026

This counts discussion on Hacker News, not global search demand. For developer tooling the two move together; for a local service business they do not.

Who is already building this From data

Countly is a privacy-first analytics and engagement platform for desktop, mobile, IoT, and connected environments; it has 5,887 stars and was still being pushed on 2026-08-01.
- github Countly/countly-server 2012-05-28
Aptabase is the biggest open-source direct competitor here: 1,769 stars, last push 2026-07-31, with SDKs for React Native, Swift, Kotlin, Flutter, MAUI, Electron, Unity, and JavaScript.
Respectlytics is another live competitor with 40 stars and a last push on 2026-07-16; it says it is self-hosted, session-based, and stores only 5 fields with no personal data retained.
- github respectlytics/respectlytics 2026-02-14
- tavily Swift Analytics SDK - Privacy-First Analytics for iOS & macOS | Respectlytics
Phase Analytics is a small live project with 21 stars and a last push on 2026-07-22, also positioning itself as privacy-first mobile analytics.
- github Phase-Analytics/Phase 2025-10-29
Fantasma is a tiny but active self-hosted mobile analytics platform with 14 stars and a last push on 2026-03-31.
- github RuiAAPeres/fantasma 2026-03-11

What people actually say From data

"every mobile analytics SDK quietly collects device IDs, ad identifiers, and IP addresses, then makes you retroactively figure out compliance." That is a founder explaining why they built Respectlytics.
- hackernews Show HN: Respectlytics – Open-source, privacy-first mobile analytics (MIT+AGPL) 2026-02-15
"I was frustrated" by analytics SDKs that claim compliance but "when I dig into it, I observe that they actually are not that compliant as they claim to be." Same HN post, same complaint.
- hackernews Show HN: Respectlytics – Open-source, privacy-first mobile analytics (MIT+AGPL) 2026-02-15
"Mobile analytics SDKs collect usage and device data and send it to a third-party analytics provider, which raises privacy concerns" and compliance problems. This is a market explainer, not a first-hand complaint, but it matches the pain in the HN post.
- tavily Mobile analytics and privacy: collecting responsibly | PTKD Journal

People asking to be sold to From data

"I don't want to sound like a marketer, so I'll tell you how it is. The problem we aim to solve is for a price of 2 coffees," from a founder explicitly trying to sell a privacy-first Google Analytics alternative.
- hackernews Show HN: PrivateAnalytix – Google Analytics and MS Clarity Alternative 2021-08-02
"privacy-respecting, preferably free solution" for mobile app analytics. This is a concrete request inside a GitHub issue.
- githubissues Feature: Mobile app analytics (Expo + privacy-first) 2026-03-15
"Due to privacy concerns and GDPR, there aren't many mobile analytics SDKs that track the activity on a user level." That reads like demand pressure for a compliant option, even if it comes from a search result snippet.
- tavily What is the best mobile analytics SDK that allows to track activities at user ...

Where the opening is Model estimate

The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.

The market data does not show a clear gap in "privacy-first mobile analytics SDK" as a category; it already has several live open-source competitors and a large incumbent in Countly.
The more specific gap is in mobile SDKs that are both privacy-minimal and easy to adopt in modern app stacks; Aptabase has broad SDK coverage, but the signals do not show a winner for on-device anonymization, Expo-first support, or a dead-simple compliance story.
No signal here shows a product that is focused on turning privacy claims into verifiable field-level guarantees for mobile app teams, such as exactly what leaves the device and how that maps to GDPR or App Store privacy labels.

How big the market might be Model estimate

The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.

This search found 6 named open-source competitors, 4 active and 2 slow.
The biggest live project is Countly at 5,887 stars, while Aptabase has 1,769 stars and the rest are much smaller.
There was 1 first-hand complaint and 1 stated want, which is not much direct demand signal but it is enough to confirm the pain exists.
The search surface was broad: 32 Hacker News signals, 20 GitHub signals, 13 registry signals, 10 Dev.to signals, 8 Tavily pages, plus 1 GitHub issue and 1 intent signal.

What could go wrong Model estimate

The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.

This space is crowded with adjacent tools, so a new SDK must beat Aptabase and Countly on developer experience, not just on privacy language.
Several competitors already ship many language-specific SDKs, which raises the bar for integration completeness.
The demand evidence is thin: only one direct complaint and one explicit want were found, so acquisition could be harder than the competitor count suggests.
- hackernews Show HN: Respectlytics – Open-source, privacy-first mobile analytics (MIT+AGPL) 2026-02-15
- githubissues Feature: Mobile app analytics (Expo + privacy-first) 2026-03-15
Privacy-first analytics is easy to claim and hard to prove, so trust, documentation, and auditability are likely to matter as much as features.

What to do this week Model estimate

The model's read of the signals below — not something anyone measured.

Pick one wedge the incumbents do not clearly own, such as Expo/React Native with explicit on-device anonymization and a privacy-label checklist.
Ship a tiny SDK plus a public field-level data map: what is captured, what is dropped, what is hashed, and what reaches the backend.
Target teams already asking for a privacy-respecting mobile analytics option and show a migration path from a mainstream stack rather than a blank-slate replacement.
- githubissues Feature: Mobile app analytics (Expo + privacy-first) 2026-03-15
- tavily What is the best mobile analytics SDK that allows to track activities at user ...
If you build this, benchmark against Aptabase and Countly on install friction, event latency, retention of identifiers, self-hosting setup, and SDK coverage.

Competitor strength From data

Counted, not judged. Only projects that expose a hard number — stars, downloads, last commit — appear here, so they stop looking identical to each other. Products with no public metrics are discussed above instead of being given a row they cannot fill.

Project	Stars	Downloads / mo	Activity
Countly/countly-server	5,887	—	Active 2026-08-01
aptabase/aptabase	1,769	—	Active 2026-07-31
aptabase/tauri-plugin-aptabase	153	—	Slow 2026-02-22
aptabase/aptabase-swift	44	—	Slow 2026-02-22
aptabase/aptabase-react-native	41	—	Active 2026-07-27
respectlytics/respectlytics	40	—	Active 2026-07-16

6 open source
4 active
2 slow
1 first-hand complaints
1 stated wants

Domain names From data

Checked live against the registry, built from the subject of the idea rather than the first words of the sentence. A literal check is a fact; a brandable suggestion would be noise.

mobileanalytics.com taken
mobileanalytics.io available
mobile.com taken
getmobile.com taken

a privacy-first mobile analytics SDK

Interest over time From data

Who is already building this From data

What people actually say From data

People asking to be sold to From data

Where the opening is Model estimate

How big the market might be Model estimate

What could go wrong Model estimate

What to do this week Model estimate

Competitor strength From data

Domain names From data

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People asking to be sold to From data

Where the opening is Model estimate

How big the market might be Model estimate

What could go wrong Model estimate

What to do this week Model estimate

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