Who Traffic Source is for#
Bootstrapped founders tracking acquisition
Traffic Source fits founders who need UTM, referrer, conversion, and affiliate visibility without buying a larger analytics suite.
Skip if:
You need enterprise experimentation, warehouse export, or full product analytics.
Privacy-conscious marketing sites
Cookie-free self-hosting makes it useful for sites that want lightweight acquisition reporting with data ownership.
Skip if:
You want a hosted analytics vendor to own setup, uptime, and support.
The problem it solves#
Small teams need to know which channels drive visitors and conversions, but many analytics products either collect more user data than necessary or put reporting behind another SaaS account. That creates privacy questions and recurring cost before the marketing motion is proven.
Founders also need campaign-level detail. Pageviews alone are not enough when the real question is which referrer, keyword, affiliate, or UTM source brought useful traffic.
How it solves it#
Traffic-source reporting
Traffic Source tracks referrers and UTM parameters for source, medium, campaign, term, and content.
Conversion and affiliate tracking
The README positions the tool for conversion tracking and affiliate management, not just raw pageview counting.
Cookie-free self-hosting
Traffic Source is designed to run on your own server and avoid cookies for tracking.
Strengths and trade-offs#
Strengths
- Founder-friendly analytics scopeTraffic Source focuses on the questions small teams ask first: where traffic came from and whether it converted.
- Simple ownership storyThe self-hosted model keeps analytics data under the operator's server and reduces dependence on a hosted dashboard vendor.
Trade-offs
- -License needs confirmationTeams should confirm Traffic Source's current license before relying on it commercially.
Install and self-host#
npm install
npm run build
npm startWhat it's built on#
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Frameworks
- Next.jsReact
- Infrastructure
- AWS
FAQ#
What does Traffic Source track?
Traffic Source tracks pageviews, referrers, UTM parameters, devices, browsers, conversions, and affiliate-related traffic.
Does Traffic Source use cookies?
The README says Traffic Source is privacy-first and does not use cookies for tracking.
Can Traffic Source be self-hosted?
Yes. The README includes a self-hosted VPS path and a one-click Railway deployment option.
Similar open-source tools#
Umami
Self-hosted analytics for product and marketing teams
Matomo
Self-hosted Google Analytics alternative, 100% data ownership
Plausible
Cookie-free web analytics for privacy-focused teams
PostHog
Track events, replay sessions, and run A/B tests, self-hostable
Prisme Analytics
Privacy-first open source web analytics with no cookies
Trench
Open source analytics infrastructure powered by ClickHouse