OpenPanel vs Rybbit

OpenPanel and Rybbit are the two newcomers in this hub that blur the line between web analytics and product analytics. Both are AGPL-3.0, both are cookieless, both are TypeScript applications on **ClickHouse + PostgreSQL

• Redis**, and both ship with Caddy in the box so a domain gets HTTPS without a separate proxy. The difference is which product each one is replacing — and how much of a stack you take on to do it.

Two different targets

Rybbit calls itself "the modern open source and privacy friendly alternative to Google Analytics". Its centre of gravity is the website report — sessions, unique users, pageviews, bounce rate, duration, referrers, country → region → city maps, a real-time view — with the product-analytics layer (goals, retention, user journeys, funnels, session replays, custom events with JSON properties) added on top.

OpenPanel starts from the other end. Its own line is "the power of Mixpanel with the ease of Plausible": funnels, cohorts, user profiles, session history and session replay, A/B testing, revenue tracking, event- and funnel-based notifications, and SDKs for web, native iOS/Android and server-side tracking. It does web analytics, but it is built for a team whose questions are about users and events, not pages. Rybbit has user profiles and error tracking too; cohorts, A/B tests and revenue are where OpenPanel is on its own.

If your question is "how is my site doing", Rybbit answers it directly. If it is "what do users who did X go on to do", OpenPanel was designed around it.

Setup: one script versus one quiz

Both are scripted installs, and both need a domain because both terminate TLS with Caddy.

• Rybbit: git clone, ./setup.sh your.domain. The script writes .env with a generated BETTER_AUTH_SECRET and starts six containers — Caddy, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, Redis, backend, client. --no-webserver skips Caddy if you already have a proxy. The docs ask for at least 2 GB of RAM and note the install was tested on Ubuntu 24 LTS.
• OpenPanel: self-hosting lives on a dedicated self-hosting git branch. ./setup installs Docker and Node if they are missing and runs a configuration quiz; ./start brings up seven containers — Caddy, PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse, the API, the dashboard and a worker. The docs say it has only been tested on Ubuntu 24.04, and insist that every SDK be initialised with your own API URL (your domain plus /api). OpenPanel publishes no RAM minimum; the 2 GB on our page is our estimate for that stack.

Rybbit rates 2 / 5 on our scale, OpenPanel 3 / 5: the extra worker, the branch checkout, and the SDK configuration are each small, and together they are a heavier evening.

Licenses and money

Both are AGPL-3.0 and both companies run a hosted service. OpenPanel's pricing page says "Prefer to self-host? Deploy for free with unlimited events." Rybbit's docs mark Pages View and Email reports as cloud-only, and Web Vitals is cloud-only in practice: the README marks it "Only available on paid tiers", and the self-hosted build hides the Performance page and its toggle, even though the docs' self-hosted-vs-cloud table still ticks it. Neither asks for a license key to self-host.

Pick Rybbit if…

• You are replacing Google Analytics and want the report plus funnels and replays, not a product-analytics suite.
• You want the lighter install — six containers, one script, 2 GB by the project's own number.
• Your tracking is web-first: Rybbit also ships Node.js and React Native SDKs and a POST /api/track endpoint, but the dashboard is built around sites.

Pick OpenPanel if…

• You need cohorts, A/B tests or revenue tracking — the Mixpanel questions.
• You track native mobile apps and want one platform with iOS/Android, web and server-side SDKs.
• You are comfortable running the larger stack and configuring the SDK against your own API URL.

The honest trade-off

Rybbit wins this comparison for most self-hosters because most self-hosters arrive here looking for a Google Analytics replacement, and Rybbit is that with funnels and replays included, on a documented 2 GB floor and a six-container install. OpenPanel is the better tool for the job it actually set out to do — product analytics across web, mobile and backend — and if that is your job, its extra weight is the cost of the right shape rather than overhead.