Aptabase vs JustAnalytics: Open-Source Mobile and Desktop App Analytics or Full-Stack Observability
Aptabase excels at privacy-first mobile and desktop app analytics. JustAnalytics bundles web analytics, errors, APM, replay, and uptime. Here's when each fits.
Last month a developer in a Discord server asked me something I hadn't considered before: "What's the lightest way to track feature adoption in my Tauri app without sending data to Google?"
Good question. Desktop apps are weird. You can't just drop a GA4 snippet in an Electron or Tauri build and call it a day — I tried this once and spent three hours debugging why events weren't firing before realizing the iframe sandboxing was eating everything. For teams running web apps in sandboxed browser environments, the tracking challenges are similar. Privacy matters more because users installed your software. They didn't just visit a website. And most analytics tools assume you're tracking pageviews, not button clicks in a native-feeling desktop window.
That question sent me down a rabbit hole. Two tools that seem similar — both privacy-first, both have mobile SDKs — but solve fundamentally different problems.
Aptabase is a specialist. Privacy-first analytics built specifically for mobile, desktop, and web apps. Lightweight SDKs for Flutter, React Native, Electron, Tauri, Swift, Kotlin. No error tracking. No APM. No replay. Just event analytics done cleanly.
JustAnalytics is a generalist. Five tools in one platform: web analytics, error tracking, APM, session replay, and uptime monitoring. Mobile SDKs exist (React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android) but the focus is broader — you get crashes and performance traces alongside events.
Different shapes. Different tradeoffs.
Quick Verdict
TL;DR: Aptabase wins for lightweight privacy-first event analytics on mobile and desktop apps. JustAnalytics wins when you also need error tracking, APM, session replay, or web coverage.
Building a Tauri desktop app and just want to know which features get used? Aptabase. The SDK is tiny, data stays private, and $20/mo covers 1M events.
Building a React Native app and need to debug crashes alongside tracking feature adoption? JustAnalytics Pro at $49/mo gives you error tracking with source maps, APM traces, and replay — plus the analytics.
The honest answer is scope. Aptabase chose to do one thing well. JustAnalytics chose to replace five tools. Neither approach is wrong. They're just different bets on what developers need.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | JustAnalytics | Aptabase |
|---|---|---|
| Event analytics | Yes (pageviews, funnels, UTMs, cohorts, attribution) | Yes (custom events, session timeline, live dashboard) |
| Error tracking | Yes (source-mapped stacks, issue grouping, rage-click detection) | No |
| APM / traces | Yes (OpenTelemetry-native, P95/P99, service maps) | No |
| Session replay | Yes (pixel-perfect DOM replay with privacy masking) | No |
| Uptime monitoring | Yes (HTTP checks, SSL, status pages, cron alerts) | No |
| Structured logs | Yes (ingestion, filtering, alerting) | No |
| Mobile SDKs | React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android | Flutter, React Native, Swift, Kotlin, .NET |
| Desktop SDKs | Electron (via web SDK) | Electron, Tauri, .NET (WPF/Avalonia/MAUI) |
| Web analytics | Yes (full cookieless analytics) | Yes (web app support) |
| Privacy-first | Cookieless, GDPR/CCPA compliant | No cookies, no fingerprinting, GDPR compliant |
| Self-hosted option | No (cloud only) | Yes (open source, self-hostable) |
| Free tier | $0/mo — 100K events, 1 site, 6mo retention | $0/mo — 20K events, unlimited apps |
| Paid starting plan | Pro $49/mo — 1M events, 5 sites, all features | $20/mo — 1M events |
The table tells the story. Aptabase is narrower and cheaper for its scope. JustAnalytics is wider and costs more — but replaces multiple tools. Obvious, right? The devil is in which scope you actually need.
Where Aptabase Wins: Lightweight Mobile and Desktop Focus
Aptabase was built for a specific use case: app developers who want product analytics without the privacy baggage.
Desktop SDK coverage is excellent. Electron, Tauri, .NET (WPF, Avalonia, MAUI). Most analytics tools treat desktop as an afterthought. Aptabase treats it as a first-class citizen. If you're building cross-platform desktop apps, the SDK support matters. (We cover Electron via the web SDK but don't have native Tauri or .NET support — and yeah, that's a gap we should probably fix.)
The SDKs are genuinely small. Aptabase explicitly optimizes for bundle size. For mobile apps where every kilobyte affects install size and startup time, this matters. Their positioning — "so small and fast you won't even notice them" — is aimed at developers who care about overhead.
Privacy is the default, not a feature. No cookies. No fingerprinting. No cross-app tracking. Data residency in EU or US. For indie developers building apps for privacy-conscious users, this positioning resonates — you can tell users "we use analytics that don't track you" and mean it.
Pricing is simple and cheap. 20K events free. $10/mo for 200K. $20/mo for 1M. $40/mo for 2M. No per-seat charges. No feature gating — every tier gets everything. For teams that only need event analytics, this is hard to beat.
Self-hosting is an option. Aptabase is open source. You can deploy it on your own infrastructure. For teams with strict data sovereignty requirements — or developers who just like owning their stack — self-hosting eliminates the vendor dependency entirely.
Session timeline is a nice touch. Individual user journeys through your app, displayed chronologically. Not replay — you don't see what they clicked visually — but a timeline of events in order. Useful for understanding user flows.
If your requirements are "track feature usage in my Flutter app, respect privacy, keep costs low" — Aptabase nails it. Honestly, I wish we'd thought of the session timeline view first.
Where JustAnalytics Wins: Full-Stack Observability
The gap in Aptabase is everything beyond event analytics.
Error tracking bundled. When your React Native app crashes, you want the stack trace. Source-mapped, grouped by issue, linked to the user session. Aptabase tracks events — it doesn't catch JavaScript errors or native crashes. JustAnalytics does both. We've written about correlating errors with funnel drop-offs for teams debugging conversion issues.
APM and distributed tracing. P95/P99 latency. Service maps. OpenTelemetry-native. If your app talks to a backend API and you need to trace slow requests end-to-end, Aptabase can't help. JustAnalytics traces frontend events through backend services.
Session replay for web surfaces. Pixel-perfect DOM replay with privacy masking. When a user reports "the checkout button didn't work," you can watch exactly what happened. Aptabase's session timeline shows events chronologically — we show the actual screen. (For mobile, replay is web-view only. Native UI replay is... hard. We've tried. It's a nightmare of platform-specific rendering APIs and memory constraints.)
Uptime and cron monitoring included. HTTP checks, SSL certificate monitoring, status pages, missed cron alerts. Building a SaaS with mobile apps plus a web dashboard plus APIs? We monitor all of it. Aptabase monitors none of it.
The consolidation math. Aptabase ($20/mo for 1M events) plus Sentry for errors ($26/mo developer tier) plus Pingdom for uptime ($15/mo) plus LogRocket for replay ($99/mo starter) = $160+/mo. JustAnalytics Pro = $49/mo. The value prop is "stop paying five vendors."
For teams building mobile apps that also have web dashboards, backend APIs, and need observability across all of it — the consolidation makes sense.
The Real Question: Analytics-Only or Full Observability?
This comparison isn't about which tool is "better." It's about scope. Let me be blunt.
Scenario A: Indie developer building a desktop app. You ship a Tauri or Electron app. You want to know which features get used. You don't have a backend — the app runs locally. Crashes are rare because you tested well.
Pick Aptabase. $20/mo for 1M events. Lightweight SDK. Privacy-first messaging you can put on your landing page. Done. This isn't me being diplomatic — it's actually the better choice here.
Scenario B: Team building a mobile app with backend services. React Native frontend, Node.js API, PostgreSQL. Users report bugs. You need crash reports. You want to trace slow API calls. Analytics is just one requirement among many. For teams managing developer infrastructure, DevOS handles the platform engineering side.
Pick JustAnalytics. $49/mo gets analytics plus errors plus APM plus replay. One vendor, one dashboard, one bill. For API monitoring patterns, our uptime monitoring guide covers GraphQL-specific setups.
Scenario C: Team with existing error tracking. You already use Sentry. You love Sentry. You're not switching. You just need lightweight analytics without GA4's privacy concerns.
Pick Aptabase. It complements Sentry instead of competing with it. $20/mo for analytics on top of your existing stack. (Honestly, Sentry is excellent. We're not trying to poach teams who are happy there.)
Pricing Breakdown (as of August 2026)
Aptabase:
- Free: $0/mo — 20K events/mo, unlimited apps
- 200K events: $10/mo
- 1M events: $20/mo
- 2M events: $40/mo
- 5M events: $75/mo
- 10M events: $140/mo
- Self-hosted: Free (open source, deploy yourself)
No overage fees. Exceed limits and analytics pause until next month. Simple. All plans include all features.
JustAnalytics:
- Free: $0/mo — 1 site, 100K events/mo, 6mo retention. Analytics only.
- Pro: $49/mo ($39/mo annual) — 5 sites, 1M events/mo, 1yr retention. Errors, replay, APM, uptime, logs.
- Enterprise: custom — unlimited. SSO/SAML, SLA, dedicated infrastructure.
- AI Command Center: $25/mo add-on (requires Pro+).
Aptabase is cheaper for pure analytics: $20/mo vs $49/mo at 1M events. But Aptabase is analytics-only. JustAnalytics Pro includes features you'd otherwise buy separately.
The consolidation comparison: Aptabase ($20) + Sentry Developer ($26) + Pingdom Basic ($15) + LogRocket Starter ($99) = $160/mo. JustAnalytics Pro = $49/mo for comparable coverage.
Look, I get it — the consolidation math sounds like a sales pitch. It kind of is. But I've also watched teams at previous jobs juggle four different dashboards during incidents, and it's a mess.
Who Should Pick What
Building desktop apps (Electron, Tauri, .NET): Aptabase. Better SDK coverage for desktop platforms. JustAnalytics supports Electron via web SDK but doesn't have native Tauri or WPF integrations.
Privacy is the headline feature for your users: Aptabase. Open source, self-hostable, explicitly positions privacy as the main value prop. JustAnalytics is privacy-compliant (cookieless, GDPR-ready) but doesn't lead with it the same way.
Need error tracking and APM alongside analytics: JustAnalytics. Aptabase doesn't track errors. If crashes matter, you need both tools — or just JustAnalytics.
Building web-heavy products with some mobile: JustAnalytics. Session replay, conversion funnels, UTM attribution — web analytics features that Aptabase's app-focused design doesn't prioritize. For teams running paid campaigns alongside mobile apps, ClickzProtect handles click fraud on the ad side.
Budget-constrained, analytics-only need: Aptabase. $20/mo for 1M events is half the cost of JustAnalytics Pro. If you don't need errors/APM/replay, don't pay for them.
Want self-hosted analytics: Aptabase. Open source, documented self-hosting. JustAnalytics is cloud-only. This frustrates me personally — self-hosting is something we should offer — but it's not on the roadmap yet.
Our Honest Take
Aptabase is excellent at what it does. Lightweight, privacy-first analytics for apps. Their desktop SDK coverage — Tauri, Electron, .NET — is better than ours. The pricing is cheaper for pure analytics. The self-hosting option matters to developers who want control. I'm not just saying this to sound fair.
But Aptabase is deliberately narrow. No errors. No APM. No replay. No uptime. If your app crashes and you need the stack trace, Aptabase can't help. If your backend API slows down, Aptabase has no visibility. That's not a criticism — it's a scope choice. They picked a lane.
We picked the opposite lane. JustAnalytics bundles five tools into one. You get errors and APM and replay alongside analytics. The tradeoff is cost ($49/mo vs $20/mo) and focus (generalist vs specialist). Our case against five-tool stacks explains the consolidation philosophy.
Here's my honest take: if you're building a desktop-only app and just want feature usage data, Aptabase is the right choice. It's cheaper, lighter, and better at desktop SDKs than we are. I respect the focus.
But if you're building anything with a web component, or you need crash reports, or you want to trace performance issues end-to-end — the five-tool consolidation saves money and reduces cognitive load. One dashboard instead of four logins at 2am when something breaks.
You know your stack. Pick accordingly. And if Aptabase is the right call for you — genuinely, use it. We'll still be here when your requirements grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Aptabase support web analytics and session replay?
Aptabase supports basic web app analytics but focuses on mobile and desktop apps. It has no session replay. JustAnalytics includes pixel-perfect DOM replay with privacy masking as part of the Pro plan at $49/mo, plus full web analytics with funnels, UTM tracking, and cohort retention.
Can I use Aptabase for error tracking and APM?
No. Aptabase tracks custom events and product usage, not application errors or performance traces. You'd need to add Sentry or another error tracker. JustAnalytics bundles error tracking with source-mapped stacks, APM with P95/P99 latency, plus analytics, replay, and uptime in one platform.
Is Aptabase better than JustAnalytics for mobile apps?
For privacy-first event analytics on mobile, Aptabase is purpose-built. SDKs for Flutter, React Native, Swift, and Kotlin — lightweight and focused. JustAnalytics has mobile SDKs too (React Native, Flutter, iOS, Android) but adds error tracking, APM, and replay. If you only need event analytics, Aptabase. If you need crashes and performance too, JustAnalytics covers more.
What's the pricing difference between Aptabase and JustAnalytics?
Aptabase starts free at 20K events/mo, then $10/mo for 200K events and $20/mo for 1M events. JustAnalytics Free is $0/mo for 100K events (analytics only), and Pro is $49/mo for 1M events including errors, APM, replay, uptime, and logs. Aptabase is cheaper for pure event analytics. JustAnalytics is cheaper if you'd otherwise add Sentry, LogRocket, and Pingdom separately. For SaaS teams also tracking call conversions, VeloCalls integrates with analytics platforms.
Try JustAnalytics
All-in-one observability in one under-5KB script: cookieless analytics + error tracking + APM + session replay + uptime + structured logs. Replaces GA4 + Sentry + Datadog + Pingdom + LogRocket. Free tier (100K events/mo), Pro $49/month ($39 annual).
Author at JustAnalytics.