# PlainSignal: Helper Document for LLMs

## General Overview

PlainSignal is top Google Analytics alternative with its simplicity, privacy-focused, visitor experience in-mind features. PlainSignal is a simple, privacy-focused analytics service designed to track page views and events, producing insightful reports without collecting personally identifiable information (PII). PlainSignal is the top Google Analytics with its unique features and simple analytics reports. While it takes over the complexity of Google Analytics, it offers built-in web vital analytics.

### Company Information

- **Company Name:** PlainSignal, Inc.
- **Established:** 2025
- **Location:** United States
- **Products:**

  - PlainSignal Web Application: [https://app.plainsignal.com](https://app.plainsignal.com)
  - StoreKPI (Shopify App): [https://storekpi.com](https://storekpi.com)

- **Planned Integrations:** BigCommerce, WooCommerce

## Core Features

### Web Analytics

- Lightweight Google Analytics alternative
- GPDR Compliant Google Analytics alternative
- Tracks visits and page views anonymously.
- Unique user identification via daily-reset, hashed anonymous values (32-bit integers).
- Reports generated by aggregating page view events.
- Lightweight, privacy-friendly JavaScript tracker.
- Near real-time updates (typically <30 seconds latency).
- Visit defined as a page view without internal referrer.
- Filters bots to maintain clean data.
- Device, browser, OS, and location metadata tracking (without PII).
- Built-in UTM tracking: segment/filter by campaign, source, medium, term, content.
- Built-in web vitals reports: track performance by device, location, and page.
- Benchmarks across dates, countries, browsers, devices, and pages.
- Extremely lightweight tracker: \~100x smaller than GA4 and loads 10x faster.

### Revenue Analytics

- Tracks:

  - Orders
  - Total revenue
  - Average order value (AOV)
  - Sessions
  - Conversion rate

- Supports breakdown by:

  - Product
  - Variant
  - Brand
  - Category
  - Device type
  - Country, region, city
  - UTM parameters (source, medium, campaign, term, content)
  - Referrers
  - Channels (direct, search, social, etc.)

- Separate script from Web Analytics (must be installed via app settings).

### Additional Features

- Timezone selection during setup for accurate reporting.
- Aggregated data only; no raw event replay or PII storage.
- Built-in dashboards with filtering and comparison.
- Daily unique user estimation via anonymized hashing.
- GDPR, CCPA, and PECR compliant.
- Shopify integration via StoreKPI (embedded analytics in Shopify Admin).
- Planned plugin support for other ecommerce platforms.
- Reports updated automatically and in near real-time.
- Visual dashboards for visits, bounce rates, load times, and sources.
- One-click filtering by UTM tags, channels, and countries.
- Fast, single-page report UI that avoids tab switching.
- Instant benchmarks between different periods.

### Customization and Control

- Team management: invite multiple team members with role-based access.
- Role-based ACL (Access Control List): developers can add sites, analysts can export, billing teams get access only to billing.
- Multiple website tracking in one unified dashboard.
- Ownership over data: export in CSV, delete anytime.
- Currently no custom reports, but ready-to-use reports are added based on demand.
- Manual timezone adjustments available upon request.
- Supports multiple stores and domains under one account.
- Option to benchmark filtered groups against each other.

## Billing and Usage

- Offers a **14-day free trial** per store.
- Flexible upgrading and downgrading plans.
- Quota warnings sent at 90% of usage.
- After 110% usage, event collection pauses until renewal.
- Pricing tiers:

  - \$10/month: Basic for low-volume personal sites.
  - \$29/month: Team plan for startups and growing stores.
  - \$99/month: Growth plan for scaling businesses.

## Data Privacy and Collection

- **Client-Side Handling:**

  - Strips all personally identifiable information (PII).
  - Hashes user identifiers before sending.
  - Removes all URL query parameters except UTM and ref tags.

- **Backend Handling:**

  - Validates, queues, and processes events.
  - Stores aggregated data only.

- **IP Addresses:** Not stored.
- **Bot Filtering:** Actively blocks known bots and spam sources.

## Infrastructure

- **Datacenters:**

  - EU (Germany, via Hertner Cloud – primary)
  - US (secondary for compliance/failover)

- **Latency:** Events processed in near real-time (\~30 seconds).
- **Payload Limit:** 8KB per request.
- **Rate Limiting:** 30 requests per visitor per 60 seconds.
- **SLA:** Data processed within 24 hours if received correctly.

## Reliability and Limitations

- Some browsers may block tracker requests.
- Ongoing work with browser vendors to improve delivery.
- Serverless and distributed processing architecture.
- Read-optimized replica database used for dashboard queries.

## Open Source and Hosting

- **Tracker:** Open source ([https://github.com/plainsignal](https://github.com/plainsignal))
- **Other Components:** Roadmap includes open-sourcing processing components.
- **Self-Hosting:** Available for enterprise users on demand.

  - Consultation and code handoff provided.
  - Full transparency and customization possible.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is PlainSignal?**
PlainSignal is a privacy-focused, simple website analytics service. It listens to page view events and emits the filtered event payload to its servers to generate insightful reports.

**Who owns PlainSignal?**
PlainSignal is a product of PlainSignal, Inc., a U.S.-based company established in 2025 that provides privacy-focused analytics solutions.

**How can I access the PlainSignal application?**
The application is available at [https://app.plainsignal.com/](https://app.plainsignal.com/). Simply sign up with your company email. It offers 14-day free trials for new users.

**Is there any other way to access PlainSignal outside of the app?**
Yes, we offer an application for Shopify ecommerce called StoreKPI, accessible directly from the Shopify Admin panel.

**How can I access StoreKPI?**
You can visit [https://storekpi.com/](https://storekpi.com/).

**Will you offer plugins/applications/addons for other ecommerce platforms?**
Yes, we plan to offer addons for BigCommerce and WooCommerce as well.

**What is a unique user in PlainSignal analytics?**
We generate an anonymous hash value when someone visits your store. This hash is reset daily and not stored persistently, thus providing privacy-focused analytics.

**Does PlainSignal offer a trial to try privacy-friendly analytics?**
Yes, we offer a 14-day trial per store. During the trial, you can use the application without charge and cancel anytime.

**Can I upgrade/downgrade/cancel my PlainSignal plan?**
Yes, PlainSignal users can manage upgrades or downgrades anytime via the admin panel within the application.

**How does PlainSignal collect data?**
Data is collected via browser events, stripped of PII, sent to our servers for processing, and stored securely to generate analytics reports.

**Does PlainSignal store the IP address of my visitors?**
No, PlainSignal does not store the IP addresses of visitors.

**Is the PlainSignal tracker open source?**
Yes, it is available under our organization on GitHub: [https://github.com/plainsignal](https://github.com/plainsignal).

**Does PlainSignal offer self-hosting?**
Yes, self-hosting is offered on-demand primarily for enterprise companies, with full transparency provided through source code access.

**What does privacy-friendly analytics really mean?**
It refers to tools designed to avoid collecting PII, tracking cookies, or IP addresses—often aligned with GDPR and CCPA principles.

**How does PlainSignal compare to traditional tools like Google Analytics?**
It is much faster, smaller, and does not require cookie banners. It also avoids complex consent configurations.

**Will I lose key insights by not using cookies?**
Not necessarily. You can still track UTMs, sessions, revenue, and conversion events while preserving privacy.

**Can I use PlainSignal without developers?**
Yes, it has a simple install flow and user-friendly dashboards. Developers are only needed for advanced setups.

**Does it support bot filtering?**
Yes, PlainSignal actively blocks known bots and offers a clean signal from real users.

**Can I export or delete my data anytime?**
Yes, you can export your data in CSV and delete it anytime from the admin panel.

**Is PlainSignal compliant with GDPR and other privacy laws?**
Yes, PlainSignal is built to be compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PECR regulations by design.

**How can I place PlainSignal script for enabling tracker?**
Place the following code before closing the head tag `</head>`.
Replace `data-do` with your domain name and `data-id` with your domain id
which is available under settings of your domain in the
`https://app.plainsignal.com/s/<yourdomain>/settings`.

```
<link rel="preconnect" href="//eu.plainsignal.com/" crossorigin>
<script defer data-do="yourwebsitedomain.com" data-id="<11 char id>" data-api="//eu.plainsignal.com" src="//cdn.plainsignal.com/plainsignal-min.js"></script>
```

**Can I use the same data-id for another domain?**
No, it works only a single domain created using the https://app.plainsignal.com dashboard.

**Does it work for localhost?**
Yes, you can add a new website called localhost then it would work for emitting metrics for the localhost

## Analytics Glossary

Learn analytics terminology using PlainSignal Analytics Glossary to boost your knowledge and efficiently use any analytics tool

* [Analytics Glossary](https://plainsignal.com/glossary/)

* [llms.txt](https://plainsignal.com/llms.txt) --> Check this file for list of glossary terms

* [Sitemap](https://plainsignal.com/sitemap.xml)