Question 1

Is Recorde free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Recorde is open source under the Apache License 2.0. There are no plans, seats, or pageview caps. You pay only for the server you run it on.

Question 2

Where is my data stored?

Accepted Answer

On your own server, in a TimescaleDB (PostgreSQL) database that the Docker Compose stack runs for you. Nothing is sent to Recorde or any third party. Wherever you deploy is where your data lives.

Question 3

What do I need to self-host it?

Accepted Answer

A Linux server with Docker and the Compose plugin, two DNS records (one for the dashboard, one for the ingestion endpoint), and optionally an SMTP server or Resend API key for sign-in emails. The deployment guide walks through a single-server install behind Caddy for automatic HTTPS. A 2 vCPU / 2 GB VPS is plenty for most personal and small business sites.

Question 4

Does Recorde use cookies?

Accepted Answer

No. Visitors are counted with a rolling session ID kept in sessionStorage, which expires after 30 minutes of inactivity and is cleared when the tab closes. No cookies are set, and there is no fingerprinting or cross-site tracking.

Question 5

Are IP addresses stored?

Accepted Answer

No. The IP address is used in memory to derive a country (via a GeoLite2 database you supply) and is discarded before anything is written to the database. Without the GeoLite2 file, country simply shows as Unknown.

Question 6

Can visitors opt out?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Global Privacy Control is honoured automatically. Beyond that, any page with #recorde-optout in the URL disables tracking for that visitor, there is a recorde.optOut() JavaScript call, and an optional data-privacy attribute shows a small badge visitors can toggle themselves.

Question 7

What does the dashboard show?

Accepted Answer

Pageviews, visitors, bounce rate, a realtime counter, top pages, referrers, countries, devices, browsers, operating systems, UTM campaigns, entry pages, user journeys, and custom events with metadata. Data can be exported as CSV or JSON.

Question 8

Can I track custom events?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Call recorde.track("signup") from your site's JavaScript, optionally with a metadata object of up to 50 keys. Events are fire-and-forget and survive page navigations. The custom events guide in the repository has the full reference.

Question 9

Does it work with single-page apps?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The script listens for History API navigations and hash changes and records a new pageview whenever the path changes. No extra configuration is needed for React, Vue, Angular, SvelteKit, or Next.js.

Question 10

Can I switch from Google Analytics?

Accepted Answer

Yes. One script tag to install, and you see real-time data within minutes. You can run Recorde alongside your existing analytics for as long as you like and compare the two.

Question 11

Can my team see the dashboard?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can invite read-only viewers per site. Registration can be closed with a single environment variable so only invited emails can join your instance.

Question 12

Who maintains Recorde, and can I contribute?

Accepted Answer

Recorde is built in the open by an independent developer. Issues and pull requests are welcome on GitHub; the contributing guide covers the layout of the repository and how to run the checks CI runs.

Blog

Recorde is now open source

Recorde Setup Guide: Privacy-First Analytics in Two Minutes