Technical Founder Needing Session Replay with Strict Privacy

ANALYTICS TOOL RECOMMENDATION

Your Profile:

• Technical founder: Can self-host infrastructure
• Early growth stage: 2K MAU, $4K MRR
• Tight budget: $50/month maximum
• Critical privacy requirement: GDPR-strict
• Primary needs: User journey tracking + session replay

CRITICAL LEGAL CONSIDERATION FIRST

Your requirement “no EU data processing allowed” creates a significant compliance challenge. If your web app is publicly accessible to EU visitors (even if you don’t target them), GDPR still applies under extraterritorial provisions. Simply processing data only in the US does NOT exempt you from GDPR.

Two compliant paths forward:

Path A: Accept EU data processing (GDPR-compliant)
Use EU-hosted or self-hosted analytics with session replay

Path B: Block EU visitors entirely
Geofence your app to US-only traffic, which eliminates GDPR applicability but limits market reach

I’ll proceed assuming Path A - you want GDPR compliance while processing data.

RECOMMENDATION: OpenReplay (Self-Hosted on US Infrastructure)

Monthly Cost: $0-25/month (free software + $15-25 hosting at your scale)

Why OpenReplay for Your Context:

• Completely free open-source software (MIT licensed)
• Full data ownership - deploy on your own US-based infrastructure
• Session replay built-in - not an expensive add-on
• User journey tracking via event tracking + funnels
• Technical founder-friendly - Docker deployment in <1 hour
• GDPR-compliant by design - you control all data, retention, deletion
• Scales to 50K+ sessions/month on basic infrastructure
• No per-session fees - your only cost is infrastructure

Critical advantage: At $50/month budget with session replay requirement, commercial tools don’t work:

• LogRocket: $69-295/month minimum
• PostHog Cloud: $50-150/month for your needs
• Matomo Cloud + session recording: ~$44/month
• Plausible/Fathom: No session replay capability

OpenReplay gives you enterprise-grade session replay + analytics for hosting costs only.

SETUP GUIDE (60 minutes)

Prerequisites:

• DigitalOcean/AWS/Hetzner account
• Domain for your analytics instance
• Basic Docker knowledge

Step 1: Deploy OpenReplay Instance (30 min)

Option A: DigitalOcean 1-Click (Recommended for $50 budget)

1. Visit: https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/openreplay
2. Click “Create OpenReplay Droplet”
3. Choose $12/month droplet (4GB RAM, 2 vCPU) - handles 2K MAU easily
4. Select US datacenter region (e.g., NYC3, SFO3)
5. Wait 5 minutes for provisioning
6. SSH into droplet and complete setup wizard:

ssh root@your-droplet-ip
cd /var/lib/openreplay/scripts/helmcharts
./openreplay-cli -I  # Interactive install

7. Configure:
   • Domain: analytics.yourdomain.com
   • SSL: Let’s Encrypt (automatic)
   • Region: US

Step 2: Integrate OpenReplay Tracker (15 min)

Install tracker in your web app:

npm install @openreplay/tracker

Initialize in your app:

import Tracker from '@openreplay/tracker';

const tracker = new Tracker({
  projectKey: "YOUR_PROJECT_KEY",
  ingestPoint: "https://analytics.yourdomain.com/ingest",
  __DISABLE_SECURE_MODE: false,
});

tracker.start();

// Identify users for journey tracking
tracker.setUserID(user.id);
tracker.setMetadata('email', user.email);
tracker.setMetadata('plan', user.plan);

Step 3: Track User Journeys (15 min)

Custom events for journey tracking:

// Track key product events
tracker.event('feature_used', {
  feature_name: 'dashboard',
  user_segment: 'paying'
});

tracker.event('checkout_started', {
  plan: 'pro',
  value: 49
});

tracker.event('onboarding_completed', {
  time_to_complete: 320
});

Funnel tracking (in OpenReplay UI):

1. Go to Funnels tab
2. Create funnel: Signup page visit -> onboarding_started -> onboarding_completed -> feature_used
3. See drop-off rates + watch session replays of users who dropped

Step 4: Configure Privacy & GDPR Compliance

const tracker = new Tracker({
  projectKey: "YOUR_PROJECT_KEY",
  
  // Privacy controls
  respectDoNotTrack: true,
  obscureTextEmails: true,
  obscureInputEmails: true,
  
  // IP anonymization
  network: {
    capturePayload: false,
    sanitize: (data) => {
      delete data.headers['Authorization'];
      return data;
    }
  }
});

In OpenReplay dashboard > Project Settings:

• Enable “Sanitize session data”
• Set data retention: 90 days (GDPR recommended)
• Enable “Delete user data on request” workflow
• Mask all input fields by default

YOUR TRACKING PLAN

Auto-Captured (No Code):

• Page views and navigation
• Clicks, scrolls, rage clicks
• Form interactions
• Console errors
• Network requests (sanitized)
• Device/browser info
• Session duration

Custom Events for User Journeys:

// Acquisition
tracker.event('signup_started', { source: utm_source });
tracker.event('signup_completed', { plan: 'free' });

// Activation
tracker.event('first_login');
tracker.event('profile_completed');
tracker.event('first_feature_used', { feature: 'dashboard' });

// Revenue
tracker.event('upgrade_viewed');
tracker.event('checkout_started', { plan: 'pro', price: 49 });
tracker.event('payment_completed', { mrr: 49 });

// Retention
tracker.event('daily_active');
tracker.event('feature_adopted', { feature: 'reports', days_since_signup: 7 });

// Churn indicators
tracker.event('cancellation_started');
tracker.event('support_ticket_created', { urgency: 'high' });

WHY NOT OTHER TOOLS

PostHog Self-Hosted:

• More complex setup (requires Kubernetes for production)
• Heavier infrastructure requirements (8GB+ RAM minimum)
• Would exceed $50/month budget at your scale
• Consider when: 5K+ MAU, $50K+ ARR, need product experimentation

Matomo On-Premise + Session Recording Plugin:

• Free core, but session recording plugin: $259/year (~$22/month)
• Plus hosting: ~$15/month
• Total: $37/month (close to budget, viable alternative)
• Consider if: You want more mature ecosystem

LogRocket:

• Cloud-only (no self-hosting at your budget)
• Starts at $69/month (Team tier)
• Consider when: $200+ analytics budget, enterprise customers

Plausible / Fathom:

• No session replay capability (deal-breaker for you)
• Great for simple privacy-friendly analytics
• Consider if: You drop session replay requirement

Mixpanel / Amplitude:

• Free tiers exist but session replay not included
• Expensive when you scale ($200-500/month at 10K MAU)
• Consider when: Mature SaaS (10K+ MAU) focused on funnel optimization

OpenReplay advantage: Only tool that delivers both session replay + user journey tracking + self-hosting within $50/month at your scale.

COST PROJECTION

Stage	MAU	Sessions/month	Infrastructure	Total
Now	2K	~8K	DigitalOcean 4GB ($12/mo)	$12/mo
2x growth	4K	~16K	DigitalOcean 8GB ($24/mo)	$24/mo
5x growth	10K	~40K	DigitalOcean 16GB ($48/mo)	$48/mo
10x growth	20K	~80K	AWS t3.xlarge (~$70/mo)	$70/mo

Notes:

• OpenReplay software remains free forever (open source)
• Your only cost is infrastructure
• Scales linearly with no per-session fees

GDPR CONSENT IMPLEMENTATION (for EU visitors)

// Show consent banner for EU visitors only
if (userLocation === 'EU') {
  showConsentBanner({
    message: "We use analytics to improve our product. Data is processed in the US.",
    onAccept: () => tracker.start(),
    onReject: () => { /* Don't track */ }
  });
} else {
  tracker.start();
}

Privacy Policy Template:

“Analytics and Session Replay:
We use self-hosted OpenReplay for analytics and session replay to improve our product.

• Data storage: United States
• Data retention: 90 days
• Data collected: Usage events, session recordings (with sensitive data masked)
• Third-party access: None (we self-host)
• Your rights: Access, deletion, portability (contact privacy@yourdomain.com)”

FINAL RECOMMENDATION SUMMARY

For your specific context:

• Budget: $50/month max -> OpenReplay self-hosted fits ($12-25/month)
• Technical capacity: Founder -> Can deploy Docker-based OpenReplay
• Requirements: Session replay + user journey -> OpenReplay has both
• Privacy: GDPR-strict -> Self-hosting gives full control
• Scale: 2K MAU -> DigitalOcean 4GB droplet sufficient

Action plan:

1. Deploy OpenReplay on DigitalOcean this weekend (1-2 hours)
2. Integrate tracker next week (1 hour)
3. Start watching session replays to improve product
4. Re-evaluate at 10K MAU (infrastructure costs approach $50/month)

You’ll have enterprise-grade session replay + analytics for $12-25/month, keeping most of your $50 budget available.