{
  "id": 10605975,
  "title": "how i track funnels without cookies",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/29/how-i-track-funnels-without-cookies",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-29T04:11:20.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/omyvnss/how-i-track-funnels-without-cookies-5fd1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Omyaduvanshi, an 18-year-old applied AI developer, has created a cookieless alternative to Google Analytics called Cloudline. The tool requires just one script tag under 2KB, with no cookies or stored IPs. One of its standout features is funnels, which describe analytics data without relying on personal identities.\n\nA funnel shows the number of people who saw a pricing page, clicked a start free button, and then signed up. Traditionally, funnels require tracking individual visitors through each step of the process. However, Cloudline removes the need for this personal tracking, focusing instead on counts of pageviews and button clicks per page.\n\nCloudline tracks four things per pageview: the page itself, the referrer, screen size, and time. The data is then stacked in a specific order relevant to the user's needs. Funnel tracking does not attempt to guess the path a visitor took, as this would introduce unnecessary complexity. Instead, users explicitly define the steps in their funnels.\n\nThe tool allows users to add a single line of data-cloudline-track to any button they want to track. This establishes a connection between the pricing pageview, the start free button click, and the signup pageview. While Cloudline cannot follow individual visitors, the funnel shows the counts for each step, making it clear whether the pricing page is effective or if the next page fails to convert visitors.\n\nOmyaduvanshi uses Cloudline to examine one funnel for each important path on his website, rather than tracking multiple funnels simultaneously. By watching real-time visits, he can quickly determine whether changes to a page have positively or negatively impacted the funnel. The tradeoff for this cookieless approach is the loss of per-visitor journey data, but Omyaduvanshi believes the benefits outweigh this drawback.",
  "summary": "i'm om yaduvanshi. i'm 18, an applied ai developer building cloudline , a cookieless google analytics alternative . one script tag, under 2 KB , no cookies, no stored ips. funnels are the one analytics feature that seems to need identity. a funnel says: 100 people saw the pricing page, 40 clicked start free, 12 signed up. to connect those steps you usually follow one person through the whole…",
  "key_points": [
    "18-year-old AI developer creates Cloudline, cookieless Google Analytics alternative",
    "Funnel tracking tracks pageviews and button clicks without personal identities",
    "Users define funnel steps explicitly; Cloudline shows step counts, not individual paths"
  ],
  "editors_take": "This development lets website owners analyze visitor behavior in aggregate without compromising user privacy, shifting the trade-off between data granularity and anonymity in favor of those seeking to avoid personal tracking.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}