The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2018–2026
Simple Analytics: bootstrapped, no-investor analytics now at ~$613k ARR
Two-person Dutch analytics startup with zero investors and a public dashboard: no cookies, no VC, ~$613k ARR from 1,320 paying customers.
Simple Analytics
What the business is
Simple Analytics is a cookie-free, privacy-first web analytics SaaS — pageviews, referrers and top pages with no personal data — positioned as the simple, GDPR-safe alternative to Google Analytics.
How it started
Dutch freelance developer Adriaan van Rossum started Simple Analytics in October 2018 after his girlfriend challenged him to build something better than Google Analytics: no cookies, no personal data, just the numbers site owners actually check. He freelanced part-time to pay the bills, charged customers from day one, and launched a minimal pageviews-only version on Hacker News about two months later — it went viral and brought in the first paying users, Pieter Levels among them.
What happened
The Hacker News launch plus a Product Hunt run (864 upvotes, #3 of the day) drew roughly 80,000 visitors. Adriaan reached $10k MRR by July 2021 on his own; in 2022 Iron Brands joined as marketing co-founder and they began newsjacking every Google Analytics privacy story to Hacker News — about 60% of posts went viral until the site banned them — then switched to long-tail SEO and programmatic pages. Revenue passed ~$30k MRR and $384k ARR by 2024.
How it ended up
Still running as a two-person, 100% founder-owned company with no investors: the public dashboard shows about $51k MRR (~$613k ARR) from 1,320 paying customers as of September 2026.
Background
Simple Analytics is a privacy-first, cookie-free web analytics tool from the Netherlands, built as a deliberate anti-Google-Analytics: no personal data, no consent banners, just pageviews, referrers and top pages in a simple dashboard. Founder Adriaan van Rossum started it in October 2018 after a conversation with his girlfriend, while freelancing part-time to pay the bills, and launched a bare-bones pageviews-only version on Hacker News about two months later.
The bet was that website owners would pay for a simple, privacy-respecting alternative to free Google Analytics — and that running as an 'open startup' that published every revenue number would be a moat, not a weakness. The company hit $10k MRR by July 2021, added marketing co-founder Iron Brands in 2022, grew through newsjacked Google Analytics privacy stories and programmatic SEO to roughly $384k ARR, and today publishes MRR, costs and profit on a live public dashboard.
As of September 2026 Simple Analytics is still a two-person company with no investors and 100% founder ownership. Its public dashboard shows about $51k MRR (~$613k ARR) from 1,320 paying customers, and the service has processed more than 21 billion pageviews across customer sites. Customers include Hyundai, DuckDuckGo, Michelin and the Bank of England, and the stated goal remains crossing $1M ARR without outside money.
What has to be true
- Privacy regulation made cookie-based analytics legally risky, turning privacy-first from a feature into a purchase reason.
- Charging from day one forced real product-market fit — there was no investor subsidy masking a product nobody paid for.
- Radical transparency (public MRR, costs, profit) worked as marketing and built trust with the privacy-minded developers it sold to.
- Doing less than Google Analytics — pageviews only, no cookies — was the differentiator, not a limitation.
- SEO and newsjacking delivered distribution without ad spend, so growth stayed profitable.
What can be applied
A paid product plus radical transparency can replace venture capital: publishing revenue builds trust, and a two-person team stays profitable because it never has to outgrow its niche.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Simple Analytics remains a two-person, fully founder-owned company: the live Open Startup dashboard shows ~$51k MRR (~$613k ARR) from 1,320 paying customers and 21+ billion pageviews collected privacy-first. Customers include Hyundai, DuckDuckGo, Michelin and the Bank of England. The founders still aim to reach $1M ARR without investors, doubling down on SEO and product-led growth.
Sources
- Open Startup — Simple Analytics financial and customer happiness metrics
- How Adriaan & Iron bootstrapped Simple Analytics from zero to $380k ARR in 5 years
- Simple Analytics Co-Founder Interview
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