Comment on Rybbit - Open source Google Analytics replacement

• spacelord@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  @Goldflag** I appreciate the intent behind Rybbit, but I have to respectfully disagree with the “only very slightly so” characterization. Looking at your official comparison table, the self-hosted version is missing:

  • Pages View
  • Web Vitals
  • Email reports
  • Google Search Console integration
  • VPN/Crawler/ASN tracking
  • Google/GitHub OAuth
  • Email support

  That’s 7 significant features—which seems more than “very slightly” different.

  More importantly, this raises AGPL compliance questions. Under AGPLv3 Section 13, if users interact with modified AGPL software over a network (your cloud version), you’re required to make the complete corresponding source code available to those users. If these cloud-only features are integrated into the same AGPL-licensed codebase, withholding them from the public repository while running them as a network service appears to conflict with the license terms.

  There are really only two compliant scenarios here:

  1. These features exist in the public repo but are just marketed as “cloud-only” (in which case the comparison table’s misleading)
  2. These features are truly separate proprietary code that interfaces with Rybbit without being part of the AGPL-licensed work (which would require careful architectural separation)

  If it’s neither—if these are AGPL-covered features running in your cloud service but withheld from the repo—that’s exactly the “loophole” the AGPL was designed to close. The irony is that you criticized Plausible and Fathom for having “much inferior self-hosted versions,” yet this appears to be a similar approach.

  Could you clarify the licensing status of these cloud-only features? Are they in the public repo but disabled by default, or are they proprietary additions that don’t derive from the AGPL codebase?

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  • custard_swollower@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    AGPL means they are licensing it to you, they are not bound by the license because they are the copyright owners.

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    • spacelord@sh.itjust.works ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That’s misleading. While copyright owners aren’t bound by their own license, AGPL Section 13 requires that when they run AGPL software as a network service, they must make the complete source available to users.

      The AGPL was specifically designed to close the “SaaS loophole.” Being the copyright owner doesn’t exempt you from AGPL’s network service requirements if you’re distributing under that license.

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  • ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Thank you for your service.

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  • Goldflag@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Everything is in the repo and cloud features are just toggled off in the self-hosted build.

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    • spacelord@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      @Goldflag,

      Thanks for clarifying! Good to hear everything’s in the repo and that it’s truly AGPL compliant.

      Since as self-hosters we already carry the burden of maintenance, updates, security, and infrastructure costs that cloud users don’t, would you consider documenting how to enable the cloud features in self-hosted setups?

      I see the docs cover basic environment variables, but not for Pages View, Web Vitals, or VPN/ASN tracking. Even if some features need extra config (SMTP, OAuth creds), having that documented would help those of us willing to do the work.

      That would truly differentiate Rybbit from Plausible/Fathom—not just code parity, but empowering self-hosters with full feature access.

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• osprior@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  That’s excellent and very clear, thank you for the explanation.

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