Best OpenPanel Alternative

Helion combines Plausible-style web analytics simplicity with Mixpanel-style product analytics depth. High-performance, cookie-free by default, and extremely easy to self-host.

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Open-source
Privacy-first
Cookieless
High-performance

This is our web analytics dashboard, its an out-of-the-box experience so you can start understanding your traffic and engagement right away.

Why consider Helion over OpenPanel?

OpenPanel is a modern, open-source product analytics tool designed to capture user actions and build simple dashboards. It offers a fresh, minimalist approach to event tracking. However, while OpenPanel is a great starting point for basic event logging, it lacks the comprehensive feature set, enterprise reliability, and privacy-first design required by scaling teams.

Helion excels by offering a complete package of web and product analytics in one lightweight script. While OpenPanel focuses purely on custom events, Helion provides both Plausible-style cookie-free web metrics and Mixpanel-style product depth (including advanced funnels, user retention, cohort analysis, and session replays). Helion is completely cookie-free by default and operates strictly on EU-based infrastructure, making compliance with GDPR a breeze.

For developers, Helion's self-hosting is second to none. Our guided, one-command Docker Compose setup wizard configures SSL, databases (PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, and Redis), and system environment variables in minutes. OpenPanel self-hosting can require manual setup and complex environment debugging. Helion's JavaScript SDK is also optimized for high-performance and is extremely lightweight at ~2.3 KB.

If you want a highly performant, privacy-first analytics solution that combines simple web stats with deep product event tracking and a seamless self-hosting developer experience, Helion is the perfect alternative to OpenPanel.

Helion vs OpenPanel: Which is right for you?

Both are open-source analytics platforms, but they focus on different areas. OpenPanel is a simple event tracker, while Helion provides a complete suite of web and product analytics.

Choose Helion if...

Teams requiring both web traffic metrics and deep product analytics in one tool

Projects requiring strict cookieless compliance (GDPR) without banners

Developers seeking a robust, one-command self-hosted ClickHouse setup

Choose OpenPanel if...

Developers looking for a minimal, lightweight event-only logging setup

Teams who only need a basic dashboard for custom events

Users who prefer OpenPanel's specific UI aesthetics

Comprehensive analytics dashboard with real-time insights and customizable views.

Key differences at a glance

Compare Helion and OpenPanel across key developer and business requirements.

Feature	Helion	OpenPanel
Analytics Scope	Combined Web & Product Analytics	Product Event Tracking Only
Privacy & Cookies	Cookie-free by default	Uses cookies/local storage for tracking
Advanced Analytics	Funnels, Cohorts, Retention & Session Replay	Funnels & Events Only
Self-Hosting Ease	Guided setup wizard (ClickHouse + Postgres + Redis)	Manual Docker / Docker Compose setup
Page Views & Visitors
Traffic Sources & Referrers		OpenPanel tracks events, but doesn't auto-parse/present web traffic referrers in a dedicated web dashboard
Geographic Data
Device & Browser Stats
Custom Event Tracking
Funnel Analysis
Retention Analysis		Helion offers full retention grids; OpenPanel has limited tracking for user retention
User Profiles
Cohort Analysis
Session Replay
Cookie-Free by Default		Helion is designed to bypass consent banners; OpenPanel uses tracking cookies/storage by default
Self-Hosting Option		Both are open-source and self-hostable
Docker Compose Stack
One-Command Setup Wizard

Feature comparison

A detailed breakdown of features available in Helion and OpenPanel.

Page Views & Visitors

Traffic Sources & Referrers

Geographic Data

Device & Browser Stats

Custom Event Tracking

Funnel Analysis

Retention Analysis

User Profiles

Track events in real-time as they happen with instant updates and live monitoring.

Technical comparison

For developers building and scaling their applications.

Feature	Helion	OpenPanel
SDK Size	~2.3 KB (gzipped)	~3.5 KB (gzipped)
Database Engine	ClickHouse (analytics) + PostgreSQL (config) + Redis	ClickHouse / PostgreSQL
Supported Platforms	JavaScript/TypeScript React Next.js Vue Astro Remix React Native Flutter iOS (Swift) Android (Kotlin) Node.js Python	JavaScript React Next.js Vue Node.js Python
Open Source License	AGPL-3.0	AGPL-3.0Both are open-source under the AGPL license

Pricing comparison

Both tools are open-source and free to self-host. For cloud hosting, here is how the pricing scales.

Helion

Event-based, transparent

Starts at $2.50/month for 5,000 events.

All features are unlocked at every tier.

Self-hosting is completely free for unlimited events.

Free tier:Self-hosting (unlimited events)

Free trial:30 days

OpenPanel

Event-based, tiered subscription

Free tier available for up to 10k events/month.

Paid cloud plans start at $9/month and scale based on event volume.

Self-hosting is free.

Free tier:Yes (up to 10k events/month)

View pricing

Migrating from OpenPanel to Helion

Both platforms utilize a simple JS SDK and custom event tracking. You can transition quickly.

Difficulty:easy

Estimated time:30 minutes

Replace the SDK

Uninstall the OpenPanel tracker and install the Helion SDK in your application.

Map tracking calls

Convert `op.track('event')` calls to `op.track('event')` (the syntax is identical, making replacement straightforward).

Enable cookieless tracking

Configure Helion to run cookie-free to bypass cookie consent banners entirely.

Configure dashboards & funnels

Set up your dashboards, funnels, and retention charts in the Helion UI.

SDK Compatibility

Both SDKs use an event-based tracking mechanism with very similar API calls.

Historical Data Import

Most users run both tools in parallel during the migration phase.

Why choose Helion over OpenPanel

Understand the primary use cases where Helion provides more value.

Combined Analytics in One Tool

Helion tracks both high-level marketing pageviews and deep product actions in a single dashboard, so you don't need separate web and product analytics tools.

Strict Cookie-Free Tracking

Ensure total GDPR compliance without annoying cookie consent banners by utilizing Helion's cookieless tracking system by default.

Seamless Self-Hosting Experience

Skip the complex database setup. Helion's Docker Compose stack includes a guided setup script to automate configuration and security settings.

Generate detailed reports and insights with customizable metrics and visualizations.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about migrating from OpenPanel to Helion.

Related resources

Explore more comparisons and guides to help you choose the right analytics tool.

Ready to make the switch?

Test Helion free for 30 days, you'll not be charged anything unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

Start with Helion GitHub