Liwan

A lightweight, privacy-first web analytics platform written in Rust. No cookies, no database, under 1KB tracking script.

Open source alternative to:

Google Analytics

Plausible Analytics

Fathom Analytics

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Liwan is a self-hosted web analytics tool designed for privacy-conscious website owners. Written in Rust, it runs as a single binary with no database or complex setup required. The entire tracking script is a single line of code under 1KB that works with any website.

Liwan collects no cookies, performs no cross-site tracking, and uses no persistent identifiers. All data stays on your server. Despite its privacy-first approach, it provides accurate real-time analytics including visitor counts, page views, referrers, and automatic bot detection and filtering.

Liwan is extremely resource-efficient — it can run on a cheap VPS, an old Mac Mini, or even a Raspberry Pi. It uses tokio for async I/O, making it fast and lightweight. The dashboard updates in real-time as new visitors arrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Liwan use cookies or require a cookie banner?

No. Liwan does not use cookies, does not perform cross-site tracking, and does not create persistent identifiers. Because of this, you do not need a cookie banner or consent dialog for Liwan tracking under GDPR or ePrivacy directives.

What are the system requirements to self-host Liwan?

Liwan ships as a single self-contained binary with no database required. It can run on a cheap VPS, a Raspberry Pi, or any low-resource machine. A Docker image is also available via GitHub Container Registry.

How do I add Liwan tracking to my website?

Add a single line of JavaScript to your site pointing to your Liwan instance. The tracking script is under 1KB in size and works with any website framework or static site generator.

Does Liwan filter bots and crawlers?

Yes. Liwan automatically detects and filters out bots and crawlers so your analytics data reflects real human visitors only.

Can I see real-time traffic in Liwan?

Yes. The Liwan dashboard updates in real-time as new visitors arrive, showing live page views, referrers, and visitor data without needing to refresh.

Visit Liwan

License

Apache-2.0

Self hostable

Yes

OpenAltFinder Score

74/100

Project Health (50%)

48/100

License (20%)

100/100

Self-hostable (20%)

100/100

Recency (10%)

100/100

How scoring works

Repository details

Version

liwan-v1.6.0

Created

6/14/2024

Stars

203

Forks

Open issues

Last commit

8/24/2026

Updated 8/25/2026, 6:00:18 PM

View Repository

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