Swetrix vs Vercel Web Analytics: A Comprehensive Comparison

Swetrix and Vercel Web Analytics are both modern, privacy-friendly tools for tracking website usage. However, our philosophy and capabilities are vastly different.

Vercel Web Analytics is a "convenience" feature - a toggle you switch on if you're hosting on Vercel. It's integrated, easy to set up, but surprisingly limited and creates a massive vendor lock-in. Swetrix, on the other hand, is a full-featured, platform-agnostic analytics suite designed to give you deep insights regardless of where you host.

Here is a quick comparison to help you decide.

Why choose Swetrix over Vercel Web Analytics?

	Swetrix	Vercel Web Analytics
Core Features
Real-time Analytics
Custom Events
Page views
Live visitors count
UTM Tracking
Device stats (browser, OS, type)
Email Reports
Advanced Features
Performance Monitoring (Web Vitals)		(Separate "Speed Insights" tool)
User Flow Analysis
Error Tracking
Alerts / Notifications
Geolocation map visualisation
Funnels
Segments
Multiple Domains per Site
API access
Platform & Freedom
Works on ANY hosting		(Vercel only)
Zero Vendor Lock-in
Open Source
Self-hostable
Data Policies
Data Retention	Unlimited	Limited (1-12 months)
Cookie-less Tracking
EU data residency		Global
Pricing & Support
Entry price	$19.00	Free*
Customer support

The "Ecosystem" Trap

Vercel Web Analytics is designed with one main goal: to keep you on Vercel. It only works if your site is hosted on their infrastructure. If you ever decide to move your frontend to a VPS, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or a traditional server to save costs, you lose your analytics instantly.

Swetrix is infrastructure-agnostic. You can host your site on Vercel today, AWS tomorrow, and a Raspberry Pi next week - your analytics history stays with you. We believe your data shouldn't be held hostage by your hosting provider.

More Than Just "Counters"

Vercel's analytics are extremely basic. They show you how many people visited, but rarely what they actually experienced.

Swetrix offers a suite of advanced tools that Vercel completely lacks:

• User Flows: Vercel tells you which pages are popular. Swetrix visualises the exact path users take through your site, helping you understand where they get stuck.
• Funnels: Want to know why users aren't signing up? Swetrix Funnels show you the exact drop-off rates at each step of your conversion process.
• Error Tracking: If a button is broken on your site, Vercel Web Analytics won't tell you. Swetrix tracks JavaScript errors automatically, so you know if your users are facing technical issues.
• Performance Monitoring: While Vercel has "Speed Insights", it's often a separate tab or add-on. Swetrix integrates Site Speed analyticsc directly into your dashboard, linking performance directly to user behavior.

The "Hobby" Plan Limits

Vercel's free tier (Hobby) for analytics is surprisingly restrictive, offering only 2,500 events per month. For a moderately active personal blog or portfolio, you can hit this limit in a few days. Once you hit it, you lose visibility or have to upgrade to Pro ($20/seat/mo) + potentially extra for Analytics Plus.

Swetrix is built to be affordable and scalable. Our plans offer significantly higher limits, and because we are open-source, you can even self-host Swetrix for free on your own server with unlimited data retention.

Conclusion

Vercel Web Analytics is a "toggle-on" convenience feature, not a serious analytics platform. It's great for a quick glance at traffic on a Vercel-hosted hobby project, but it falls short for serious businesses or creators who want detailed insights, data ownership, or the freedom to change hosting providers.

If you want a tool that provides deep behavioral insights (flows, funnels, errors), unlimited data retention, and complete hosting freedom, Swetrix is the better choice.