Add analytics to your side project in 5 minutes

Google Analytics is great for marketing teams. It’s overkill for a solo dev shipping a small app or personal site. Janus gives you analytics you can understand on day one, without enterprise‑grade clutter.

The Payoff

What you get in 5 minutes

Once you drop in the script and initialize Janus, you get:

  • •Live activity — see visitors and events as they happen.
  • •Trends — simple charts of event volume over time.
  • •Behavior — top pages, events, and usage patterns.
  • •Event log — searchable history of everything that happened.

All of it is structured so it makes sense the first time you open it.

Step 1

Add the script

Add one script tag to the <head> of your HTML. The SDK is hosted on our CDN — no npm install, no build step.

index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>My Side Project</title>
    <script src="https://addjanus.ca/janus.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <!-- your app -->
</body>
</html>

The script is under 1 KB. It loads asynchronously, so it won’t block your page render.

Step 2

Initialize Janus

Call Janus.init() with your API key. Page views and SPA navigation are tracked automatically — you don’t need to wire up route listeners.

index.html
<script>
    // Initialize — page views are tracked automatically
    Janus.init('jns_your_api_key_here');


    // Optionally track custom events
    Janus.track('signup_click', {
        page: 'homepage',
        variant: 'hero-cta'
    });
</script>

That’s it for setup. Initialize once, and everything works. If you’re using a framework like Next.js or SvelteKit, check the setup docs for framework-specific notes.

Step 3

See your first real user

Within a minute or two of your first visit, your dashboard starts to fill in. Here's what it looks like with a handful of real page views and one custom event:

dashboard previewlast 24 hours
Page views
47
Unique visitors
23
Events
12
Top pages
/18
/about11
/projects/weather-app9
/blog/building-in-public6
/contact3
Recent events
signup_click/
2m ago
page_view/about
4m ago
project_view/projects/weather-app
7m ago

No tutorial needed. You can tell what's happening with your app at a glance.

No configuration, no funnel setup, no goal creation. Open the dashboard and it already makes sense.

Clear Trade‑offs

What Janus leaves out

Janus is built for builders who want signal, not noise. To stay lightweight and easy to understand, it intentionally leaves some things out:

  • •No bounce rate, because it rarely changes what you actually ship.
  • •No demographic segments; we don’t track age, gender, or interests.
  • •No cookies or fingerprinting; privacy is baked into the architecture, not a toggle.

The free tier gives you live activity, trends, and a full event log. Pro adds journey funnels: multi-step conversion paths you define, built on real data.

We shipped the features we kept reaching for ourselves. We’d rather build what you need than guess. Sign up, use it, and tell us what’s missing.

The Point

Built for people who ship

Janus focuses on usage, not vanity metrics.

  • •The free tier (10k events/month) comfortably covers most side projects and early‑stage products.
  • •Drop in the script once, see live activity and real data, then get back to shipping.

Already set up? Connect Janus to your AI coding agent and check your analytics without leaving your editor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is the Janus script?

The loader script is under 1 KB. It loads the full SDK asynchronously, so it never blocks your page render or affects your Core Web Vitals.

Does Janus use cookies or fingerprinting?

No. Janus doesn’t set cookies, use localStorage for tracking, or fingerprint browsers. Privacy is an architectural decision, not a setting you toggle.

Will Janus slow down my site?

No. The script loads asynchronously and batches events before sending them. It’s designed to have zero measurable impact on page load performance.

Do I need to install anything with npm?

No. Janus is a hosted script — one script tag in your HTML and you’re done. No build step, no dependencies, no bundler config.

What’s included in the free tier?

The free tier includes 10,000 events per month, 3 API keys, full dashboard access, and 30 days of data retention. No credit card required.

Does Janus work with single-page apps?

Yes. Janus automatically detects SPA route changes via the History API. You don’t need to add any route listeners — page views are tracked automatically on navigation.

Can I track custom events?

Yes. Call Janus.track() with an event name and optional properties object. Common examples: button clicks, form submissions, feature usage, and signup flows.

Start tracking in 5 minutes.

Free tier. No credit card. No onboarding maze.

Get started with Janus