Countly Community Edition

Countly Community Edition is a self‑hosted, open‑source product analytics platform that ingests event streams from mobile, web and desktop clients via a lightweight write‑API. Internally it aggregates, normalizes, and stores billions of data points per day while exposing a rich set of REST endpoints for read/write operations, webhooks and SDK integration. The server runs on Java (Spring Boot) with a PostgreSQL or MySQL database, and uses Redis for session handling and message queuing. This architecture gives developers full control over data residency, compliance, and scaling strategies while still delivering real‑time dashboards, segmentation, and cohort analysis.

Key Features

• Event & Session Tracking – Captures granular user actions, view transitions and session metadata through SDKs or direct API calls.
• Crash & Error Reporting – Native support for iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Unity, Node.js and Java with stack‑trace enrichment.
• Push & In‑App Messaging – Push notifications via Firebase/Apple Push, and in‑app rating widgets with customizable payloads.
• Remote Configuration & Feature Flags – Exposes a JSON‑based configuration API that lets developers toggle UI elements or logic without redeploying.
• Compliance Hub – Built‑in consent collection, data subject request handling and GDPR/CCPA tooling.
• Extensible Plugin System – A modular framework where plugins can hook into data ingestion, processing or UI layers without touching core code.

Technical Stack

The repository is structured into separate modules: server-core, plugins, and common. Unit tests are written in JUnit, and CI pipelines run on GitHub Actions with CodeQL analysis for security.

Deployment & Infrastructure

Countly can be deployed on any Linux host, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes or even as a single‑node binary for development. The Docker image exposes ports 80/443, and can be scaled horizontally by running multiple instances behind a load balancer. For high‑throughput scenarios, PostgreSQL is clustered with Patroni and Elasticsearch runs as a dedicated node pool. The modular architecture allows developers to replace the default database with ClickHouse or TimescaleDB if time‑series performance is critical.

Integration & Extensibility

• SDKs – 10+ SDKs (iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter, Unity, Node.js, Java, Desktop) all share a common event schema.
• REST API – CRUD endpoints for users, applications, events, segments, and dashboards.
• Webhooks – Trigger HTTP callbacks on data ingestion or scheduled reports.
• Plugins – Any JAR implementing the com.countly.plugin.Plugin interface can be dropped into /plugins. Existing plugins include email alerts, Slack notifications, and custom segmentation logic.
• GraphQL – Optional GraphQL endpoint for advanced query patterns.

Developer Experience

The project ships with comprehensive API documentation generated by Swagger/OpenAPI, and a developer portal that hosts SDK guides and code samples. The community is active on Discord and GitHub, providing quick support for configuration questions or plugin development. Configuration is YAML‑based (application.yml) and supports environment variable overrides, making it suitable for CI/CD pipelines.

Use Cases

1. Mobile App Analytics – Track user engagement, retention and funnel conversions with minimal SDK footprint.
2. Web & Desktop Analytics – Use the JavaScript SDK to capture page views, custom events and error logs.
3. Compliance‑First Enterprises – Store all data on-premises to satisfy GDPR or CCPA requirements while still leveraging real‑time dashboards.
4. Feature Flag Management – Toggle new UI components or backend logic via the Remote Config API without rolling out a new app version.
5. Event‑Driven Architecture – Emit processed events to Kafka or RabbitMQ for downstream microservices.

Advantages

• Open Source & No Vendor Lock‑In – Full access to source code, permissive license, and the ability to audit every line.
• Performance & Flexibility – Java + PostgreSQL + Redis provides a proven, low‑latency stack that scales horizontally.
• Extensibility – Plugin architecture lets developers add custom logic or integrate with existing enterprise tools.
• Compliance‑Ready – Built‑in consent, data subject request handling, and on‑prem deployment make it a natural fit for regulated industries.
• Rich Ecosystem – 10 SDKs, comprehensive REST API, and optional GraphQL give developers multiple integration paths.

In summary, Countly Community Edition offers a fully controllable analytics platform that balances developer friendliness with enterprise‑grade scalability and compliance features, making it an attractive choice for teams that need both rapid insight generation and strict data sovereignty.