How I replaced Google Analytics with Retool and Tinybird, Part 1

The blog post describes how the author, initially surprised by Tinybird's decision not to use Google Analytics due to privacy concerns and GDPR rulings, embarked on creating a custom analytics system using Tinybird and Retool. Tinybird employs its own analytics infrastructure, using first-party cookies for enhanced data control and privacy adherence. The author, leveraging their technical skills in SQL and Python, recreated key Google Analytics widgets through a series of steps that involved defining sessions from web events, creating materialized views for efficient data processing, and using Tinybird Pipes to turn SQL queries into API endpoints. These endpoints were then visualized in Retool, an internal team data visualization platform, allowing the author to replicate Google Analytics functionalities such as metric dashboards and interactive charts. This process not only demonstrated the capability of Tinybird and Retool as effective tools for web analytics but also illustrated the ease of implementing custom data solutions that respect user privacy.