Hello from Scale8

Introducing Scale8, a single platform that combines tag management, analytics and JavaScript error tracking. It has been designed from the ground up to be GDPR, CCPA and PECR compliant. A privacy friendly alternative to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Over the last 10-15 years we have worked with publishers to help them orchestrate their tag management and analytics setups. This often meant installing both Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. These Google products are both incredibly complex and as detailed in previous blog posts, have failed to comply with new privacy legislation. On top of this, publishers would also include Airbrake, Rollbar, Sentry, TrackJS etc. to capture errors within the browser. These error tracking services are not free and can become quite expensive as you scale up.

A quick look at some of our features… Quick install Install either the full tag manager or just the web analytics. We recognise not all publishers will require a tag manager, so we provide a super lightweight script that will just include a few lines of tracking script.

Simple analytics Everything most publishers need to see at a glance. We also support the tracking of your different environments and any revisions you make using the tag manager. Custom event groups and events are also included to assist with further drill down.

Simple analytics screenshot JavaScript error tracking We automatically track any JavaScript errors that happen as your visitors are browsing your website and report this back in a dedicated error page.

JavaScript error tracking screenshot Fast We have built everything with speed in mind and conscious of page load times. Our servers are at the edge and we have points of presence all over the world to further reduce any latencies.

Secure Only HTTPS is supported. You can bring your own SSL certificate and use your own domain with our commercial version.

Easy management We’ve created a beautiful modern UI with a familiar feel. Navigation has been made simple and consistent. It has never been easier to get started with a tag management system.

AB testing Target either pages or sessions to AB test the inclusion of custom code. Action group distributions are at the core of the tag management platform and make use of our GDPR, CCPA and PECR privacy friendly approach to user tracking.

AB testing screenshot Revisions Release with confidence and rollback with ease. We also track your revision changes automatically in your website analytics. Deploy different revisions to each environment and make it part of your custom release cycle. Preview any revision at any time, even while you are making changes.

Revisions screenshot Smart We only load what we need on the page. We’ll automatically load any assets that are required by the browsers as they are required. We do this for any 3rd party Scale8 platforms you may install.

Debugging We include a debugger that can be loaded on the page to see how different instructions are being executed. We’ll have a remote debugger coming very soon too!

We are just getting started… We’ve focused on the features that matter first and getting started takes only a few minutes. Simplicity has been at the core of everything we do. We have an incredibly exciting roadmap ahead of us, but more on that later.

Our first version of the platform was closed source, written in Scala and used Clickhouse. A huge amount has changed and we have been inspired by other projects in this space. Scale8 has been open source since last September and will always be free to run on your own stack. We’ve also created a commercial version and just exited our closed beta.

We’ll be introducing a number of new backends and Clickhouse will return. We also plan to provide terraform scripts for the non-commercial version soon.

Please support us… We can only continue if we have the support of the community. We are a team of just three and fully bootstrapped. We’ll be documenting and sharing our journey as we grow and the project evolves. For now if you could either:

Star us on GitHub — Understanding the interest for what we are building is hugely valuable.

Give the commercial version a try — we’ll make your account free ( lifetime) if you are willing to provide feedback on beta features and small enough for us to cover the extra infrastructure costs.

Use the self-hosted version and submit any issues or feedback via GitHub.

Create platform providers to help support other platforms that publishers depend on and would also like to include. Examples include Intercom, Hubspot, Quantcast’s CMP etc.

What's next… Our background is ad-tech and we’d like to offer publishers the opportunity to monetize their web property in full compliance with GDPR & CCPA while supporting all the major players in this space. We plan to fully support Prebid & Google Ad Manager (DFP) within the tag manager, providing a simple setup and management wizard.