How do you measure usage of self-hosted open-source apps today?

Hi everyone 👋

I’m the maker behind SHM (Self-Hosted Metrics).

I started this project after shipping several self-hosted, open-source apps and realizing I had no idea how many instances were actually running — or which features were really used.

With SaaS, analytics are easy.
With self-hosted software… you’re basically flying blind.

I’m curious to hear from other makers here:

• How do you currently measure usage of your self-hosted apps?

• Do you collect any telemetry at all?

• Where do you draw the line between useful metrics and user privacy?

SHM focuses on aggregated, privacy-first metrics only (no users, no IPs, no events), but I’m still actively shaping the roadmap.

Any feedback, concerns, or ideas are very welcome 🙂