Can Crazy Egg be vibe coded?
Heatmaps, recordings, surveys, traffic analysis, and A/B testing
Do not mistake the interface for the product. Crazy Egg's durable value is ingestion, storage, reliability, which a solo one-shot build cannot reproduce responsibly. The prompt therefore builds only the closest honest personal consolation tool.
Jump to the build brief ↓Checked Jul 2026
What you pay today, before any DIY hosting
medium editorial confidence
Buildability by layer
Screens, forms, and focused interactions
The repeatable job the product performs
Availability and legality of required data
Uptime, queues, support, and maintenance
Security, compliance, and user confidence
The achievable core
- Build a narrow heatmaps + testing collector for one site or app, ingest first-party events, and show a small set of decision-ready reports.
- Ingest a known data source, calculate a focused metric set, and render a useful dashboard.
- A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.
The parts a prompt cannot buy
- bot and identity resolution
- session replay privacy tooling
- enterprise governance and integrations
- high-volume ingestion and retention
- Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.
Why people still pay
Crazy Egg: Customers pay for trusted numbers, retention, privacy controls, and a pipeline that remains accurate while traffic and schemas change.
Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.
The brief
Context, requirements, acceptance criteria, non-goals, and the full production standard — as Markdown, ready for any coding agent.
Build brief — a focused alternative to Crazy Egg
Context
**Crazy Egg** — Heatmaps, recordings, surveys, traffic analysis, and A/B testing. It currently costs $29/mo.
Do not mistake the interface for the product. Crazy Egg's durable value is ingestion, storage, reliability, which a solo one-shot build cannot reproduce responsibly. The prompt therefore builds only the closest honest personal consolation tool.
This brief describes a focused, single-operator replacement for the part of Crazy Egg that is genuinely reproducible. It is deliberately narrower than the product it replaces, and it says so in writing. Build the useful core; do not pretend to have rebuilt the rest.
What you are building
Build a narrow heatmaps + testing collector for one site or app, ingest first-party events, and show a small set of decision-ready reports.
Ingest a known data source, calculate a focused metric set, and render a useful dashboard.
A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.
Requirements
Functional
Deploy target.
ClickHouse or SQLite for low volume.
First-party tracking script.
Explicit README warning that this is a consolation build, not a production replacement.
Non-functional
Accessibility: semantic markup, labelled controls, visible focus, and reduced-motion support.
Security: server-side secrets, validated input, and no credentials in the client bundle.
Reliability: retries with backoff on external calls, and a clear failure state when a provider is down.
Portability: the operator can export their data and leave without losing it.
Implementation brief
Build the closest honest consolation tool inspired by Crazy Egg; do not claim to replace its structural moat.
Use exactly this stack: Next.js 15 + TypeScript + ClickHouse + PostgreSQL.
Primary job: Build a narrow heatmaps + testing collector for one site or app, ingest first-party events, and show a small set of decision-ready reports.
Start from an empty folder and create the complete working project.
Make the default mode single-user and private.
Store user data locally unless the core job requires the declared self-hosted database.
Do not add analytics, telemetry, ads, or third-party accounts.
Put every secret and external credential in .env and provide .env.example.
Use realistic sample data that is clearly labelled and easy to delete.
Implement the smallest polished interface that completes the core loop end to end.
Include clear empty, loading, validation, success, and failure states.
Add import and export so the user is not trapped in the app.
Use accessible keyboard navigation, labels, focus states, and sensible contrast.
Validate untrusted input and never log secrets or private file contents.
Deliberately exclude these paid-product advantages: bot and identity resolution; session replay privacy tooling; enterprise governance and integrations.
Do not fake integrations, network effects, proprietary data, model quality, compliance, or security claims.
Where an external API is optional, keep the app useful without it and explain the degraded mode.
Write focused unit tests for the data model and the most important workflow.
Add one end-to-end smoke test that proves the core loop works.
Create a README with setup, permissions, architecture, data location, backup, and limitations.
Add scripts for install, development, test, build, and a production-style local run.
Run the tests and build before finishing, then fix errors rather than merely describing them.
Delivery standard
Inspect the repository first, then write a short implementation plan before writing code.
Deliver the smallest complete end-to-end workflow first; every primary control must work against persisted data.
Use real validation and storage; never substitute fake dashboards, decorative controls, hard-coded success states, or mock integrations.
Include responsive layouts plus genuine empty, loading, success, validation, and failure states.
Keep secrets server-side in environment variables, provide .env.example, and never commit credentials or user data.
Add structured logs around every external call and return actionable errors without leaking sensitive details.
Write unit tests for the core logic and one automated test of the main user journey.
Finish with a README covering setup, architecture, data location, backups, tests, deployment, and known limitations.
Acceptance criteria
A clean install starts the app using only the README and .env.example.
The primary journey works from first visit through saved result, reload, edit, export, and deletion where applicable.
Invalid input, missing configuration, provider failure, and an empty database each have a usable state.
The interface works at 390px and 1440px, is keyboard navigable, and shows visible focus on every control.
Tests, type checking, linting, and a production build all pass with no ignored failures.
No part of the interface implies a live integration, security guarantee, or scale capability that was not actually built and verified.
Non-goals
Do not build these, and do not claim to have replaced them:
Bot and identity resolution.
Session replay privacy tooling.
Enterprise governance and integrations.
High-volume ingestion and retention.
Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.
What you still own after launch
Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
Risk
**Operational risk.** The code is achievable; dependable data, integrations, and ongoing operations are the real cost.
Editorial confidence in this assessment: medium. No independent one-shot implementation is linked yet.
Prior art
Working open-source software you can read, fork, or borrow from before starting:
[Matomo](https://github.com/matomo-org/matomo) — Mature self-hosted web analytics platform
[PostHog](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog) — Open-source product analytics, feature flags, and session replay
Generated by [Can It Be Vibe Coded?](https://www.canitbevibecoded.com) · Full report: https://www.canitbevibecoded.com/crazy-egg
You still own the product
- Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates.
- Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change.
- Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.
Open-source prior art
Before you start
Can Crazy Egg be vibe coded?
Not faithfully. Do not mistake the interface for the product. Crazy Egg's durable value is ingestion, storage, reliability, which a solo one-shot build cannot reproduce responsibly. The prompt therefore builds only the closest honest personal consolation tool.
What can an AI coding agent reproduce from Crazy Egg?
Build a narrow heatmaps + testing collector for one site or app, ingest first-party events, and show a small set of decision-ready reports. Ingest a known data source, calculate a focused metric set, and render a useful dashboard. A responsive interface with real empty, loading, success, and error states.
What will a DIY Crazy Egg replacement still be missing?
bot and identity resolution; session replay privacy tooling; enterprise governance and integrations; high-volume ingestion and retention; Reliability at the vendor's scale is an operations problem, not a prompt.
What do I still own after building a Crazy Egg alternative?
Run migrations, backups, restores, and dependency updates. Test the critical journey after every model, API, or hosting change. Monitor failures and fix the edge cases a first prompt will miss.