> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://stackonfire.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# User analytics

> How Cascade handles user analytics

## Analytics tools of choice

Cascade uses [Posthog](https://posthog.com/) for user analytics. Posthog is an open-source product analytics platform that allows you to track user interactions on your website.

For page analytics [Plausible](https://plausible.io/) is used. Plausible is a lightweight and open-source website analytics tool. It doesn't use cookies and is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA and PECR.

## How to set up Posthog

To set up Posthog, first you need to register and create a new project on the [Posthog website](https://app.posthog.com/signup).

Afer you have created a project, you will be given a `API_KEY` and a `HOst` which you will need to add to your `.env` file:

```yml theme={null}
# Posthog
NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_API_KEY="phc_eKxBLltchl3KHuezun4XR88arI8nOCiMDN4sadkjfjlsk"
NEXT_PUBLIC_POSTHOG_HOST="https://app.posthog.com"
```

<Tip>
  Cascade connects registed users to Posthog events automatically so you could
  track user interactions in a fully aware way.
</Tip>

## How to set up Plausible

To set up Plausible, first you need to register and create a new project on the [Plausible website](https://plausible.io/).

Afer you have created a project, you will be given a `PLAUSIBLE_URL` which you will need to add to your `.env` file. It is possible to self host plausbile so env var could look like following:

```yml theme={null}
NEXT_PUBLIC_PLAUSIBLE_SELFHOSTED_URL="https://plausible.stackonfire.com/js/script.js"
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEPLOYMENT_URL=https://cascade.stackonfire.com
```

<Warning>
  `NEXT_PUBLIC_DEPLOYMENT_URL` is also needed for Plausible to work correctly.
</Warning>

<Tip>
  If you are using SaaS version of Plausible just paste the URL you get from the
  dashboard into the above env var.
</Tip>