Liwan review of this open-source, self-hosted, single-binary web analytics tool built in Rust, plus alternatives like Plausible and Litlyx.
Category
Analytics
Pricing
Free / Open Source (self-hosted), from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Founded
2024
Open SourceSelf-Hosted
Overview
Liwan is a lightweight, self-hosted, privacy-first web analytics tool created by German developer Henry Gressmann and introduced publicly in 2024 as an independent open-source project.
It is written in Rust, compiles to a single self-contained binary with no database dependency, and can run on infrastructure as small as a Raspberry Pi.
Key Features
Liwan tracks page views, visitor groups and referrers with automatic bot and crawler filtering, while avoiding cookies, cross-site tracking and persistent identifiers.
It deliberately skips advanced product-analytics features like funnels or AI reporting to stay minimal and easy to operate, distinguishing it from feature-rich competitors like Litlyx.
Pricing
Liwan is entirely free and open source; there is no paid managed hosting tier, and the hosted demo exists only to let users try the dashboard before self-deploying.
Operators are responsible for installing, updating and maintaining their own instance, typical of self-hosted open-source software.
Key Features
Single-Binary Deployment — Compiles to one self-contained executable with no external database required.
Rust and Tokio Architecture — Built in Rust with the tokio async runtime for speed and low resource usage.
Cookieless Privacy Model — No cookies, no cross-site tracking and no persistent visitor identifiers.
Bot and Crawler Filtering — Automatically filters obvious bots and crawlers from reported traffic.
Page Views and Referrer Tracking — Core analytics dashboard covering page views, visitor groups and referrer sources.
Minimal Infrastructure Footprint — Runs on a cheap VPS, an old Mac Mini or a Raspberry Pi with minimal setup.
Open Source on GitHub — Fully open-source codebase available at explodingcamera/liwan for self-hosting and contribution.
Hosted Demo — A public hosted demo at demo.liwan.dev lets users try the dashboard before self-deploying.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Completely free and open source with no paid tier required
Extremely lightweight, single-binary deployment with no database
Strong privacy model with no cookies or persistent identifiers
Can run on very low-cost hardware including a Raspberry Pi
Minimal, focused feature set is easy to understand and operate
Cons
No managed hosted SaaS option, so operators must self-host and maintain it themselves
Small, solo-maintained project with no dedicated support team
Lacks advanced features like funnels, session replay or AI reporting
Smaller community and ecosystem than more established tools like Plausible
Documentation and polish are more limited than commercially backed competitors
Pricing
Self-Hosted Free N/A
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Liwan?
Liwan is a lightweight, self-hosted, privacy-first web analytics tool written in Rust that runs as a single binary with no database required.
Is Liwan free?
Yes, Liwan is entirely free and open source; there is no paid managed hosting tier.
Who created Liwan?
Liwan was created by German developer Henry Gressmann, known as explodingcamera, and introduced publicly in 2024.
Does Liwan require a database?
No, Liwan compiles to a single self-contained binary with no external database dependency.
Is Liwan the same as Litlyx?
No, Liwan and Litlyx are separate, unrelated privacy-analytics projects; Liwan is a minimal open-source self-hosted tool while Litlyx is a commercial, AI-augmented product.
What hardware can run Liwan?
Liwan is lightweight enough to run on a cheap VPS, an old Mac Mini or even a Raspberry Pi.