What analytics should I add after shipping my first app?

Start with three things: visitor/user counts (how many people show up), retention signals (how many come back), and one conversion event tied to the core action in your app (signup, purchase, export, etc.). PostHog captures visitor counts automatically, so you only need to instrument the conversion event manually.

What should I track in my first app?

Track unique users, the one action that defines success in your app (a purchase, a completed task, a shared result), and weekly retention. Avoid tracking dozens of events at launch. You can always add more later once you know what questions you're trying to answer.

Do I need analytics for a side project?

Yes, even for side projects. Without analytics you have no idea if anyone is actually using what you built. PostHog's free tier covers 1 million events per month, which is more than enough for any side project, and takes about ten minutes to set up.

How do I monitor my app analytics without checking a dashboard every day?

Use a mobile client like PocketHog that puts your key metrics on your iPhone home screen as a widget. It updates in the background, so you see visitor counts and conversion numbers at a glance without opening a browser or logging into a dashboard.

What is the best free analytics tool for indie apps?

PostHog is the most popular choice for indie developers in 2026. The free tier includes 1 million events per month, no credit card required, with product analytics, session replay, and feature flags. Alternatives include Mixpanel (free up to 20 million events), Firebase Analytics (free but limited querying), and TelemetryDeck (privacy-focused, free for up to 100K signals).

April 13, 2026

What to Track After You Ship Your Vibe-Coded App

You used Cursor, Claude, Lovable, or Bolt to build an app. You shipped it. People are downloading it or signing up. Congratulations — that's further than most projects get.

Now you're staring at the App Store (or your landing page) wondering: is this thing working? Are people actually using it, or did they open it once and forget about it?

This is the guide for what to do next. Not a 40-metric analytics framework — just the practical minimum that tells you whether your app has a pulse.

The Problem: You Shipped, Now What?

Vibe coding makes building fast. The gap isn't building anymore — it's knowing what happens after launch. Most vibe-coded apps ship with zero instrumentation. The developer checks App Store Connect downloads once a day, maybe looks at a Vercel dashboard, and that's it.

Downloads alone tell you almost nothing. Someone can download your app, open it for two seconds, and never come back. Without event-level analytics, you can't tell the difference between an app that's growing and one that's leaking users.

The Three Metrics That Actually Matter at Launch

You don't need a dashboard with 20 charts. At launch, three numbers give you 90% of the signal you need:

1. Unique Visitors or Active Users

How many distinct people use your app (or visit your site) in a given week? This is your top-of-funnel number. If it's going up, people are finding you. If it's flat or declining, you have a distribution problem, not a product problem.

PostHog tracks this automatically once the SDK is installed. No custom events needed.

2. One Conversion Event

Pick the single action that means someone got value from your app. For a to-do app, it's creating a task. For a photo editor, it's exporting a photo. For a SaaS tool, it's completing a signup or making a purchase.

Track this as a custom event. In PostHog's iOS SDK:

PostHogSDK.shared.capture("task_created")
// or
PostHogSDK.shared.capture("purchase_completed", properties: ["plan": "pro"])

For web apps using the JavaScript SDK:

posthog.capture("signup_completed")

One conversion event is enough at launch. You can always add more later when you know what questions to ask.

3. Retention Signal

Are people coming back? PostHog's retention analysis shows you what percentage of users return after day 1, day 7, and day 30. You don't need to instrument anything extra for this — it's calculated from your existing events.

If your day-7 retention is above 20%, you have something worth investing in. If it's below 10%, your app has a value delivery problem regardless of how many new users you acquire.

How to Set Up PostHog (10 Minutes)

PostHog's free tier covers 1 million events per month with no credit card required. That's more than enough for any app in its first year.

Create a PostHog account at posthog.com. Pick US or EU cloud.
Install the SDK. For iOS apps, add the Swift package from https://github.com/PostHog/posthog-ios. For web apps, install posthog-js via npm. For React Native, use posthog-react-native.
Initialize with your project API key (found in PostHog under Project Settings).
Add your one conversion event — a single posthog.capture() call where the key action happens.
Deploy. You'll see data in PostHog within minutes.

For a detailed iOS walkthrough with code samples, see adding analytics to your vibe-coded iOS app.

How to Monitor Without It Becoming a Chore

Here's the part most guides skip. You set up analytics, you see data flowing in, and then... you stop checking. The PostHog dashboard lives in a browser tab you never open. Two weeks later you realize you haven't looked at your metrics since launch day.

The fix is making metrics passive. Instead of actively logging in to check, put the numbers where you already look — your phone's home screen.

PocketHog is a native iOS app that connects to your PostHog account and displays your key metrics as a home screen widget. It updates in the background, so you see your visitor count and conversion numbers every time you unlock your phone. No browser, no login, no friction.

If you run multiple PostHog projects, PocketHog shows all of them in a single scrollable feed. You can check three apps in the time it takes to open one PostHog dashboard tab.

The widget is the key part. Setting up analytics is a one-time task. Monitoring is an ongoing habit, and habits only stick when the friction is near zero. A home screen widget that you glance at daily is more sustainable than a dashboard you have to remember to visit.

Common Mistakes

Tracking Too Much

It's tempting to instrument every button, every screen, every tap. Don't. You'll drown in data you never look at, and your event volume will eat into your free tier faster than necessary. Start with autocapture plus one conversion event. Add more events only when you have a specific question you need answered.

Not Tracking Conversion Events

The opposite mistake: relying entirely on autocapture and never defining what "conversion" means for your app. Autocapture tells you people are visiting. A conversion event tells you people are getting value. Without it, you're flying blind on the metric that matters most.

Ignoring Retention

A launch spike is not growth. If 500 people try your app in week one and 20 come back in week two, you have a 4% retention rate. Knowing this early saves you from pouring effort into marketing when the real problem is the product experience.

Not Setting Up Monitoring Until "Later"

"I'll add analytics after I get more users" is a trap. You need data from the earliest users the most — they're the ones who tell you whether the thing works at all. Ten minutes of setup on launch day is worth more than a week of setup six months later.

The Minimum Viable Analytics Stack

For a vibe-coded app in 2026, the stack is simple:

PostHog — free tier, SDK for every platform, autocapture plus custom events.
One conversion event — the action that means a user got value.
A way to check metrics passively — a home screen widget, a daily digest, anything that doesn't require you to remember to log in.

That's it. You can get more sophisticated later — funnels, A/B tests, session replays. But these three things give you enough signal to know if your app is growing, if users are converting, and if they're sticking around.

PocketHog is an independent third-party client and is not affiliated with PostHog, Inc.