GamePulse
GamePulse is a free, MIT-licensed, open-source telemetry and analytics platform that game teams host themselves.
What GamePulse is
GamePulse is a free, MIT-licensed, open-source telemetry and analytics platform that game teams host themselves. It targets indie, idle, roguelike, mobile and simulation games, with retention cohorts, funnels, progression drop-off, economy analysis, idle-game adoption and dead-content analysis. Economy tools track currency sources and sinks, balances and inflation signals. A nightly rule-based analyzer flags issues such as dead upgrades, difficult levels, hoarded currencies and inflation; AI-assisted insights are outside the MVP scope. The platform includes a Next.js dashboard, OpenAPI 3 API and JavaScript SDK for browser and Node.js, with batching, offline queues and retry backoff. Organizations, projects, JWT authentication, ingestion keys and four roles provide access controls. Docker Compose starts the documented services. Source setup requires Node.js 24+, npm 9+, PostgreSQL 14+ and Redis 6+. The project calls itself early MVP/alpha, and APIs may change before version 1.0.
Good
- Retention, funnel and cohort analysis
- Economy sources, sinks and inflation tracking
- JavaScript SDK with offline queuing
- Role-based organization access
- MIT-licensed and self-hosted
Watch out
- Early MVP/alpha status
- APIs may change before version 1.0
- Unity and Godot SDKs are roadmap items
- GDPR deletion tools are roadmap items
Who it suits
It suits game developers and analysts who can self-host telemetry infrastructure and need retention, funnel, cohort and economy analysis. Teams should be comfortable with the stated runtime requirements and early-MVP status.
Verdict
GamePulse offers a broad self-hosted analytics foundation with dashboard, API and SDK components. Its early status and roadmap gaps matter when evaluating production readiness and platform coverage.
The facts
Each one read from GamePulse's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Access controls
- The README describes organization and project tenancy, JWT authentication with refresh rotation, ingestion API keys, and Owner, Admin, Analyst, and ReadOnly roles.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Analytics
- It provides retention cohorts, funnels, progression drop-off, economy analytics, and idle-game adoption metrics.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Automated insights
- A nightly rule-based analyzer flags dead upgrades, difficult levels, hoarded currencies, and inflation; the MVP does not use AI for these insights.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Current status
- The README describes GamePulse as an early MVP/alpha and says APIs may change before version 1.0.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Dashboard and API
- The project includes a Next.js dashboard and an API with an interactive OpenAPI reference.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Docker Compose can start PostgreSQL, Redis, migrations, the API, worker, and dashboard together.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Economy insights
- Its economy module tracks currency sources and sinks, average and percentile balances, and inflation detection.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Game analytics
- It provides retention cohorts, funnels, progression drop-off, economy analysis, idle-game adoption, and dead-content analysis.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Infrastructure
- The documented Docker Compose setup runs PostgreSQL, Redis, migrations, the API, worker, and dashboard.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Ingestion
- The API validates event batches and processes them asynchronously through BullMQ, with the project describing a write path designed to scale toward 100M+ events.checked 9 Oct 2026
- License
- The repository identifies GamePulse as MIT licensed.checked 9 Oct 2026
- License and support
- GamePulse is MIT-licensed, welcomes contributions, and asks that vulnerability reports be sent privately to maintainers by email as described in CONTRIBUTING.md.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Maturity
- The project describes itself as an early MVP/alpha and says APIs may change before version 1.0.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Notable limitations
- Unity and Godot SDKs, project member management UI, configurable insight thresholds, event schema registry, and data-retention/GDPR delete-by-player tools are listed as roadmap items.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Notable limits
- Unity and Godot SDKs, a project-member management UI, configurable insight thresholds, an event schema registry, and data-retention and GDPR deletion tools are listed as roadmap items.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Product
- GamePulse is an open-source, self-hosted telemetry and analytics platform built for games including indie, idle, roguelike, mobile, and simulation games.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Production guidance
- The maker advises replacing development JWT secrets, restricting CORS, and terminating TLS at a reverse proxy before self-hosting in production.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Requirements
- Running from source requires Node.js 24 or later, npm 9 or later, PostgreSQL 14 or later, and Redis 6 or later.checked 4 Oct 2026
- SDK
- The JavaScript SDK works in browsers and Node.js and includes batching, an offline queue, and retry with backoff.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Security
- The maker says API keys are stored as SHA-256 hashes, passwords as bcrypt hashes, and refresh tokens are hashed, rotated on use, and revocable.checked 9 Oct 2026
Alternatives to GamePulse
- 1
Unity
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.4Free plan - 2
PlayFab
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.3$99 usage-based - 3
GameAnalytics
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.2From $49 a month - 4
Unity Version Control
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS8.1Free plan - 5
devtodev
Free planAndroidiOSWebmacOS7.6From $3,310 a month - 6
GameBench
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.6Free plan