DataMetric Analytics Dashboard and Heatmaps is an open-source, GDPR-conscious analytics plugin that brings Google Analytics 4 (GA4) reports, local click heatmaps, and statistical anomaly insights straight into your WordPress dashboard. Visitors load a dependency-free tracker under 5 KB, while the heavier interface is served only to logged-in administrators.
⚡ Try everything in seconds — zero setup
The moment you activate the plugin it runs in Demo Mode. Every GA4 report and the click heatmap are populated with realistic sample data, so you can explore the full experience without connecting GA4 or recording a single click. Demo Mode stays on until you plug in your own GA4 property.
Why I built it
GA4 is powerful, but its interface overwhelms most WordPress owners — and the answers to everyday questions ("which page performs best, where does my traffic come from, where do visitors click?") are always a few screens away. So I built a plugin that gathers the answers I actually need in one panel, without sacrificing performance or privacy: DataMetric.
Key features
📊 GA4 Dashboard
Users, sessions, pageviews, engagement rate and average session duration KPIs, plus a multi-series 7/30-day traffic trend.
🔗 Traffic Acquisition
Source/medium (referrer) breakdown with sessions, users, engagement and key events (conversions) — so you can see which channel brings quality traffic.
🌡️ Local Click Heatmap
See where visitors click, overlaid on your real pages and stored in your own database. Contains no PII and is purged automatically after 30 days. Comes with a sample heatmap in Demo Mode so you can try it instantly.
🟢 Realtime
Track your site's pulse with a live active-visitor count and a "last 30 minutes" sparkline.
🧭 Audience & Geography
Top landing pages, top countries, top events, device distribution, and a new-vs-returning visitor split.
🎯 GA4 Event Builder
Define custom GA4 events without writing code by visually selecting buttons or links on the page.
🔒 Privacy first
Click telemetry contains no IP address or personal identifiers — only the page path, the clicked element, and normalized coordinates. The tracker starts in strict opt-in mode by default and waits until consent is granted via Complianz, Borlabs, CookieLawInfo, or Google Consent Mode v2.
Installation & usage
📦 Install in three steps
- Upload the plugin ZIP under Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and activate it.
- Open DataMetric in the admin menu — it starts in Demo Mode with sample data.
- When ready for live data, add your GA4 Property ID and Service Account JSON under Settings and turn Demo Mode off.
🌡️ See the heatmap
The heatmap renders on your real pages, not inside wp-admin. While logged in as an administrator, open any front-end page, click the floating DataMetric button (bottom-right), switch to the Click Heatmap tab and press Show Heatmap. You get a sample heatmap in Demo Mode, or your real recorded clicks once live.
Under the hood (for developers)
RS256-signed JWT generated from the Service Account JSON.
To respect GA4's 5-reports-per-batch limit, reports are split into batches;
high-cardinality dimensions are bounded with orderBys + limit, results
are cached for 10 minutes, and generation-based cache versioning ensures correct
invalidation even behind Redis/Memcached.
filemtime for safe cache-busting, and fonts are bundled locally — there are
no remote Google Fonts requests, and no other external front-end calls.
add_option(). Cloudflare /
reverse-proxy IP ranges are bundled statically for accurate client-IP detection —
the plugin never phones home to fetch them.
Technical summary
| Platform | WordPress 6.0+ (tested up to 7.0) / PHP 8.1+ |
|---|---|
| License | GPLv2 or later (open source) |
| Data source | Google Analytics 4 — Data API (Service Account) |
| Front-end tracker | Under 5 KB vanilla JS, no jQuery, consent-aware |
| Heatmap | Local table, no PII, auto-purged after 30 days; sample data in Demo Mode |
| Charts | ApexCharts 4.7.0 (bundled locally) |
| Internationalization | Fully i18n-ready; community translations via translate.wordpress.org |
Who is it for?
- Site owners who want core metrics at a glance without GA4's complexity.
- Agencies and freelancers looking for lightweight, privacy-friendly analytics to embed in client sites.
- Content and SEO teams measuring visitor behavior — heatmaps, landing pages, and channel quality.
Frequently asked questions
Explore the source, contribute
DataMetric is open source. Star it, report issues, or contribute.
View on GitHubDataMetric Analytics Dashboard and Heatmaps is an independent open-source project developed by Rıdvan Bilgin. Google Analytics and GA4 are trademarks of Google LLC; this project is not endorsed by or affiliated with Google.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Every article is an open conversation. Whether you have a counter-argument, a local example, or a different perspective based on your own experience, your contribution makes this space better.
0 Comments