Add usage tracker (?)

[alex-bochkov]

For a WPF, WinForms, UWP, or traditional .NET Framework application, consider Countly Flex instead. Countly has an officially supported C# Windows SDK and a hosted free tier.

Countly is more powerful but also more complex and user-oriented. Its Windows SDK normally generates persistent device identifiers, so you would need to configure it carefully and disclose that behavior. Aptabase is a better philosophical fit when the goal is anonymous feature counts rather than retention, user journeys, or individual-user analysis.

Countly’s current Flex page is also inconsistent: its headline mentions 1,000 monthly active users, while its FAQ says 500, so verify the actual limit before depending on the free plan.

Suggested design

Use explicit opt-in telemetry, preferably disabled by default:

Help improve the application

Send anonymous feature-usage statistics to help guide development.

Collected:

• Application version
• Operating system version
• Features used
• Anonymous session events

Never collected:

• Names or email addresses
• File names or file contents
• File paths
• Machine identifiers
• IP addresses

Track only a small event vocabulary:

app_started
feature_used { feature: "export_pdf" }
setting_changed { setting: "dark_mode", enabled: true }
operation_finished { operation: "import", result: "success" }

Avoid filenames, user-entered text, directories, document titles, database names, URLs, or arbitrary exception contents.

Final choice
Electron, Tauri, .NET MAUI, Python, Unity, or Unreal: Aptabase Cloud.
WPF, WinForms, UWP, or older .NET Framework: Countly Flex, configured for anonymous or randomly generated identifiers.
Do not use Matomo: its hosted service is paid after a 21-day trial and it remains primarily web-oriented.

For most privacy-conscious open-source desktop projects, Aptabase Cloud plus transparent opt-in telemetry is the best overall choice.