In my experience of running Minecraft servers for nearly a decade since 2014, I have regularly faced the same issue each time when launching a new Minecraft server. It's an adrenaline rush as each new player joins, then suddenly days later the joins slow down and suddenly the feeling of "my server is dead".
I couldn't count the number of Minecraft servers that I spent many months of hard-work on, only to be shut down a month later with the feeling that it had just died in front of my eyes. However, this feeling came purely from gut-instinct without any data to back these thoughts.
Minecraft Server Analytics
At the time of running these servers, using "analytics software" for Minecraft servers was very much unheard of. However, I began looking at the current solutions to see if these would help me better understand my player base.
It wasn't until further investigation that I began to realise how bloated the current solutions out there were, with many useless features that weren't relevant when growing a Minecraft server. They didn't include metrics that were relevant to growing a Minecraft server, nor were they metrics used and trusted by the bigger Minecraft networks.
After looking into the most popular software at the time, I began to realise the security implications that existed with the current solutions. Firstly, they required opening ports to the Minecraft server in order to self-host a website within the server. Secondly, this meant losing precious ram dedicated to my server which could result in players getting lag if not careful.
Building Analyse
After feeling frustrated with the current, poorly-made solutions out there I turned to building my own alternative. Being well-connected in the Minecraft scene meant that I was able to directly speak to the larger server owners, I was able to understand the metrics most relevant to growing a Minecraft server, meaning that both smaller and larger server owners could utilise this data most effectively.
After 5 months of development, I launched Analyse in February 2022 which grew far quicker than I had ever expected, quickly becoming the notable solution amongst the largest Minecraft servers for analytics. Analyse is the solution that I wish existed when I started building servers, as it would've saved a lot of time and money from feeling frustrated.
Being acquired
Analyse has since been acquired by Tebex, the industry leader in game server monetisation, in October 2022.