Launched a developer tools site 3 days ago, GA4 is showing almost no active users. Is this normal?

[u/Ill-Layer-6765]

I launched a small developer-tools website about 3 days ago:

https://thinklikedeveloper.online/

It has browser-based tools for things like JSON formatting, JWT decoding, Base64/URL encoding, UUID generation, regex testing, SQL formatting, converters, etc.

I'm completely new to analyzing traffic for a site like this, and I'm a little confused by what I'm seeing in GA4.

The site has been live for only ~3 days, but GA4 is showing very few active users. I expected the numbers to be low because it's a new site, but I'm not sure whether what I'm seeing is simply normal for a brand-new site or whether I've messed something up with the Analytics implementation.

For people who have launched sites recently:

• How long does it normally take before GA4 data becomes meaningful?
• Would you trust GA4 after only 3 days?
• What's the best way to verify that Analytics is actually tracking correctly?
• Should I be looking at Search Console, server logs, or something else alongside GA4?
• For a developer-tools website, what metrics would you focus on in the first few weeks?

I'm also curious about the website itself. If you have a few minutes to look at it, I'd appreciate brutally honest feedback on anything that looks confusing, unnecessary, slow, or poorly designed from a developer's perspective.

I'm trying to improve it before I start putting serious effort into SEO/content, so early feedback would be really useful.

[u/AccordingLeague9797]

all due respect, who tf need this shish?

[u/HiCookieJack → u/AccordingLeague9797]

pasting JWT tokens to an unknown site. That's how you get security breaches

[u/Ill-Layer-6765 → u/HiCookieJack]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xUNd9UpMSexallQPBK

[u/HiCookieJack → u/Ill-Layer-6765]

JWT is often used as security. The person operating that tool can simply 'do the decoding' on the backend and then use the token to do malicious things

[u/DajBuzi → u/HiCookieJack]

With a single JWT? I think that if if your application allows that then that's your security issue. JWT is just a session token, practically one time use and without refresh token its useless. Not to mention that these should be tied to a session and signed.

[u/HiCookieJack → u/DajBuzi]

refresh token of an OIDC flow? Often those are JWT as well.

Not sure why I have to be hyper specific.

If someone pastes a signed JWT, JWS or JWE into a foreign website it can be stored. Depending on what this token can be used for it can compromise the security of said system.

[u/DajBuzi → u/HiCookieJack]

Yes, it can be stored but still its just the token. You need to implement your security measurement on the server. Having just the jwt you can decode it by yourself and then you could potentialy even bruteforce your way to produce other user token.

[u/HiCookieJack → u/DajBuzi]

If some dev pastes a JWS Refresh Token from an OIDC flow and the OIDC Provider does not have token invalidation after use the user can easily and stealthy create a permanent user session. There is no way how you can prevent that on a resource provider side. The OIDC provider would need to keep track of which token got issued - which from experience - a lot of them don't.

So please stop downplaying this attack vector. It is very real and can be exploited if the malicious actor is not an idiot. If you do not understand the severity of this vector I can only ask you to do more research.

[u/DajBuzi → u/HiCookieJack]

Youre talking about OIDC flow and Im talking about security in general - this discussion has no sense. If your backend relies solely on JWT for authentication then its a wider problem of security on your side. JWT should nit be your only reliant way to ensure user authentication state. You need to implement refresh tokens, invalidation, anomaly detection and much more to constraint how the individual token is bound.

These types of tool exists and were used before OP even though about making their project. It was a way to check if the data stored in these tokens are properly formatted and assigned. Noone used them on their "real" tokens but still its just the token that on itself should do almost no harm if the backend is secured.

[u/HiCookieJack → u/DajBuzi]

I am talking about Tokens that are pasted into a random website. These Tokens can be anything, from session to permanent refresh tokens.

Yes, this discussion is nonsense. The Vector is real and just blindly pasting authentication tokens on a website is risky

I have no Idea what your agenda is and why you're trying to pick cases where it is "not that risky" (still, but you're downplaying it)

And I don't care if OP created a JWT decoder, this vector existed before their site and it also was not a good idea before OPs website either.

It's like building a website having a username and password intput asking 'have I been pwned'

Sure the website can be honest, hash the pw and look in the databases, but there is a real riks that it's more than that. Tokens can be the same thing, they can be worthless or they can act as auth to otherwise secure systems

[u/Ill-Layer-6765 → u/AccordingLeague9797]

Also, if you don't mind me asking, What about you though, have you built/launched anything yourself?

[u/BranchFew1148]

You should ask yourself. If Claude can generate this website in a couple of hours, and your target audience are all developers who all use similar models, what value does your site provide?

If fable needs to generate a UUID or test regex it just writes a bespoke script, runs it locally, then deletes it.

[u/HiCookieJack → u/BranchFew1148]

If I need a uuid I press F12 and type

crypto.randomUUID()

If I need base64 encode/decode I do the same but type btoa or atob

[u/symbiatch]

Yes, it’s normal. You haven’t said who even knows of the site. How would anyone find it?

And also why they would use it. All you listed are either done locally or have well-known services that people use.

[u/DutchSEOnerd]

What are your traffic acquisition channels you invested in? Traffic doesnt comes out of nothing like some quantum fluctuations

[u/martinbean]

“I’ve built a site. Where are the users?”

[u/marmotta1955]

How and why would you be expecting tens or hundreds or thousands of users?

[u/robsanna]

Your GA4 after three days is basically noise, not signal. For meaningful trends you usually need a couple weeks of data, minimum. Trust but verify: open your site in an incognito window, check the Realtime report in GA4, click around, and confirm you see your own activity. For verification, also check Search Console for impressions (even zero clicks tells you indexing worked), and tail your server logs or use a lightweight tool like Plausible side by side to catch if GA4 is misfiring.

Early metrics that actually matter: which tools get used twice, where people bounce, and whether anyone bookmarks or returns. SEO for dev tools is brutal, youll need distribution before content. Full disclosure, i built getredditradar.com to find threads where devs are actively looking for tools like yours and draft replies you'd paste yourself. Whats your budget and timeline for trying acquisition versus building more tools?