Hey HN!

I’ve been spending a lot of time around creator communities recently, and one thing I kept noticing was how difficult it is for smaller YouTubers to understand their channel growth clearly. Most analytics tools are either overloaded with dashboards, require full account access, or are built mainly for large creators and agencies.

So I built AAFY — a simple creator growth companion focused on clarity, privacy, and quick insights.

The idea is straightforward: you enter any public YouTube handle (for example @MKBHD), and AAFY analyzes publicly available channel/video data to generate a clean visual review of the channel.

The platform currently provides:

channel performance summaries

visual growth charts

upload consistency tracking

engagement trend analysis

time-based performance comparisons

downloadable PDF reports for review/sharing

One thing I cared about a lot while building this was privacy. AAFY does not require YouTube login or OAuth permissions because the analysis is based only on publicly accessible data. I wanted creators to feel comfortable testing insights instantly without connecting accounts.

I also tried to keep the experience lightweight and beginner-friendly. Many analytics platforms feel intimidating if you’re just starting out as a creator. My goal here was to make something that feels approachable even for smaller channels trying to improve step-by-step.

A few things I’m currently exploring next:

AI-powered growth suggestions

thumbnail/title pattern insights

upload timing recommendations

creator benchmarking

audience retention prediction models

I’d genuinely love feedback from the HN community on:

whether the reports feel useful or noisy

missing analytics creators actually care about

UI/UX improvements

performance/scalability ideas

privacy considerations I should improve further

Thanks for checking it out — happy to answer questions and discuss the build process as well

https://aafy-yt-analytics.onrender.com