GoatCounter is an open-source analytics tool that counts page views without cookies or tracking personal data. It is deliberately minimal: the whole application ships as a single Go binary you can run almost anywhere, and the embedded script is tiny. There is a free hosted tier for non-commercial sites, plus a paid plan and a self-host option.
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
Rate GoatCounter: No account needed
Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
GoatCounter is for the blogger or open-source maintainer who wants to know what people read and nothing more. It counts visits without cookies or personal data, and self-hosting is about as easy as analytics gets because the whole thing is one Go binary with no stack to assemble. The catch is the flip side of that focus: the feature set is intentionally small, with no funnels or deep segments, and the free hosted tier is non-commercial only, so a business site needs the paid plan or a self-host. Pick GoatCounter for a personal site or a documentation project, anywhere a clean visitor count is plenty. Look elsewhere if you need marketing-grade reporting.
Website at a glance
goatcounter.com
F score 15
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested today
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
GoatCounter alternatives
Plausible Analytics Lightweight, cookie-free analytics that measures your traffic without a consent banner or shipping visitors to Google. Open source, EU-hosted.
Umami Self-hosted, cookie-free analytics with a clean dashboard and a generous free cloud tier. MIT-licensed and simple to run.
Matomo The most full-featured Google Analytics replacement: self-host or cloud, with a GDPR-friendly cookieless mode. Open source, you own the data.
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