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Analytics

Counter

Open-source, privacy-friendly web analytics that tracks unique visitors, referrers, and locations with a single lightweight script — no cookies, no IP fingerprinting, and a pay-when-ready model with no enforced payment.

Use Cases

Add cookie-free analytics to a blog or landing page in under a minute
Track an MVP's traffic without creating a paid account or entering a credit card
Self-host analytics when you need full control over visitor data

Free Tier

Free with no session or pageview limits — pay-when-ready (no enforced payment); open source under AGPL-v3

How to Maximize the Free Tier

Counter is genuinely free: no caps, no trial, and a pay-when-ready honor system instead of enforced billing. Limits are minimal, but the feature set is too — you get unique visitors/day, referrers, and locations, with no funnels, heatmaps, or session replay. Pro tips: combine Counter with Microsoft Clarity (free session recording, already in the directory) when you need behavioral data, or pair it with Cloudflare Web Analytics for a second opinion on traffic; the no-cookie design lets you skip GDPR consent banners entirely on EU sites. If you outgrow the hosted dashboard or want full data control, self-host the AGPL-v3 code — it's a small service you can run yourself. Consider supporting the project once your site passes roughly 10K daily uniques.

Getting Started

Go to counter.dev → enter your website URL and email to generate your unique script tag → paste the snippet into your site's <head> → open your dashboard at counter.dev to see unique visitors, referrers, and locations. To self-host, clone the GitHub repo (github.com/ihucos/counter.dev) and follow the Docker setup.

Pros

  • No limits: No session or pageview caps — truly free, unlike freemium tools with monthly ceilings
  • Privacy: No cookies and no IP fingerprinting — no GDPR or CCPA consent banner required
  • Open source: AGPL-v3 licensed — self-host for full data control or use the hosted version

Cons

  • Basic metrics: No custom events, funnels, heatmaps, or session replay — uniques, referrers, and locations only
  • Minimal dashboard: Deliberately simple UI with limited filtering and no real-time feeds beyond basic counters
  • Small project: Single-developer, donation-funded service — no SLA or enterprise support

Alternatives

GoatCounter8/10★★★★☆Plausible8/10★★★★☆Umami7/10★★★½☆