GoatCounter

Lightweight web analytics.

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Console’s review

· Reviewed by David Mytton

What we like

Very lightweight stats for your website: visitors, top pages, referrers, etc. Includes automatic bot detection and campaign stats. Tracking JS is very small (3.5 kB) and has the option to use a pixel, trigger from server middleware or import raw logs. Doesn’t track users with IDs. Open source and can be self hosted (written in Go and uses either SQLite or Postgres)

Tradeoffs

It is very lightweight, so if you’re used to Google Analytics you may be disappointed - but do you really need all that data? No dark mode.

Is GoatCounter a fit?

Based on Console’s review published on 2022-11-03. Summary updated .

Who it’s for

Developers of small to medium-sized websites should consider GoatCounter for basic web analytics

Why consider it

GoatCounter provides lightweight web analytics with key metrics such as visitors and top pages

Keep in mind

GoatCounter's lightweight nature may disappoint users accustomed to more comprehensive analytics tools like Google Analytics

Console is a free weekly newsletter with short reviews of developer tools, covering strengths and tradeoffs. This review reflects Console’s assessment at publication on 2022-11-03. Features and limitations may have changed since the review date. Read our selection criteria and learn about Console.

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